We have carbon shafts, but where are the carbon wheels?

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#1

Granted I’ve not travelled outside of Australia yet for Polo (hello Perpignan 2023 :wave:) so my scope of understanding on the matter is a little limited.

I’m looking at building a new wheelset soon for a bike that I am seriously enjoying the already minimal weight of; experimenting with a light build.

I’ve ridden a heavier (than mine) polo bike with carbon rims and believed as though I could feel the difference in hard acceleration and hopping.

Curious of the collective experience here on any success or horror stories to aide in my decision making in putting my good hubs at the centre some risky hoops.

Cheers folks.

#2

first , you def on the right path by thinking that the wheel weight makes a huge difference with the acceleration, especially the rim, but also the tyre ! which leads me to ask you which tyres do you use ?

only a few players have recently experienced
carbon free wheels,for me its a costly investment and i usually go through a regular wheel in about 3-5 years so i cant imagine carbon ( think people constantly T boning you / falling on your wheel, possibly stepping on it)
so i personally never went for it.

have you looked at the instagram "bikes of polo ? "

dany majard has a full carbon prototype polo bike but it has already been in reparation so much. ive seen it once. @SeveM

#3

I use carbon rims and I know someone else who has the same. My excuse to get them was that I couldnt find anything decent in 27.5/ 36 holes…shitty excuse but oh well.

As they come straight from the factory theyll drill you whatever you want. The Company is called nextie. Ive used them for around one year now and have had them on my old bike that got stolen. No complaints so far :slight_smile:
Can you feel the weight difference? Compared to a rim that weighs 600g probably yes, to a light aluminium one idk…
Ah yes if they are not on sale they are around 160$/ pp

#4

Hey Benji, thanks for replying. I’m using the 26″ x 1.8″ Naches Pass TC Tire (Extralight) which come in at around 300g each. My current rims and tyres are pretty wide because I’d been curious to experiment with a wider tyre to see how hard I could push accelerating under heavy cornering, so despite their width, they have been VERY fun. They are big tyres though - I’m almost practically on a 27.5 diameter with these :sweat_smile: I’d spoken with a mate today about weight to wheel-ground contact and as far as his explanation goes, a wider tyre might not equal more overall grip.

I do agree with you though, I can barely trust myself with them let alone the other 5 people on the court. Would be a serious investment and risk. @Damon from our club has had a set of carbon 26s on his old pro bike for a long long time - it boggles me how they’ve lasted so many games.

I love that page, good reminder though I’ll take a look on there, cheers.

I’ve heard rumors of Dany Majard’s bike recently. Would love to see it in the flesh some day. Sounds wild.

#5

Thanks Remy,

That build looks sick! We have very similar tastes :wink: Love what you’re doing there. Enjoyed reading that post too. Any ideas how much you weight you cut going with the SRAM carbon cranks?

I’ll take a look at Nextie for the hoops - cheers mate!

#6

How much swag i gained you mean?
Idk i just like them and around my ends you can find them for like 120€ compared to maybe 70 for an xt…so its hard to resist.
In france where people take that sport seriously (a lot more than you should) you see more carbon cranks than not these days

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#7

Ha, yeah that’s what I meant, sure :wink:

Appreciate the insight.

#8

I was a little worried about shots fucking up the rims and wanted to put some protective stuff on at first but they are sturdy af. I mean they are only like 25% lighter than light aluminium as well.
And when you think that carbon is used on downhill bikes…that shit is strong :slight_smile:
I have tried some compass tire shananigans in the past, tl;dr only ok-ish if you have a very smooth court surface. On our cheesegrater court they lasted like 4 sessions which brought tears to my eyes

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#9

Bike Polo: fun to try, expensive to improve!

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#10

anyone is free to borrow my bike at pick up tho :grimacing:

@flat_humour i was looking for 27,5 rims in 36 holes and had about halo vapour in mind ? did they not met your requirements ?

i currently have dt swiss ex 471 28 spokes on the front , which is a bit of a stretch but the whole wheel was up for sale for 60£.