# My new Ryde rim wheels



## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

We don't hear much about Ryde rims (from Netherlands, formerly Rigida rims) and I just built up a set for myself and rode them for the first time today.

I used the Ryde Pulse Sprint rim - their lightest rim - and my pair averaged 386g each. That's very light for a tubeless ready clincher rim. My Pacenti SL23 v2 weigh 420 & 428g so we save 75g on a pair of rims.

The rim specs are (measured by me) -
392 & 381g.
22mm wide, 20mm deep.
10mm wide brake track (lots of width for easy pad setup). Silver track.
OS bed rear rim.

They're "tubeless ready" and for $#its & giggles I mounted and unmounted the same tires and tubes on the Ryde and a pair of Pacenti SL23 v2. To me, it takes the same amount of effort (or lack of) with no levers needed for installation and one lever for removal. I'd rate them as "very easy". I used two layers of Pacenti rim tape.

The rims have a well finished sleeved joint and looking down through a rim bed hole I can see goo oozing out of the sleeve. That means no rattling rims here!

I used the excellent and cost-effective Bitex hubs from BikeHubStore.com and Brandon laser etched them for me.
Spokes were 24/28 Sapim CX-Sprint (the poor-man's CX-Rays) at 1.2x2.2mm dimensions (CX-Ray - 0.9x2.2).
Brandon sells the rims and ThorUSA sells the rims and the CX-Sprint spokes.
I did radial front and 2x/1x rear lacing. 
Nipples were Wheelfanatyk spline-drive in green (yowzer!).
The wheelset weighs 1410g.

I only managed a short first ride but I can tell ya that they spin up fast, hold their speed well, are laterally rigid and vertically compliant!!  Oh yeah, they pull the chicks too.


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## ergott (Feb 26, 2006)

Nice write-up! I've built a bunch of these rims and I'm impressed as well. I ride a Sprint front and Comp offset rear for my personal wheels. 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

ergott said:


> Nice write-up! I've built a bunch of these rims and I'm impressed as well. I ride a Sprint front and Comp offset rear for my personal wheels.


They'd better be good rims considering their premium price ($135 a pop) but so far I'm very impressed. They look very good quality - great finish and joints. Oh that's one thing I meant to mention in my first post - I can see the goo oozing from the joining sleeve (looking down thru a rim bed hole). No rattly sleeves with these babies! I'll edit my first post.



> Sprint front and Comp offset rear


Hey that would be a great combo! 390g front rim and a 430g rear.


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

Mike T. said:


> They'd better be good rims considering their premium price ($135 a pop) but so far I'm very impressed. They look very good quality - great finish and joints. Oh that's one thing I meant to mention in my first post - I can see the goo oozing from the joining sleeve (looking down thru a rim bed hole). No rattly sleeves with these babies! I'll edit my first post.
> 
> 
> Hey that would be a great combo! 390g front rim and a 430g rear.


Not to rain on this parade, but it seems to me we have seen several well-made lightweight rims get high praise only to disappear from the scene when it became clear that any time you try to get below about 420 gm for a rim, durability becomes an issue. Holy grail and all that, but it will be interesting to see how these hold up.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Kerry Irons said:


> Not to rain on this parade, but it seems to me we have seen several well-made lightweight rims get high praise only to disappear from the scene when it became clear that any time you try to get below about 420 gm for a rim, durability becomes an issue. Holy grail and all that, but it will be interesting to see how these hold up.


Well, I rode a pair of BWW Blackset Race wheels for four years and now another fella has been riding them for two years and they didn't crack on me and I haven't heard they've cracked on him.

They were an early set of Blackset Race rims that were sub-400g. Later models of that rim (mine are 420 & 412g) were made with a thicker nipple bed which I can only assume was done for durability. But mine never did crack. The wheels were built with nipple washers.

The nipple washers, which probably add to the nipple hole durability, weigh a grand total of 9 grams (24/28).

The sub-400g rims were built into a 1410g wheelset with CX-Ray spokes (24/28) and Asian sourced hubs. The over-400g rims were built into 1528g wheels with Dura-Ace hubs (24/28 CX-Rays). All with nipple washers and aluminum nipples.

BWW still markets the Blackset Race wheelset!


