A customer brought in front and rear wheels with carbon spokes from a brand called
PARTICLE, model RCX Ultralight 33.
They wanted the lightest wheels possible within this brand's lineup,
but didn't want to make the mistake of buying wheels that feel light in hand
but don't actually perform well.
So we didn't choose parts based purely on weight.
The numbers in the model name represent rim depth.
RCX is for road use, GCX is for gravel wheels.
RCX comes in 33, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60,
and the lineup includes matched sets with the same rim depth front and rear,
combinations where the front is lower with the next depth over,
ranging from 33/40 through 55/60,
and combinations with depths two sizes apart like 40/50 and 50/60.
Looking at pure claimed weight specs,
the GCX Ultralight 30 model is the lightest at 975g for both wheels,
but GCX has an internal rim width of 25mm, which is quite wide,
so we chose the RCX 33
with an internal rim width of 21mm
(claimed weight 985g).
Also, regarding these wheels—
while not explicitly stated,
the weight specs are for when the fourth generation spokes are selected.
The third generation carbon spokes are also an option,
though they add 55g to the weight.
Carbon spokes like 3rd Gen and 4th Gen
don't exist from anyone but VONOA.
I've previously inspected
wheels from a brand called Nepeste
that were built with VONOA fourth generation
carbon spokes (→here),
and those wheels were only praised by
shady influencers who either borrowed or received them for free,
and shop staff who had to sell them since they'd already stocked them
(and who clearly had never actually built wheels properly)
—the actual evaluations from people who paid their own money
were consistently low, with many having already sold them off.
It was a strange wheel indeed.
Learning from the mistakes of those before,
this customer specifically chose the third generation spokes.
Now let me inspect them. Starting with the rear wheel.
Despite the wheel center being off,
they stuck the rim tape on all confident-like! What a mess!
The lateral runout was almost nonexistent,
but there was radial runout spanning about 10 holes consecutively.
Both wheels are 20H, so
that's radial runout across a full half-revolution.
The spoke tension wasn't loose,
so I made minor tension adjustments
and trued the radial runout and centered the wheel.
The work took just over 10 minutes,
which is the time it took to go from the condition when I received it
to my standard of 100% acceptable quality
(work I wouldn't be embarrassed to charge for).
The person who built this wheel wasn't deliberately cutting corners—
the condition when I received it was probably already their best effort.
Next, the front wheel.
Thankfully, there was room for tension adjustment
(a polite way of saying the center was off).
Sometimes a wheel is actually harder to true if one position shows perfect centering
but there's still lateral runout in that phase—
so it's actually fortunate
that this wheel's center was off clearly enough that
the decentering tendency didn't change regardless of which position you looked at.
I trued the runout and centered the wheel.
The tension was fine here too,
so I didn't tighten for the sake of tension.
With these carbon spokes,
to do trueing and centering work you need to turn the internal nipples from the rim side,
which means I had to peel off the rim tape
on both wheels.
So I weighed the wheels with my scale.
I forgot to mention earlier—
there's actually a model lighter than Ultralight called Hyperlight,
but it's only available in the 27mm depth,
so it's called RCX Hyperlight 27,
and it has a claimed weight of just 835g.
However, the spokes are limited to fourth generation, so never mind all that.
The RCX Ultralight 33
not only has a claimed weight of 985g
but also has a tolerance of ±30g.
Adding the 55g spoke difference to the upper limit
gives a maximum of 1070g,
but as for the actual weight—
I'm not telling you that here.
↑wow this guy has an attitude problem
Sorry for the wait! Please take a look at this image!
I'm leaving the addition to you!
↑Stop it already!
PARTICLE, model RCX Ultralight 33.
They wanted the lightest wheels possible within this brand's lineup,
but didn't want to make the mistake of buying wheels that feel light in hand
but don't actually perform well.
So we didn't choose parts based purely on weight.
The numbers in the model name represent rim depth.
RCX is for road use, GCX is for gravel wheels.
RCX comes in 33, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60,
and the lineup includes matched sets with the same rim depth front and rear,
combinations where the front is lower with the next depth over,
ranging from 33/40 through 55/60,
and combinations with depths two sizes apart like 40/50 and 50/60.
Looking at pure claimed weight specs,
the GCX Ultralight 30 model is the lightest at 975g for both wheels,
but GCX has an internal rim width of 25mm, which is quite wide,
so we chose the RCX 33
with an internal rim width of 21mm
(claimed weight 985g).
Also, regarding these wheels—
while not explicitly stated,
the weight specs are for when the fourth generation spokes are selected.
The third generation carbon spokes are also an option,
though they add 55g to the weight.
Carbon spokes like 3rd Gen and 4th Gen
don't exist from anyone but VONOA.
I've previously inspected
wheels from a brand called Nepeste
that were built with VONOA fourth generation
carbon spokes (→here),
and those wheels were only praised by
shady influencers who either borrowed or received them for free,
and shop staff who had to sell them since they'd already stocked them
(and who clearly had never actually built wheels properly)
—the actual evaluations from people who paid their own money
were consistently low, with many having already sold them off.
It was a strange wheel indeed.
Learning from the mistakes of those before,
this customer specifically chose the third generation spokes.
Now let me inspect them. Starting with the rear wheel.
Despite the wheel center being off,
they stuck the rim tape on all confident-like! What a mess!
The lateral runout was almost nonexistent,
but there was radial runout spanning about 10 holes consecutively.
Both wheels are 20H, so
that's radial runout across a full half-revolution.
The spoke tension wasn't loose,
so I made minor tension adjustments
and trued the radial runout and centered the wheel.
The work took just over 10 minutes,
which is the time it took to go from the condition when I received it
to my standard of 100% acceptable quality
(work I wouldn't be embarrassed to charge for).
The person who built this wheel wasn't deliberately cutting corners—
the condition when I received it was probably already their best effort.
Next, the front wheel.
Thankfully, there was room for tension adjustment
(a polite way of saying the center was off).
Sometimes a wheel is actually harder to true if one position shows perfect centering
but there's still lateral runout in that phase—
so it's actually fortunate
that this wheel's center was off clearly enough that
the decentering tendency didn't change regardless of which position you looked at.
I trued the runout and centered the wheel.
The tension was fine here too,
so I didn't tighten for the sake of tension.
With these carbon spokes,
to do trueing and centering work you need to turn the internal nipples from the rim side,
which means I had to peel off the rim tape
on both wheels.
So I weighed the wheels with my scale.
I forgot to mention earlier—
there's actually a model lighter than Ultralight called Hyperlight,
but it's only available in the 27mm depth,
so it's called RCX Hyperlight 27,
and it has a claimed weight of just 835g.
However, the spokes are limited to fourth generation, so never mind all that.
The RCX Ultralight 33
not only has a claimed weight of 985g
but also has a tolerance of ±30g.
Adding the 55g spoke difference to the upper limit
gives a maximum of 1070g,
but as for the actual weight—
I'm not telling you that here.
↑wow this guy has an attitude problem
Sorry for the wait! Please take a look at this image!
I'm leaving the addition to you!
↑Stop it already!