Cyclocross Community, Chatter, and Culture (whatever that is)

Deep dish vs Box rims

I'm thinking of running Ksyriums tubeless. On the other hand before I invest. Do deep section wheels carbon or otherwise really have any merit as far as slicing thru mud or sand?

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Permalink Reply by andrew on April 22, 2009 at 1:52pm: hi pete,

it depends on the viscocity of the mud for sure, I can tell you that. box rims can pack up in sticky stuff but often are fine (in our summer issue we'll have more on this topic too). for ksriums, you definitely need to build up the channel with a strip (or two) to do tubeless well (low pressure). trust me on that one! it's a shame because it's a light wheel and pre-sealed, but the rim strips add back the weight. still, it's a good option if you own them already. or you could convert an existing wheel to try it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pete Miner on April 22, 2009 at 3:17pm: Yeah I heard that bit about the build up from the folks at Stan's. I run tubeless on my SS 29er and I'm pretty good at setting it up (or at least figuring it out) and then it works great. It's nice to get the feedback so you have a better chance of getting right on the first try. I do own the ES's already and trying to figure out if I would get another pair or see if I can get Stan to build me something. There rims are the absolute bomb for running tubeless.

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Permalink Reply by andrew on April 24, 2009 at 12:16am: pete, definitely check out the articles we have online if you haven't yet. they may reduce the learning curve for 'cross tubeless. the narrower tires are much less forgiving than big wide mtb ones in my experience. also, i've had much better luck with other rims (askium and stans) than the ksyrium. good luck and let us know what you decide.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Echappe Equipment on April 27, 2009 at 7:18am: In our experience, yes, carbon wheels definitely help with slicing through sand and mud. We gave Will Dugan a set of DuraAce 7850 wheels to ride at World Championships this year and he definitely liked the handling of the wheels for the race. We also had Laura Van Gilder on some American Classic 58s for the same race, and she had the same comments.

You can demo anything we have. The entire reason I started this is for riders to make educated decisions. www.racewheelrental.com; ▶ Reply to This