Buying your carbon road bike wheels directly from Asia could save you a pretty penny… but are they up to the job? We wanted to find out, and if there are any compromises when you pay less.
We get loads of cool wheels turn up at road.cc from the biggest brands in the business: Roval, Zipp, Enve and Princeton Carbon Works to name a few. We’ve ridden them all and they’re mostly very good, but this latest set has seriously sparked our interest…
They have a 50mm deep carbon rim, they weigh about 1,350 grams for the pair, they have a very interesting feather pattern rim design, they have ceramic bearings hiding in DT Swiss hubs, and the super thin carbon spokes are 4.4mm deep.
So how much do you think they cost? Nope, they’re not £3,000 like lots of other flagship road bike wheels, more like £1,200. So, what’s the catch?
Well, it’s little surprise that these are coming directly from Asia, and therefore plenty of people might be thinking they thinking they will break as soon as I fit them to a bike…
Superteam, though, say they have used high quality materials and advanced manufacturing technology to ensure durability and stable performance. They’ve also let me loose with a pair to see just how strong they are. Let’s get testing!
Set-up
Buying direct from Asia certainly doesn’t mean that you have to compromise on features: wide rims, carbon spokes, even a solid rim bed, it’s all the latest tech. Very often you’ll find these latest features on direct-to-consumer wheels before the big brands get there.
As my ride may or may not be sticking to the roads, I think it’s a pretty good idea to set the wheels up tubeless. Thanks to the solid rim bed there’s no need for rim tape, which is very great news for me, because if there’s one bit of bike maintenance that I’m not very good at, it’s taping up wheels.
I know that lots of readers will also be very happy to see that these wheels have a hooked rim design, which does make that sub-1,400-gram weight even more impressive.
This particular set that we’re testing, the new Superteam S-All Carbon Evo II, have an internal width of 23mm and an external width of 30mm, which is just about perfect for the 28mm tyres that most of us now use on the road. Many people like to use the 105% rule, where a rim that is 105% of the measured tyre width is considered the fastest and most stable.
On the Superteam website, you also get all the usual freehub body options, and you can also choose whether you want a 6-bolt or centre-lock hub for the disc rotors. Ours are centre-lock, and there’s a 36T Dt-Swiss ratchet system hiding in the rear one, so plenty of engagement points for what we’ve got planned for them today!
On the road
You might be wondering why you would want to upgrade to carbon wheels. Well, compared to a stock aluminium wheelset, carbon wheels are lighter, they’re more aerodynamic and they’re stiffer, and that means I can go faster for less effort. Oh, and they also sound absolutely mega when climbing out of the saddle!
When it comes to speed, these wheels certainly feel fast. They feel stiff during accelerations too, with the carbon spokes playing their part here.
Obviously what we don’t want though is to trade off durability or robustness for this performance, and so today this is going to be no ordinary road test. I want to see just how strong carbon wheels really are!
Strength testing
Just to clarify, this is a road wheelset. The wheels are UCI-approved for road use, but to speed up this durability test we thought we’d better venture off the beaten track.
After taking the wheels on a spin around some rather bumpy woods, hammering along fire roads and bashing through potholes, it was clear that we’d have to try harder than this if we were to upset the Evo IIs. In fact, they were still running just as true as when they came out the box.
I checked and they were perfectly true, which is hardly surprising given how many quality control checks Superteam clearly did before shipping us the wheels.
Upping the ante
The thing with carbon fibre is despite being light, it is also extremely strong. Yes, we’ve seen horror stories, but you just need to look as far as Formula 1 or spacecraft to see just how bulletproof modern composites are. Actually, they do make bulletproof composites, don’t they…
The other great thing about carbon fibre is that you can create really interesting shapes. That feather pattern that we touched on earlier, according to Superteam, increases the structural strength and rigidity of the rim by helping to disperse the pressure and reduce the stress concentration points of the rim during use.