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## jmorgan (Apr 13, 2012)

Kerry Irons said:


> Not to rain on this parade, but it seems to me we have seen several well-made lightweight rims get high praise only to disappear from the scene when it became clear that any time you try to get below about 420 gm for a rim, durability becomes an issue. Holy grail and all that, but it will be interesting to see how these hold up.


This. 

I have lost all hope in sub 420g rims after cracking 3 Pacenti SL23 rims.


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## Lombard (May 8, 2014)

Wow Mike! I am surprised you would build such a light wheelset. I guess the fact that they are only 20mm deep drops the weight a certain amount without compromising too much durability. And when you have unpteen wheelsets, you have plenty of spares to fall back on.  

How much did you say you weigh?

Am I seeing things correctly on that spoke hole pattern?


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Lombard said:


> Wow Mike! I am surprised you would build such a light wheelset. I guess the fact that they are only 20mm deep drops the weight a certain amount without compromising too much durability. And when you have unpteen wheelsets, you have plenty of spares to fall back on.


As I have quite a few wheelsets with rims ranging from 420g to 500g and seeing that I sold my sub-400g (rim) Blackset Race wheels a while back, I didn't want to duplicate a rim weight that I already had. I build 1-2 sets per year for myself.



> How much did you say you weigh?


175 lbs.



> Am I seeing things correctly on that spoke hole pattern?


I dunno what you're seeing but the rear wheel is 2x/1x (as stated in the post).


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Mike, what variation if any you got on the ERD around the rim? Did you take any measurements on the thickness of the brake track by any chance? Did you find the spoke holes reasonably deburred?


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## Lombard (May 8, 2014)

Mike T. said:


> I dunno what you're seeing but the rear wheel is 2x/1x (as stated in the post).


Oh nevermind! I was looking at that pic of your two new virgin rims side by side and first thought "my that's an odd shaped rim!". My geriatric eyes.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

dcgriz said:


> Mike, what variation if any you got on the ERD around the rim?


I found no variation in ERD around the rim. Again, I did not have to true for radial runout. As I'm totally obsessive about screwing the nipples down evenly, I can't remember the last radial runout I worked on. Under (approx) 1mm I ignore.

Talking about ERD is a good time to make my point (again!) about measuring one's own ERD. The Ryde blurb had the Pulse Sprint rims as "593" ERD. Within two minutes of unpacking the box I had the ERD measure at 599. WTF? I measure 20x to see if *I* was doing anything wrong. Heck I've got scads of stuff on my site about measuring ERD so I couldn't think what I was doing wrong. Finally I figured that Ryde had buggered up. Their "593" coincided with nipple seat diameter (I measured it).

I e-maile Ryde and they admitted that they had made a mistake (!) and that they would re-measure all their rim models and make changes as needed. I see they have "598" on their site now - but their .pdf didn't change.

*People - you MUST measure your own ERD and trust no-one, not even the rim maker.* The easy steps are on my site. There is no good excuse but the excuse of "I just want to place one order for rims, spokes and hubs" is fine if you're willing to live with the consequences of incorrect info (ie: spokes of the wrong length).



> Did you take any measurements on the thickness of the brake track by any chance?


No I didn't and I don't know how to do that (with tools that I have). If you have a way of doing it, please share.



> Did you find the spoke holes reasonably deburred?


They looked well finished but square edged IIRC. As I always use nipple washers (9g total) I don't pay too much attention to this.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Lombard said:


> Oh nevermind! I was looking at that pic of your two new virgin rims side by side and first thought "my that's an odd shaped rim!". My geriatric eyes.


Lom, go stand in the corner.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Mike T. said:


> No I didn't and I don't know how to do that (with tools that I have). If you have a way of doing it, please share.


Thanks for the feedback.

You can use regular calipers and a block or shim of known thickness (size thick enough to clear the bead hook). Measure the thickness of the brake track + the block and then subtract the block thickness.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

dcgriz said:


> You can use regular calipers and a block or shim of known thickness (size thick enough to clear the bead hook). Measure the thickness of the brake track + the block and then subtract the block thickness.


I'd never given this any thought as brake track wear (and thickness) means little to me (it's gently rolly around here). I'm sure my techno-freak brain can figure out how to do it, using your idea. Maybe I'll check it versus the SL23. I compared their width! That one means more to me.


