Back in March we took a First Ride on the Attack clincher wheelset from Reynolds and concluded that the deep-section all-carbon rims offer something impossible to achieve with aluminium extruded to the same shape – low weight.
Since then these beauties have seen a fair bit of action including road bike 10-mile time trialling where they carried the writer to a 24′ 21″ third-place finish and an LVRC road race, which resulted in a slightly less glorious thought still satisfactory outcome.
The deep rims’ combination of low weight and good air penetration (compared to a box-section rim) make them a fine choice for both disciplines, with impressive ride comfort an additional attraction for road racing.
The front wheel did receive a bit of a knock from a pedal that dented one of the spokes and resulted in a slight wobble. One of the interesting properties of carbon-fibre is that it has no yield point; where a ductile metal such as aluminium, stressed beyond its yield point, yields and assumes a new shape, carbon does not. An impact that puts an aluminium rim out of true might crack carbon, but if there is no actual damage as in this case, the carbon rim is simply waiting and wanting to spring back into its true shape.
A few minutes with a hammer and light drift used to straighten the spoke and then the spoke key supplied to retension it produced a front wheel as true as when it was delivered. The nipple has a Nyloc-style insert to keep it from loosening on the spoke. It turns easily in the rim, meaning that the insert is the only thing maintaining spoke tension and that the tendency of the rim to run and stay true is important in maintaining a true running wheel.
Seems to work.
More soon on RCUK.
Reynolds Attack wheelset £899.99 including rim tapes, skewers, two valve extenders, two pairs of carbon-specific brake blocks, spoke key, tyre levers
