So after one year, the Stan's sealant ate a hole in my Campagnolo Zonda rims and i found out on the internet that this is not uncommon. And Campagnolo said that its my fault for using such a strong sealant.... So i started shopping around for a carbon wheelset for my gravel bike. For starters, they are all expensive; some crazy expensive. i have known about South industries for a while, but couldn't justify them...until now. I went to visit the factory [near my work place] and was completely blown away by the way they do things. Every single rim is made [entirely by hand] with great care and attention to quality control. When i asked them why they only make them in UD carbon, the engineer told me that each rim has layers of both and if i'd prefer the weave to be outside, they can do that without changing the structural integrity. So they did. The rims were built onto DT swiss 350 hubs [their heaviest option] and came to 1400g for the lot! I ride a CX bike so frame designed for 33mm tires. the 38mm Schwalbe G-one tires was i bit of a squeeze on the old wheels but these new ones are considerably wider [27mm outer diameter] so the i have 1mm space between tire and chainstays [attached picture is attempt to illustrate this]. I will change to 35mm tires but the reason for showing this is that despite the narrow tolerances, i could not induce tire rub in any way because there is just zero sideways flex in the wheels. And this despite the spoke tension being a lot less than on my old wheels which was very hard and unforgiving. With tires inflated to max, they are still more comfortable than what i'm used to. The wider rims mean that the tires will probably do better off road, although this is always hard to tell without extensive testing- so far i found them to hold on better in the corners when you run them soft. So in summary, i got a bespoke wheelset that are light, comfortable yet stiff and were customised for me. And if i ever [lifetime crash replacement warranty] have problems with them, i don't have to ship it overseas or pick a fight with an unnamed person - i take it down the road and Stephan or Nico will sort me out. I know i'm going on a bit but I really think you'd have to be stupid to buy something from a big American company that was mass produced in China for double the price. The best part [by far] though is the fact that, like the best French wines, they didn't bother writing in English on their product - if you don't understand, you can go google it .
