A customer brought in a Bora One 35 for service.
What's really helpful about this compared to the Bora 50 series
is that it doesn't have internal nipples.
Being able to true the wheel even with a tubular tire mounted
is actually incredibly valuable.
To be precise, having square nipple-like shapes
on the outer circumference of the wheel is aerodynamically disadvantageous. No question about it.
But it comes down to which you prioritize—aerodynamics or maintainability.
I realized I forgot to mention something from my recent ROVAL post.
That one also has external nipples, but especially with cyclocross bikes,
you often mount tubular tires using special and tedious methods to get them extremely tight,
so with internal nipple wheels,
when you consider the hassle of removing the tire (let alone remounting and retensioning it),
many riders will just skip minor truing altogether.
So if you're shopping for a carbon tubular wheel for cyclocross and maintenance is a priority,
I'd recommend checking whether the rim uses external nipples as part of your checklist.
Anyway, totally getting off track here—this Bora 35 came in
through a purchase route without shop inspection,
but the runout and centering were essentially flawless.
What's really helpful about this compared to the Bora 50 series
is that it doesn't have internal nipples.
Being able to true the wheel even with a tubular tire mounted
is actually incredibly valuable.
To be precise, having square nipple-like shapes
on the outer circumference of the wheel is aerodynamically disadvantageous. No question about it.
But it comes down to which you prioritize—aerodynamics or maintainability.
I realized I forgot to mention something from my recent ROVAL post.
That one also has external nipples, but especially with cyclocross bikes,
you often mount tubular tires using special and tedious methods to get them extremely tight,
so with internal nipple wheels,
when you consider the hassle of removing the tire (let alone remounting and retensioning it),
many riders will just skip minor truing altogether.
So if you're shopping for a carbon tubular wheel for cyclocross and maintenance is a priority,
I'd recommend checking whether the rim uses external nipples as part of your checklist.
Anyway, totally getting off track here—this Bora 35 came in
through a purchase route without shop inspection,
but the runout and centering were essentially flawless.