It’s also said to reduce air resistance, improve the aerodynamic performance of the wheelset, and make riding more efficient, especially at high speeds. Maybe we’ll test that in a future video.
Having decided that the wheels could easily cope with anything me and my road bike could throw at them, we decided the best course of action was to fit them to a gravel bike complete with dropper post, and borrow a youth with absolutely no sense of self-preservation…
Seeing the wheels being jumped (and occasionally cased) at Wind Hill Bike Park certainly left me confident that they’re not going break on me on the road any time soon. Carbon wheels are certainly strong!
I reckon the myth about all wheels coming directly from China being fragile is just that… a myth. While we wouldn’t recommend jumping or abusing wheels meant for the road in this way, it does just go to show that they can withstand a lot more than your average Sunday club run.
Let’s not forget, this is a lightweight road wheelset. They’re designed for smashing up climbs and long rides, and yet Superteam is so confident in their manufacturing that they offer a three-year warranty on the rims, a one-year warranty on the hubs and lightweight carbon spokes, and they let us jump a pair in the woods.
How are Superteam wheels so much cheaper than other flagship wheels?
My final question to Superteam was: how can they keep their prices low without compromising on quality? Superteam explained:
1. They don’t have the same markup as wheels from more established brands
2. There are no middlemen here. You’re buying the wheels straight from the manufacturer which cuts out some costs
3. There are far less storage costs, because these wheels are basically made to order in whatever specification you wish. They’re not sitting in warehouses or shops losing value.
And that is how, if you’re prepared to wait just a few weeks for them to be delivered, you can get wheels that are made by people who have been making OEM wheels for years at a fraction of the cost.
If you want to find out more about these latest S-ALL Carbon EVO II wheels then head over to the Superteam website and use code RC05 for 5% off your first purchase
42 thoughts on “How strong are Chinese carbon road bike wheels, and why are they so much cheaper?”
I bought a set if ICAN G25 on
I bought a set if ICAN G25 on DT Swiss DT240 hubs in May 2023 for $1100 and have ridden them continuously over a season and a half with no issues.
They haven’t needed to be trued up and besides a clean and regrease of the hub ratchet, haven’t needed any maintenance. Highly recommended
Interesting – my shiny bike
Interesting – my shiny bike has wheels that fit the ‘flagship’ description. Not my personal choice, but they came with the bike in a big sale (rim brakes + round carbon tubes + 11 speed mechanical = huge discount).
So why would spokes break on high end wheels repeatedly? I’m 72kg and my power output is, frankly, weedy (not that I actually bother with these things – more of a chat with the person riding next to me who has a power meter).
I think we’re on 5 broken spokes so far: They all break at the thread, unsurprisingly. One spoke even broke overnight. The wheel turns into a Pringle and is unrideable. The bike even got left behind for one cycling holiday as I knew I had no chance of getting it repaired if another spoke broke (OEM nipples only).
Because they break at the thread, changing all the spokes to non-butted made no difference. They all have a consistent ‘ping’/tension that aligns with length/spec etc.
However, changing from 25mm to 28mm tyres does seem to have done the trick. Fingers crossed…..
It sounds like a batch of bad
It sounds like a batch of bad spokes, I’m about the same weight as you (1kg less!!!), have similar pathetic power output and haven’t broken a spoke in 10+ years.
I’m what I would describe as a sympathetic rider (good at avoiding potholes etc.), although the roads around here are rubbish. I’m now on 32mm tires which are great and probably help a lot. The last time I had failures on a wheel was with alloy spoke nipples which are just plain rubbish and should be avoided at all costs.
Have you tried to release the twisting tension on the spokes (not sure what the correct term is). Take the wheel off and place on a hard floor with a rag or block of wood under the hub so you don’t damage anything. Grab the rim on opposite sides and press down with a bit of force to unload the spokes on the floor side. You might hear them ping as the settle and twist to a neutral position. Work your way around the wheel a couple of times and then flip over and repeat. This should be done any time the spokes are tensioned or other changes made to the spokes. You are aiming to release the tension in the spokes, not bend the wheel so go steady!
