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review

AlexRims CXD4 700C Disc TL Ready Centrelock Road Wheelset

9
£319.99

VERDICT:

9
10
Excellent tubeless-ready disc wheelset that's lighter and cheaper than most of its competitors
Weight: 
1,580g

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AlexRims knows a thing or two about making rims (the clue's in the name), so it's not a surprise that it's moving into the wheelset market. And if these CXD4s are anything to go by, you should definitely look at them as an option if you're upgrading your bike or speccing a new build.

The CXD4 is just one of 16 – count 'em – road wheelsets that Alex is now making, along with 11 mountain bike wheelsets. On the road side there's a broad selection of shallow and deep, alloy and carbon, and disc and rim wheels. The CXD4 is a mid-level alloy disc wheelset that's available in 6-bolt or Centerlock configurations. Weighing in at a very reasonable 1,580g for its £319.99 asking price, it's a chunk lighter than stock wheels you'll find on most bikes under about £2,000.

> Find your nearest dealer here

The rim is a tubeless-ready 23mm alloy extrusion, sleeve-jointed for extra strength. The rim shape is asymmetric to better balance the spoke forces, with the same rim being used front and rear. At the front the spoke holes are offset away from the disc side, and at the rear they're offset towards it, as the freehub moves the hub flange in more than the disc does.

Alex Rims Alex CXD4 Road Disc Wheelset - spoke.jpg

Both front and rear are built up with 24 round stainless steel spokes in a two-cross pattern. The hubs have an alloy body and axle and sealed cartridge bearings: two in the front and four in the rear. As is usual these days, the front is adaptable for quick releases and 12mm and 15mm thru-axles, and the rear is quick release or a 142x12mm thru-axle. The freehub body is alloy and it's a standard pawl setup inside, with the engagement about average: it's not quick, and it's not slow.

Alex Rims Alex CXD4 Road Disc Wheelset - front hub 2.jpg

I've had these wheels set up with 30mm Schwalbe G-One Speed tyres for the duration of testing. Getting them to seal wasn't a problem and I've had no issues with the tyres losing air more than is normal for a tubeless setup.

On the road the wheels feel nice and stiff, with no obvious flex either from sprint efforts or heavy cornering. The bearings run smoothly, and whipping the cassette off showed that there's not very much notching on the alloy freehub body: the sprockets slid off easily enough. Even so, a steel bite guard would definitely be a worthwhile addition.

Alex Rims Alex CXD4 Road Disc Wheelset - rear hub 2.jpg

The 1,580g all-in weight is pretty good for a disc wheelset at this price. Shimano's RX31s are 380g heavier for the same kind of money, and similar-weight wheelsets from the likes of Cero, Kinesis and Hunt come in at least £50 more expensive.

> 141 tubeless wheelsets to choose from

It's around the right weight for an alloy disc wheelset: enough material in them to make them genuinely multi-surface capable without being overbuilt. I haven't raced any cyclo-cross this season but I have taken the Tripster, wearing these wheels, on a variety of surfaces, some better than others. The 19mm rim width means you really want to be running at least a 28mm tyre, with anything up to a 50mm technically OK if it'll fit in your frame. The CXD4s feel very solid and have taken a decent battering on rougher surfaces with fairly narrow (for off-road) tyres, and they're still running true. I've no doubt they'd be fine for the hustle and bustle of a 'cross race, or a gravel event.

Alex Rims Alex CXD4 Road Disc Wheelset - rim bed.jpg

If you're looking to build up a road disc/cyclo-cross/gravel/adventure/etc frame, or you're hunting around for an upgrade to the stock wheels on one you already have, then the CXD4s should be on your shopping list. They've been as good in every way as the Pro-Lite Revo A21W wheels that I've recommended a few times over the past year, and they're a bit lighter and £40 cheaper. They're sturdy without being heavy and they perform extremely well for the money.

Verdict

Excellent tubeless-ready disc wheelset that's lighter and cheaper than most of its competitors

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road.cc test report

Make and model: AlexRims CXD4 700C Disc TL Ready Centrelock Road Wheelset

Size tested: 700C

Tell us what the wheel is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

From distributor Bob Elliot's website:

You need a road disc wheelset? Tubeless Ready and super light? CXD4 is your first choice!