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## Lombard (May 8, 2014)

Mike T. said:


> Lom, go stand in the corner.


I'm sorry teacher. I promise it won't happen again.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Don't bother with it if it becomes too much of a hassle.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

dcgriz said:


> Don't bother with it if it becomes too much of a hassle.


Nothing is too much of a problem for you Griz!


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Much obliged!


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

dcgriz said:


> You can use regular calipers and a block or shim of known thickness (size thick enough to clear the bead hook). Measure the thickness of the brake track + the block and then subtract the block thickness.


Brake track thickness for the Ryde Sprint = 1.1mm Griz - just the same as my SL23 v2. Did I measure well?


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Mike T. said:


> Brake track thickness for the Ryde Sprint = 1.1mm Griz - just the same as my SL23 v2. Did I measure well?


That's good to know, Mike and I'm sure you measured well.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

dcgriz said:


> I'm sure you measured well.


I'm sure I did but how does the Ryde measure up against other rims?


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Mike T. said:


> I'm sure I did but how does the Ryde measure up against other rims?


Their brake track thickness of 1.1mm appears to be less (~.3mm) than the brake track thickness I have measured on the Archetype and the HED C2 (previous generation).


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

dcgriz said:


> Their brake track thickness of 1.1mm appears to be less (~.3mm) than the brake track thickness I have measured on the Archetype and the HED C2 (previous generation).


And that doesn't surprise me one bit as to get a rim to be so light, something has to give - relative to those much heavier rims you mentioned.


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## Lombard (May 8, 2014)

dcgriz said:


> Their brake track thickness of 1.1mm appears to be less (~.3mm) than the brake track thickness I have measured on the Archetype and the HED C2 (previous generation).



When you say the brake track thickness is 1.1mm, do you mean the actual thickness or the usable thickness (the point where the wear indicator shows end of life)? If the former, that's a big difference! If the latter, not so much as in theory, the life span would be for example 11K miles vs. 14K miles.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Lombard said:


> When you say the brake track thickness is 1.1mm, do you mean the actual thickness or the usable thickness (the point where the wear indicator shows end of life)? If the former, that's a big difference! If the latter, not so much as in theory, the life span would be for example 11K miles vs. 14K miles.


I measured actual rim wall thickness between the inside of the bead hook to the outside of brake track. Ya have to get creative to take that measurement. The Ryde don't have a wear indicator like the Pacenti do.


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## Lombard (May 8, 2014)

Mike T. said:


> The Ryde don't have a wear indicator like the Pacenti do.


If you don't have a wear indicator, how do you know when the rim's time has come? Is it just a judgment call based on visible brake scouring?

So 0.3mm less in brake track width will be a considerably shorter life span.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Mike T. said:


> And that doesn't surprise me one bit as to get a rim to be so light, something has to give - relative to those much heavier rims you mentioned.


Did not surprise me either. Kind'a expected it between rims of similar surface areas.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Lombard said:


> If you don't have a wear indicator, how do you know when the rim's time has come? Is it just a judgment call based on visible brake scouring?


Yeah but how many rims have brake track wear indicators? Pacenti is the only one I've seen recently. You look for hollowed out tracks and make a judgement.



> So 0.3mm less in brake track width will be a considerably shorter life span.


You can't have your cake and eat it too. Something has gotta give.


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## Jay Strongbow (May 8, 2010)

Lombard said:


> When you say the brake track thickness is 1.1mm, do you mean the actual thickness or the usable thickness (the point where the wear indicator shows end of life)? If the former, that's a big difference! If the latter, not so much as in theory, the life span would be for example 11K miles vs. 14K miles.


Maybe, maybe not. not all alloy is the same and anodizing, or not, probably has some impact.


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## Lombard (May 8, 2014)

Mike T. said:


> Yeah but how many rims have brake track wear indicators? Pacenti is the only one I've seen recently. You look for hollowed out tracks and make a judgement.


My HED rims have wear indicators as well as my Shimano factory wheels. I believe Archetypes do to.



Mike T. said:


> You can't have your cake and eat it too. Something has gotta give.


Exactly why for myself, I would generally nix anything less than 450g. I'll take durability and longevity over lightweight. Not that I want an anvil, but I don't need a feather.


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