Tried all of that – they’ve
Tried all of that – they’ve even had a complete rebuild with different spokes (plain instead of butted) and they still broke. Two different wheel builders involved too. I was even given a lecture by the shop after the first break about how important it was to check the tension of spokes etc. After every 300 miles? And with internal nipples? Wheel apart, tape off etc. And how about when they let go in the quiet of the garage at night? After that incident, and a strong indication that that repair was a one-off grace-and-favour repair, I went somewhere else.
Other than that wheelset, I’ve never broken a spoke (save when there was an unfortunate stick/rear mech/spoke incident). Many, many years on a bike….
I’m minded to think that an over-ambitious spoke tension spec by the manufacturer is the problem, which would account for the middle of the night failure.
Could be that the spoke angle
Could be that the spoke angle on the rim is too extreme. A well known British seller of value carbon wheels reportedly had an issue with that on some of their wheels – with videos online showing the resultant cracks around the spoke holes / broken spokes that failed on the threads.
I was thinking that it might
I was thinking that it might be this, if the wheel has been rebuilt (assuming that they didn’t just reuse the existing spokes) there shouldn’t be a problem.
nniff wrote:
Years ago I had a wheel supplied by a bike shop that would snap a spoke after just a few miles. I’d take it back in, they’d ask if I’d been messing with it (I hadn’t) and they’d rebuild it, but it kept happening. In the end, I tried rebuilding it myself and figured out that the rim was unusable as it had a serious deflection and so the spokes had a wide variety of tension in order to try to pull the rim true. When I figured that out, I just got a new wheel and never went back to that bike shop.
almost sounds like the spoke
almost sounds like the spoke holes were drilled at 0°/0° and not in alignment with the intended spoking pattern.
Can they take the strain of
Can they take the strain of 110kg rider, and a 20kg e-bike over gravel, through woods, mud and rocks?
That’s what I need out of a set of wheels
lightbicycle will do a custom
lightbicycle will do a custom layup that suits that use-case, if a rim isn’t already in tolerance for that. nice kit.
So…. whats Superteams
So…. whats Superteams returns policy…. and does the £1200 include import duty?
Seriiously sexy wheels I have to say…
It includes EU taxes, but
It includes EU taxes, but website doesn’t mention UK. Would have been useful if the advertorial made such things clear.
Agreed, they look good. However, no Campag freehub available unless I’m mistaken.
Surprise, wheels made in
Surprise, wheels made in China are as strong as wheels made in China.
cyclisto wrote:
A lot of the cheap labour factories work on 3-shift patterns, making similar product 24h a day:
Shift 1; build for western partner brands, more QC overheads and loopholes, but guaranteed price.
Shift 2; built under OEM / in-house branding. More established manufacturers have basically copied the QC requirements of the partner brands. Decent kit as very reasonable cost. Sell direct to consumer (likely the items described in the article)
Shift 3; Tofu-dregs – pump out as much product as possible, no QC overheads, cut as many corners as possible, release under throwaway branding, flood the likes of temu, wish etc. Basically trash.
Western markets tend to conflate shifts 2 and 3 and they are worlds apart. To deny that the crap exists is just as bad as assuming everything not a big brand name is going to break. Both are out there, and it’s important that people can recognise and distinguish the two
Consumer Rights !
Consumer Rights !
Surely the biggest downside to buying direct from Asia is the complete lack of consumer rights and liability, if you purchase a set that crack on day one, arrive damaged, you simply don’t like them once seen in the flesh, or just don’t arrive, your opportunity for redress is pretty much nil
EK Spinner wrote:
Whilst I agree in part, my experiences with AliExpress have generally been good. I bought a video doorbell which worked fine for a couple of weeks and then went dead, but I had no trouble returning it (free) for a full refund (they have a 90 days from ordering return policy).
good to hear, maybe I should
good to hear, maybe I should try them sometime, perhaps not on carbon wheels first though
EK Spinner wrote:
I quite often try AliExpress ahead of places like eBay or Amazon. It’s surprising to see exactly the same products being sold on eBay, but with a significant increase in price.