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the wheel?

From distributor:

RIM

Designed disc only -for the latest road and cross bikes

Tubeless ready design

Sleeve joint

Offset profile – makes a stronger wheel

SPOKES

Stainless steel BLK spokes

24h front wheel – 2 cross lacing

24h rear wheel – 2 cross lacing

HUB

Lightweight AL7075 body

Lightweight aluminum axle

Low resistance sealed bearings – 2 in the front hub and 4 in the rear

Compatible with 8, 9, 10 & 11 spd

Centerlock

Front wheel thru axle 12mm 100

Rear wheel thru axle 12mm 142

WEIGHT

700C: 1536g

Rate the wheel for quality of construction:
 
9/10
Rate the wheel for performance:
 
9/10
Rate the wheel for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the wheel for weight
 
8/10
Rate the wheel for value:
 
8/10

Did the wheels stay true? Any issues with spoke tension?

No issues.

How easy did you find it to fit tyres?

Good: pretty easy to fit, and tubeless was easy to set up.

How did the wheel extras (eg skewers and rim tape) perform?

Swapped out the rim tape for tubeless tape. No skewers supplied.

Tell us how the wheel performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Very well.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the wheel

Sturdy, nicely built, not heavy.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the wheel

Pity there's no anti-bite guard on the freehub.

Did you enjoy using the wheel? Yes

Would you consider buying the wheel? Yes, a good mid-range option.

Would you recommend the wheel to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your score

These are nicely built wheels that'll be a good upgrade over heavy stock wheels for mid-range bikes.

Overall rating: 9/10

About the tester

Age: 43  Height: 189cm  Weight: 92kg

I usually ride: whatever I'm testing...  My best bike is: Kinesis Tripster ATR, Kinesis Aithein

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, time trialling, cyclo-cross, commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mountain biking, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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17 comments

Avatar
no0bzrus | 4 years ago
0 likes

Anyone actually figure out who makes the hubs on these?

I've had the freehub body break on mine and I'm having a tough time sourcing a replacement, I've ordered what was meant to be a replacement from two separate suppliers who source from the distributor and they have both sent out a freehub that's not 10sp compatible (and wrong number of pawls)...

Wondering if I can figure out who the original manufacturer is then I could source elsewhere.

Avatar
Canyonaro | 6 years ago
0 likes

Just to add to what Tookbox said - the wheels are not suplied with the quick release adapters.

A month after getting in contact with the distributor I’m still waiting to be able to put them on the bike.

Avatar
Toolbox | 6 years ago
0 likes

It's worth noting that although there may be an adaptor to make the front axle 15mm it's not currently available in this country, and the distributor believes it will be months before it is. It's 12mm front and rear with qr adaptors available to buy for £20 (the distributor does have these). Shame (for me) because it's a nice looking wheelset. To answer an earlier post the logos are printed on, they're not decals, so you can't remove them.

Avatar
steady lad | 6 years ago
1 like

I saw Ross Kemp out cycling recently and he had these on his Carrera Zelos... what more recommendation do you need?

Cheers

Avatar
bigshape | 6 years ago
1 like

are they easily de-logo-able? not a massive fan of logos...

Avatar
cyclisto replied to bigshape | 6 years ago
0 likes
bigshape wrote:

are they easily de-logo-able? not a massive fan of logos...

Come on mate, if it was Zipp you would beg the font was bigger :p

Seriously now, there are very ugly graphics on rims and thankfully in all my rims were easily removed as they were a plain sticker. But if they are you will have to live with the shame.

Avatar
Mototarka | 6 years ago
1 like

There are Chainreaction's Prime Pro Disc wheels - same price, same rims, less weght, 6 bolts disc.

I still have and use Cosine Disc and they are great wheels. Please don't say they are crap or have crap bearings, before generously lubing bearings straight out of the box, that's what I did and they lasted me two years and still going strong. Riding my cx bike everywhere, even MTB trails and never had to true rims (my weight max out at 90kg in winter), so I believe rims are stong enough too...

