# Far sports 23MM Wide X 50MM deep carbon clinchers



## jackmen (Jul 24, 2007)

I am looking at purchasing far sports 23MM Wide X 50MM deep carbon clincher wheels. Specifically I am looking at a higher 24/28 spoke count as I am a bigger guy (210 lbs) and want to ride this wheel everyday.

Anybody have experience with these wheels. They are listed as very light (1380 G) and wondered if any body has them and has ridden them very long?


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## mikerp (Jul 24, 2011)

I'd recommend a set of Alu rims 23mm wide Alu rims for everyday ride, and move up to 28/32. Keep the rims you mentioned for special days.


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## jackmen (Jul 24, 2007)

I have been talking to Smart at far sports about these 23MM X50MM CARBON WHEELS with 24/28 holes and No drilled holes inside the rims so I can run tubeless without the Stan's strips. This is some correspondence smart gave me when I asked about the quality control of the Chinese wheels as well as how viable the warranty is. Check out his response, below broken English and all.

Jack,

Thank you for your quickly reply.

We understand your situation about Chinese wheels. 
As for the quality control. 
We have sold carbon rim and carbon wheels for more than 4 years already. 
In 2009, the defective rate on carbon rim is about 5%
In 2010, The defective rate is about 5.3%(As we just starting to develop new light weight version rims )
In 2011, the defective rate is about 3.2%
In 2012, the defective rate is about 2.3%
Most defective rates is coming from clincher rims and manufacturing abnormal.
As all the making process is by hand,Until now we can not reach 0% defective, no factory can do this also.

As for our company reputation.
Even though it have some issues happen and thread on the forums. But it can not evident that our company have bad reputation.
We are dealing with the issues with the customers timely and patiently. There is a warranty agreement both our company and riders.
All issues are settled as the agreement. Please kindly reference it in attachment..
As you said they don't receive the replace wheels for 2-3months, we think it is not truth because we always arrange the replacement wheels prior.
But some customers need our new products to replace,so they would like wait for 2-3months to get the new products.
Besides,our company is the Sapim distributor in China.Sapim is a famous company in bicycle spokes. It is a good way to show our company's reputation. 
You can learn us from Sapim Web: Sapim | Race spokes and nipples

As for quality comparing with Taiwan wheels.
In mainland of China, all carbon bicycle wheels technologies are from Taiwan in the first. But now,we have our own research department, we not only adopt Taiwan wheels technologies,
but also have our own special technologies. So I don't think Taiwan wheels are much better than China mainland wheels. 
Our prices are much cheaper than Taiwan wheels,because our labor cost are cheaper in mainland of China. Many big factories are produce the wheels in mainland now.
And most brand wheels in the market are from mainland of China..

As for the delivery time(4weeks). 
Normally,our company do the stock for the standard wheels(front 20holes,rear 24holes with external nipples,some internal nipples).The wheels can be shipped out in about 3-5work days after payment.
But your order is special in spoke holes, we need produce them as order spec. This is why it needs about 4weeks.But we will produce them for you as quickly as possible.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks&Best Regards,

Smart



Xiamen Farsports Co.,Ltd
Address: No.96 Jingquan Road Jimei Nothern Industrial Area Xiamen China
Tel: 86-592-6103812
Fax:86-592-6101658
Mobile:86-13459252710
Skype: farsports11
MSN: [email protected]
Web: Far Sports


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## mikerp (Jul 24, 2011)

Whatever happened with rear wheel that you tightened each spoke 1/2 turn looking for a noise?


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## jackmen (Jul 24, 2007)

The wheel is working great still making the funny noise. True as can be , but I am just looking at upgrading my wheels with some carbon 50MmX23MM wide versions, to get a little more aero and smoother ride.





mikerp said:


> Whatever happened with rear wheel that you tightened each spoke 1/2 turn looking for a noise?


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## mikerp (Jul 24, 2011)

jackmen said:


> The wheel is working great still making the funny noise. True as can be , but I am just looking at upgrading my wheels with some carbon 50MmX23MM wide versions, to get a little more aero and smoother ride.


Did you ever check the dish on the wheel, I'm not sure how one can adjust all the spokes the same on an asymmetric wheel (rear) and maintain an even dish. True is only one factor.