I bought some 26″ MTB wheels from there as I had trouble finding 26″ rim brake wheels elsewhere. They’ve been excellent, though they took some extra rim tape to get them to go tubeless (they weren’t sold as tubeless compatible though).
hawkinspeter wrote:
My wife runs a small business and has had to employ an agent just to deal with the IP infringements relating to copies of her stuff turning up on Shein, Temu, Aliexpress, etc (and on Amazon and Walmart, from those very cheap random letter suppliers you find on their marketplaces…).
I would never buy from those pirates!
“Why are they cheaper?”
“Why are they cheaper?”
Perhaps because China is dumping bikes and parts thereof on the EU/UK market.
I don’t question the quality of these cheaper Chinese wheels, I have ridden a few, but there are some brands out there with shady import tactics and warehouse constructions.
I have 3 sets of Chinese
I have 3 sets of Chinese wheels. First bought some 38mm carbon wheels off Farsports (before Farsports were any kind of well known Chinese brand). Longest any of my wheels have lasted without breaking a spoke, so happy with the quality – still going strong.
More recently bought some carbon tri-spoke wheels from “Synergy (xiamen) Import And Export Co., Ltd.” on Alibaba. Great wheels too. Strong. Liked them so much, bought another set for my fixed gear.
The price was a fraction of what a western branded wheelset would cost. Though, Farsports are now capitalising on their brand recognition and charging more than most Chinese suppliers.
“these are coming directly
“these are coming directly from Asia, and therefore plenty of people might be thinking they thinking they will break as soon as I fit them to a bike”
Yes, plenty of people are racists.
Farsports/light bicycle etc are all the same (if not better) wheels as what Hunt/scribe etc are using but it’s amazing what people will pay for something they perceive to be ‘local’.
Life must be very simple when
Life must be very simple when everything is due to racism.
You’re right. I’m
You’re right. I’m oversimplifying it. Can you tell me a better way to describe behaviour whereby you are prejudiced against people or things from a country, purely because they’re from that country? Thanks in advance.
Just had a look at both
Just had a look at both Farsports and Light Bicycle and neither appear to make rim brake carbon road bike wheels.
Superteam have some rim brake wheels but a appear to be tubeless, which I don’t want (I know you can run regular clincher tyres with tubes on tubeless rims but my experience is they are difficult to get them on and off, which I want to avoid).
A bit concerned with the cheap wheels that use proprietary spokes etc what happens if you break a spoke, can’t just pop down to the LBS and pick up a new one.
RM wrote:
Hopefully, the wheels come supplied with a couple of spare spokes, but if not, it looks like you can get carbon fibre spokes separately: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006935757924.html
Not sure about Scribe but
Not sure about Scribe but having bought three pairs of Hunt wheels I can attest to their first rate ‘local’ customer service; one pair I’ve put around 16,000 km on and had a problem with the rear hub bearings,
Hunt paid for return courier and fixed within a few days for no charge, and needed replacement spokes on another, again sent out free of charge… I wouldn’t fancy my chances trying to get a warranty claim/even have these conversations with any direct to consumer based so far away.
How can you be racist against
How can you be racist against a product?
good video
good video
galibiervelo wrote:
Myles you must pay for one of these “articles” it might let others know just how good Galibier stuff is, if they didn’t already ?
“This article includes paid
“This article includes paid promotion on behalf of Superteam Wheels”
Isn’t this all just an advert/marketing for Super team Wheels?!
Where’s the article?
Nick0 wrote:
Yeah, complete lack of transparency… oh hold on, what’s this link at the top of the page? https://road.cc/sponsored
Ah there we go.