Avatar
drosco | 6 years ago
0 likes

I've done 4000 commuting miles on the cosines with zero issues. Alex rims are fine and novatec hubs likewise. Aren't Hunt hubs rebadged novatec?

Avatar
StewartM | 6 years ago
0 likes

I've got the Cosines from Wiggle, and these indeed look very familiar. Based on weight, number of spokes and appearance, I doubt it's any different a rim bar the stickers.

The hub on the other hand looks different to the Novatec 771 used on the Cosines, and this is reflected in two ways; the overall weight of the Alex set is a bit lower and the Alex set appears to be centrelock (which is usually lighter). But the hub shape is definitely different to the Cosines, maybe someone out there can identify them.

The Cosines, all told, are an even better value set than these, imo, but they're now off the market again and rare as hens teeth, so these probably take their place as the best value weight / quality equation available.

Avatar
Welsh boy replied to StewartM | 6 years ago
0 likes
StewartM wrote:

The Cosines, all told, are an even better value set than these

 

My experience with (two pairs) of Cosine wheels is quite poor, both sets needed new bearings after a few thousand miles and one pair only lasted a winter before the rims were worn well below the safe limit.  Not very impressed with Cosine at all.

Avatar
Canyon48 replied to Welsh boy | 6 years ago
0 likes
Welsh boy wrote:
StewartM wrote:

The Cosines, all told, are an even better value set than these

 

My experience with (two pairs) of Cosine wheels is quite poor, both sets needed new bearings after a few thousand miles and one pair only lasted a winter before the rims were worn well below the safe limit.  Not very impressed with Cosine at all.

I've found my Cosine wheels to have very soft nipples that feel cheap and aren't great at all for truing (for £150 and 1600 grams I'm not complaining about my Cosines though!)

I wonder if this is the same for these Alexrims?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Canyon48 | 6 years ago
1 like
wellsprop wrote:

I've found my Cosine wheels to have very soft nipples that feel cheap and aren't great at all for truing (for £150 and 1600 grams I'm not complaining about my Cosines though!)

I wonder if this is the same for these Alexrims?

Have you tried polishing them with a light circular motion?

Avatar
Canyon48 replied to hawkinspeter | 6 years ago
0 likes
hawkinspeter wrote:
wellsprop wrote:

I've found my Cosine wheels to have very soft nipples that feel cheap and aren't great at all for truing (for £150 and 1600 grams I'm not complaining about my Cosines though!)

I wonder if this is the same for these Alexrims?

Have you tried polishing them with a light circular motion?

I was waiting for that.

Avatar
maviczap replied to Welsh boy | 6 years ago
0 likes
Welsh boy wrote:
StewartM wrote:

The Cosines, all told, are an even better value set than these

 

My experience with (two pairs) of Cosine wheels is quite poor, both sets needed new bearings after a few thousand miles and one pair only lasted a winter before the rims were worn well below the safe limit.  Not very impressed with Cosine at all.

Your experience is with a different set of wheels and hubs, as you don't tend to wear rims out on disc brake wheels  1

Novatec hubs tend to have a good reputation, so maybe yours weren't novatec ones?

Avatar
DaveE128 | 6 years ago
0 likes

Plain gauge or double butted spokes? IME double butted are fast less prone to breakage.

Avatar
Canyon48 | 6 years ago
0 likes

Are these the same Alexrims as used on Wiggles Cosine 23mm disc wheels (and I imagine the same spokes and nipples)?

The description of the Cosine 23mm disc wheels is almost exactly the same (and the rims have made by alexrims printed on the side).

Avatar
nick_rearden replied to Canyon48 | 6 years ago
0 likes

wellsprop wrote:

Are these the same Alexrims as used on Wiggles Cosine 23mm disc wheels (and I imagine the same spokes and nipples)?

The description of the Cosine 23mm disc wheels is almost exactly the same (and the rims have made by alexrims printed on the side).

Yes, Alexrims is know for supplying  decent rims to some of the best bike manufacturers under the host branding and wheelbuilders under its own brand name and they're as close to an industry standard as you could wish for.

 

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