New 650b Rims from Crust

[Collin A]

Heyo,

I think this has been brought up in the past, but Crust recently designed some new 650b wheels/rims that are a good alternative to the Pacenti Brevets and Velocity Quills that serve as excellent rims for lighter Rivendell builds.

Anywho, they are now available to purchase as separate rims rather than part of the wheelset...the only downside being you can get any drilling you want, as long as its 32h.

Crust Rim Brake Rims – Crust Bikes

Cheers,

Collin in "subsiding, but not from earthquakes" in Sacramento

[Slin]

Does anyone have any on-bike experience with the Crust wheelsets? I'm curious about them.

S

[Nikko in Oakland]

I have a pair of the 700c complete wheelsets and I probably put them through more rough stuff than they were intended to be on. 

I've ridden them for about 500-600 miles, about 40% gravel (nothing super rough) and 60% road in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. I ride my bikes kind of hard, with a lot of out of the saddle, high torque efforts. I'm never riding any trails that I'd be more comfortable on a front suspension bike on. The wheels were machine built, so they went out of true rather quickly which was expected. At ~200 miles, I gave them a little touch true to keep them laterally true. But shortly after (~70 miles later), they went out of true again, and I attributed this to my lack of experience truing wheels, it being machine-built wheel, how light the rim is, and/or how hard i'm pushing them. 

An acquaintance mentioned that he had to true his wheelset about 5 times before they stayed true. I'm not super well equipped to true wheels appropriately, so this would have gotten expensive for me to get a shop to do this regularly, so I just got them detensioned/retensioned by a trusted wheel builder. The wheel builder mentioned that the rear hub is a bit crunchy already and he suggested I replace the bearings and clean out the internals to get 'em smooth again. I wasn't thrilled to hear that, but it's all good. 

Anyways, the wheels are light and really responsive, I like how quickly they spin up, and they're priced really well. But since I'm not a wheelbuilder-type, I think this is the last machine-built wheelset I ever buy. The wheels were pretty, light, and cheap-ish. But as a friend says, strong, light, cheap; you can only pick two. 

[Guy LeVan]

I own a set of the Crust wheels on my Canti Lightning bolt, and they’re just fine, although the rear hub is loud.  Mine are the 650b size, 

[Drew Henson]

I have a pair on a fairly new crust romanceur, and i like them quite a bit. rear hub is no louder than a white industry hub i have on another bike. I really like the SP generator hub, i think it's a good value. 

I am curious if the spoke tensioning holds up. I probably have about 100 miles on them. 

[Guy LeVan]

You are correct, Drew.  The rh is no louder than a White rh, but much louder than a 105 or Deore rh.  It is what it is.  What I failed to mention was how nice the dynamo front hub is at this price point I like the wheelset a bunch.

[Lance Terry]

I’ve been using the 700c version of these for a few months on several different bikes. The rear did go out of true not too long after I got them. I was as kind of surprised, but trued them up and no problems since. I liked the price point too with the front hub. I was able to set them up tubeless with no problems either. 

Lance

[Slin]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. I'm still leaning towards getting a set to use tubeless, but now I'll know to expect to have to true them up early.

[Slin]

BTW, I just saw Russ from Path Less Pedaled gave the wheels a quick positive review when he tried them on the Crust Lightning Bolt.

He basically says they're affordable, light-ish, and it's nice to have another rim-brake, tubeless compatible option out there.

https://youtu.be/Q2vU_p1bNZg?t=90

[Bill Lindsay]

Buy the rims and have a good wheelbuilder build them up for you!  I've got a Crust bike, and I'm thinking I'll buy some 700c rims and rebuild my wheelset.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Erik Wright]

I'm looking at getting a set of these wheels in 700c for my Sam Hillborne, but they're 130mm spacing without the ability to add spacers and re-dish the wheel. The Hillborne's spacing is 135mm.

I've put 130mm wheels in the Hillborne before and just tightened down the QR, but only for a short period of time. Any downsides to this as a long term solution with this wheelset? I use friction shifting, so I don't have to worry much about slight derailleur alignment issues.

Erik, Philly

[Lance Terry]

I run the 130's on my Atlantis and Sam. I just tighten them down. I don't think you have to worry about it with steel, at least I don't. 

Lance