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## pushstart (Feb 5, 2012)

I don't have this exact wheelset, but I do have a set of the 24mm-wide Farsports 50mm deep wheels. I got these laced 20/24 to Ed hubs. These have the high-temperature ("220F", which isn't really that high compared to other rim mfr claims) braking surface -- *not* basalt. I got UD finish. The finish was not perfect (a few "shiny" areas where it looked to have been rubbed or something) but on the whole they look great. My UD finish Motobecane frame is also not perfect, but I am fine with this look.

It's my first set of carbon wheels so I don't have much to compare them to, but I can talk about the overall experience. Working with the Farsports rep ("Johnson", in my case) was great. They were responsive and provided lots of details. English was obviously not the first language, but there never seemed to be any misunderstanding. I love that there was no extra charge to customize the spoke lacing (I wanted 2x for both NDS and DS in the rear).

The wheels came true (didn't check them on the stand, but noticed no wobble when mounted), but the spoke tension must have been less than the rep told me (I asked for the spoke tensions being used), because when I put them in the stand to check them out after a few hundred miles, the spoke tension all around was significantly less than it should have been (was supposed to be). I didn't have the tires mounted. In trying to bring it up to tension one of the (alloy) nipples snapped; I think the nipple was bottomed out. The spoke lengths (I also asked for these) were consistent with the ERD, but I suspect that either the ERD is wrong (too small) or this particular wheel was a little under spec. Anyway, I bought new nipples and replaced a few spokes (I had also dropped the chain into the spokes but that was a bad RD setup, obviously). I also added polyax spoke washers. So after rebuilding (well, retensioning with new nipples and washers) the rear wheel it seems like everything is doing fine. (But the spokes do seem a couple mm too long; I suspect many of them are very close to bottoming out.)

The front wheel has a bit of a hop to it, so I think I need to do that one next time I have a few hours to kill. The out-of-roundness may just be the brake track too or the bead, since I'm fairly sure that it was round in the stand.

So, a mixed review. At less than $700 shipped + paypal surcharge, it's obviously a great deal. The parts -- especially the Ed hubs and CX rays are great. The rims seem to be decent quality, though the build quality is not perfect. I've obviously spent a bit of my own time on the wheels -- and looks like I'll be spending some more -- but I don't really feel like it was a bad deal; it would have been hard for me to buy just the parts for less. I love how they ride -- the whooshing sound, how stiff they are, and the wide profile (that may be in my head, but I could swear that I can tell a difference when cornering).

Until recently I was running both front and rear tubeless (w/ Huchinson Intensive RT). I would not recommend this for the non-masochist as tires fit very loosely on these rims -- almost don't need tools to unmount the tires. Getting the tires to seal (with sealant) was very difficult -- you almost have to use a compressor. In contrast, I have setup several sets of alloy road wheels (3 different Kinlin rims, H Plus Son Archetype) and had zero issue seating the tires immediately with a floor pump. And I would definitely not order these with a sealed rim bed, as I can only imagine that replacing nipples (which I've obviously had to do) would be a huge pain. And tape is easy to install and very light. But again, these are not great for a tubeless setup in my experience; I won't be continuing with that.


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## Denny Crane (Sep 6, 2014)

I have the 38 mm x 25 mm wide FarSports carbon rims, manufactured in June 2015. I was off the bike due to knee surgery for a while, but I have now ridden them far enough to add a couple of comments, though not a full review.
First, they seem well-made. The finish was uniform and the wheels are true. Which is very fortunate, because I am using an X-Eyed front brake that does not open very wide. I had to sand down the pads to make it work. No such problem with an Ultegra brake.
Second, I recommend that you order tires, rim strips, and valve extenders (for an emergency where you use up your tubes and have to borrow one with a short valve stem) before you order the wheels. I mounted GP4000s on some Velocity A23 rims to stretch them out a bit. It made them easier to mount on the new wheels, though it was not very easy. The 700 x 25 tires look great and function well on the 25mm rims.
Third, FarSports custom made my wheels promptly, in about 3 days as I recall. They arrived here in about a week. Customer service is very good.
My time on my standard course improved measurably on my first ride with the FarSports. I ordered mine with DT Swiss hubs, even though I find that they tend to gradually slow down going up long uphill grades. ;-)
Bottom line: I like my wheels, and I had no problems dealing with Farsports. Windy is very helpful, though you should keep in mind the time difference and not expect an immediate answer to your Email if it is midnight in China.


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