Alesa Rims, any good? comparable to?

[reanimation]

Hiya

I got these on my raleigh

Alesa 6021
I weighed them up against my new mavic wheels (317?) and a clear 150g heavier! :shock: Well they are wide and look sturdy.

My Apex will fly with Mavics, 300g lost off the wheels, but these must be good wheels, the Apex was specced quite well, at least benchmark quality spec, whats really interesting is that these wheels are still round, dinged sure, but my mate hit a few curbs with em on his urban travels! :? and spokes are not so tight.

so question is, in a sea of Mavics and other top obvious brands and choices, are these any good? and am I likely to fold the feather weight Mavics!

 

[hamster]

Tourers generally love them...here are the generally held beliefs:
1 Thicker braking surfaces - so they last longer
2 Stronger areas around the spokes - Mavics had a reputation for cracking around spoke holes (probably because they were too thin).

So they are sturdy, durable kit. Clearly if you fold rims up regularly from jumping there is probably no added value. If you are looking for a solid workhorse kind of rim for big miles then they are worth a look.

As you cannot make Alu itself lighter, a lighter rim has less metal..so generally will be weaker and wear out earlier.

 

[Pickle]

Not brilliant, not the worst.

On a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being worst 10 being best, I'd rate these as a 2 poss 3.

 

[reanimation]

Oh Interesting, thanks hamster, thanks Pickle.

The Mavics are good ones though, from Sinnett so obv quality, and he got them built at Merlin so they should be great, i don't make a habit of breaking wheels at all, but all my recent stuff has been heavy duty (prob overkill), in short will be fine this is my XC all season whippet I'm building. Excited about having a light bike again.

Did make me worried about the bronze non eyeletted early Mavics I got recently, Will be taking those to teh Bicycle Doctor shop to get trued up, will see how they work out on the retro showboat celebration bike.

The Alesa's will live on on my new No3 retro project, I'll be building up my 80's Saracen frame up single speed.

 

[Konaglider]

I had a set of those very same rims that lasted for ages with the odd 'true-up' now and again.

 

[retrojon]

Good rims those. Obviously not light weight, but they were not designed to be.

Look like 36 hole. You tend to get them on early '90s mid to high end British stuff, along with the eyeletted black Rigidas.

 

[reanimation]

Thanks again for the input, I think they will be right at home with some fat slicks on on the 80's Saracen and one gear replacement might have to happen when i try Fixie-ing it though

 

[barry2017]

If memory serves, they're from 1990ish. Underrated.

 

[hamster]

Yes, they are re-named as ALEX these days.

 

[reanimation]

Yes, they are re-named as ALEX these days.

Ahhh that explains it. :idea: heavy sturdy and not as posh as Mavic etc

Got some on me BMX, with smooth as butter SALT hubs. do the job