Not questioning transparency
Not questioning transparency at all, you’ll spot my quote with that sharp mind of yours! However, I, probably like others came to it from the link in the email where there’s no mention. It’s head and shoulders the longest, most elaborate advert I’ve ever seen on here.
I bought a set of lightweight
I bought a set of lightweight XC wheels from Speedsafe via AliExpress. Still going strong. Later I got a road set. One rim arrived with a chip from damage in transit. I sent some photos, and they sent me out a new rim. Still running true after a couple of years.
Why would any ethical person
Why would any ethical person want to support the CCP dictatorship that doesn’t respect fair trade, the international rule of law, intellectual property and human rights.
These supposedly cheap products enable the export of capabilities and jobs with the loss of freedom that is. Not just consumers freedom but trades and employees too.
There is an effective and ethical free trade already, without supporting CCP, that consumers can enjoy.
Is your preferred supplier meeting ethical, environmental and employment best practice because if not, you are part of the problem…
Please tell us where you buy
Please tell us where you buy products from that aren’t made in China?
Mavic wheels, designed and
Mavic wheels, designed and made in France. Lovely wheels too!
And Aksiums are dirt cheap,
And Aksiums are dirt cheap, as well as being stiff and light.
“the CCP dictatorship doesn’t
“the CCP dictatorship doesn’t respect fair trade, the international rule of law, intellectual property and human rights.”
It’s October 2024 and I think by now the reality of the world is stripped naked for everyone to see who is who, and what is what. And what narratives have been used to cover up a false image in countries where journalists are getting thrown in prison, munitions and targeting information are given to mass murders facing indictment and where refugeee aid organisation are deliberately targeted to prevent them from helping people in life threatening needs
Ethical consumers would actually have to boycott products made western countries if they were to avoid dealing with products made corrupt, authoritarian nations that have no respect for human rights, the United Nations and international law!
There is already a video from
There is already a video from Cyclists Hub where his rear hub failed after only about 250 kilometers of riding…on roads. But, the company did send him a complete new rear wheel, along with a rebuild kit for the hub that was damaged, it took 3 weeks for the package to get to him…but they knew he had a YouTube channel, and he’s not sure how good they would have responded if he didn’t have that channel. He said that after 500 kilometers he’s had no issues with the new wheel, and there hasn’t been any updates that I could find.
Another video from Ribble Valley Cyclist said the hubs are not sealed for use in wet weather, the axle on the rear hub was not anodized, but the front axle was, which he found to be quite odd since both should have been anodized. He also noted that the CF spokes do not touch each other when they cross, which is a good thing, but the rear hub they did at the mantles which can lead to huge problems..
The rims themselves had a .4mm lateral movement which he said is ok but not great. The radial runout was 1.2 a centimeter, but one of them was in a small section, he called it a fail. Spoke tension had a variance was very low meaning they were very good. He discovered on the non-drive side the bladed spokes were twisted. And the dish was off by a mil. The rims all had debris rattling around inside the rim.
He did not like their hubs, but the newer Evo II rim, uses DT hubs.
And as one comment said: “Why would any ethical person want to support the CCP dictatorship that doesn’t respect fair trade, the international rule of law, intellectual property and human rights.” And I’ll add to that, why do business with a country that is threatening to go to war with the US after we made them the financial powerhouse that they are today. We were never their enemy, we had no intentions of ever attacking them, but China decided they wanted to punk on everyone around them including the US, sad, really sad.
The same issues exist on
The same issues exist on wheels made in china but resold by UK companies though. The hubs are probably bitex or novatec, used in pretty much all cheap machine built wheels resold by cheap UK wheel companies.
Everything is made in china
Everything is made in china
Why should the wheels be awefull ?
Service is much better then fulcrum is gather ?
I cannot get a replacement hub from them to fix my racing quattro db rear wheel.