A customer brought in HongFu (Hong Kong carbon rim manufacturer) carbon rims for me to work with.
It was a while back, but when I built a wheel with this rim before,
I got a comment asking "How does it compare to ENVE rims?"
In my opinion, under the same conditions, HongFu
can handle higher spoke tension than ENVE.
Also, in terms of buckling resistance, HongFu is superior to ENVE.
However, HongFu rims aren't on the lighter end when it comes to height-to-weight ratio.
If you lined up ten rims of similar height from different manufacturers,
ENVE would probably be number one or two in terms of weight,
but HongFu would be around eighth, I'd say.
This rim is 56mm tall, but just by handling it and building the wheel,
you get a real sense of confidence in how sturdy it is.
Regardless of price, the HongFu rim is the one that feels like it won't break even with constant, hard use.
Not that you should be careless with it, of course.
The owner of this rim specifically chose it for durability, so
they're not expecting ultimate lightness in the outer diameter (with this rim).
The spoke count reflects that thinking too—24 holes front, 28 holes rear.
With this rim, the holes on the inner side are quite deep.
This allows you to tighten the nipples easily and confidently.
↑ENVE has thin material here, but that's actually incredible.
Despite the wall thickness, it can handle 120–130 kgf of tension.
HongFu rims use external nipples, so you need to drill "nipple holes" in the rim,
while ENVE rims use internal nipples, so you only need to drill "spoke holes."
If the conditions were identical, even accounting for differences in carbon quality, HongFu would likely handle higher spoke tension.
ENVE rims aren't drilled after molding—the mold itself is designed from the start with the appropriate hole count,
so in terms of spoke tension strength relative to the wall thickness around the spoke holes, it's probably unbeatable.
The hubs were also brought in—
Novatec 291 and 482 with nearly the same specs as Tni Evo hubs... wait, no,
291SL and 482SL with nearly the same specs as Evo Lite hubs.
The changes from Evo hubs to Evo Lite hubs include
the shaft and end pieces going from threaded to press-fit,
but actually the bearing outer diameter also got smaller, and the hub body dimensions changed too.
Novatec was the same way.
Wait, that doesn't make sense. Novatec came first.
The front hub got significantly lighter with the Evo Lite redesign,
but the difference was more than just the flange lightening could explain.
Ignoring minor differences in aluminum alloy composition,
removing one yen coin's worth of volume from an aluminum part saves about 1 gram.
↑All the lightening from both left and right flanges combined
probably doesn't add up to even one yen coin's worth of volume.
By the way, I thought Evo Lite hubs ditched the aero slots because of all the lightening,
but the official version has aero slot versions as shown in the image above,
so it seems they just didn't order it with slots.
Enough talk—let's just build the wheel already.
Built it.
The front wheel is built radial lacing with black CX-RAY spokes,
and the rear wheel is half-competition, 28-hole laced.
Both wheels have black nipples.
This time I went with Sapim black aluminum nipples.
Most manufacturers include 12mm-length nipples with their spokes.
These are considered short nipples, while long nipples are 16mm.
Sapim offers 12, 14, and 16mm-length nipples in their catalog,
but the spokes come with 14mm-length nipples as standard.
Since the rim holes are deep as mentioned before, I used the middle-length nipples for easier assembly.
It was a while back, but when I built a wheel with this rim before,
I got a comment asking "How does it compare to ENVE rims?"
In my opinion, under the same conditions, HongFu
can handle higher spoke tension than ENVE.
Also, in terms of buckling resistance, HongFu is superior to ENVE.
However, HongFu rims aren't on the lighter end when it comes to height-to-weight ratio.
If you lined up ten rims of similar height from different manufacturers,
ENVE would probably be number one or two in terms of weight,
but HongFu would be around eighth, I'd say.
This rim is 56mm tall, but just by handling it and building the wheel,
you get a real sense of confidence in how sturdy it is.
Regardless of price, the HongFu rim is the one that feels like it won't break even with constant, hard use.
Not that you should be careless with it, of course.
The owner of this rim specifically chose it for durability, so
they're not expecting ultimate lightness in the outer diameter (with this rim).
The spoke count reflects that thinking too—24 holes front, 28 holes rear.
With this rim, the holes on the inner side are quite deep.
This allows you to tighten the nipples easily and confidently.
↑ENVE has thin material here, but that's actually incredible.
Despite the wall thickness, it can handle 120–130 kgf of tension.
HongFu rims use external nipples, so you need to drill "nipple holes" in the rim,
while ENVE rims use internal nipples, so you only need to drill "spoke holes."
If the conditions were identical, even accounting for differences in carbon quality, HongFu would likely handle higher spoke tension.
ENVE rims aren't drilled after molding—the mold itself is designed from the start with the appropriate hole count,
so in terms of spoke tension strength relative to the wall thickness around the spoke holes, it's probably unbeatable.
The hubs were also brought in—
Novatec 291 and 482 with nearly the same specs as Tni Evo hubs... wait, no,
291SL and 482SL with nearly the same specs as Evo Lite hubs.
The changes from Evo hubs to Evo Lite hubs include
the shaft and end pieces going from threaded to press-fit,
but actually the bearing outer diameter also got smaller, and the hub body dimensions changed too.
Novatec was the same way.
Wait, that doesn't make sense. Novatec came first.
The front hub got significantly lighter with the Evo Lite redesign,
but the difference was more than just the flange lightening could explain.
Ignoring minor differences in aluminum alloy composition,
removing one yen coin's worth of volume from an aluminum part saves about 1 gram.
↑All the lightening from both left and right flanges combined
probably doesn't add up to even one yen coin's worth of volume.
By the way, I thought Evo Lite hubs ditched the aero slots because of all the lightening,
but the official version has aero slot versions as shown in the image above,
so it seems they just didn't order it with slots.
Enough talk—let's just build the wheel already.
Built it.
The front wheel is built radial lacing with black CX-RAY spokes,
and the rear wheel is half-competition, 28-hole laced.
Both wheels have black nipples.
This time I went with Sapim black aluminum nipples.
Most manufacturers include 12mm-length nipples with their spokes.
These are considered short nipples, while long nipples are 16mm.
Sapim offers 12, 14, and 16mm-length nipples in their catalog,
but the spokes come with 14mm-length nipples as standard.
Since the rim holes are deep as mentioned before, I used the middle-length nipples for easier assembly.