Carbon Or Alloy Bike Wheels - What's Better?

What are the best wheels for me ? And should I choose a carbon or an alloy rim?

There are many excellent and inexpensive alloy wheelsets on the market that can be ridden reliably day in day out for thousands of miles in all weathers. The name Shimano springs instantly to my mind when I think of wheels in this category - brilliantly engineered, rugged, virtually bomb-proof, and cheap as chips. Perhaps not delivering the thrills and performance of a true high end race wheelset - but that's not the purpose of wheels like these.

But we're not Shimano, and we're never going to try to be. The only wheels we make are entirely all about delivering the very top end in performance and fun out on the roads, boards and trails. But like Shimano, we also demand a very high level of rugged reliability. And our final goal - possible to achieve only through our strictly no middlemen Rider To Maker Direct business model - is for our wheels to be available at prices that are accessible to the widest range of real world riders, not just those fortunate enough to have bulge bracket bank balances.

In all our videos about what's better? what's best for me? which should I choose? I try to speak only for the wheels that we actually make ourselves. But as well as developing and making our own wheels we've also got a long history and plenty of experience making, servicing and repairing wheels using other brands of rim, hub and spoke.

In today's video I explain why, a few years back, I decided to stop developing - and stop selling - a high performance Spin On These wheel set based on alloy rims. This was not really a good decision from a business perspective, as at that time, our best selling Koppenberg wheels were built on a ground braking ultra wide profile alloy rim. The Koppenbergs during their lifespan had garnered plenty of rave reviews from customers and bike press alike, as they performed superbly against famous alloy wheels at much bigger prices, thanks in large part to their super wide profile, and came in at around 1500g a pair in the lightest builds.

In the process of making the Koppenbergs and seeing them used by riders worldwide over the following years, we realised that trying to take alloy rims up through the next levels of performance to come even close to our carbon rimmed wheels, whilst keeping their weight and costs down, and trying to ensure rugged long term durability was simply no easy task.

Fact is, for wheels to perform at the top most level, their rims need to do three things at once:
1. be at least as wide as the tyre to be used in order to generate good roll dynamics and grip by optimising the tread profile with very high levels of sidewall support
2. be at least as deep as the tyre again and shaped as an airfoil in order to generate good aerodynamic performance
3. be strong and rigid to cope with both structural stresses and the varying dynamic loads under use to deliver precise handling and long term durability - lower spoke counts additionally also require an increase in rim stiffness and strength over higher spoke counts.

So when you add that lot up, you find that you need a lot of material in the rim construction: wider means using more material than narrower. Deeper means more material than shallower. Stronger and stiffer means more material (eg wall thickness) than weaker and less stiff.

With carbon fibre, we're able to produce aero and roll efficient bicycle rims with super wide airfoil profiles at weights comparable with narrow & shallow alloy rims that are less stiff and have a much shorter fatigue life.

In short, we realised that alloy rims no longer justified a place in our range of wheels. That's not to say that other brands are wrong in selling alloy wheels, or that the alloy wheels you might have spent a lot of money on are rubbish.

We're simply saying that the best wheels we know how to make all start with a Fat Boy Rim made of carbon fibre.

For everything you want to know about the wheels we make head over to our web store right here:

To take a look at what riders from around the world are saying about our wheels, click here:

Thanks for watching - and thanks for riding!

[robertpreato]

Had 3 sets of Zipp 303s and they all developed cracks in the carbon, usually right at a spoke hole. All less than 5k miles on them. I weigh 62kg and ride fairly smooth roads. I have a pair of DT Swiss RR411 rims that I build up myself and they have almost 12k miles on them and not one issue. They are more compliant than carbon wheels and I don't even find them to be noticeably slower. The only advantage to carbon wheels in my experience is they make the bike "look faster".

[lyanbv]

Do you make 650b wheels, perhaps for road+ use? And what do you think of BERD spokes? Thanks!

[BorgyManotoyOnline]

I weigh around 105kg and currently I am using my stock 700c rim (4cm), will I be safe with carbon 700c 4cm rims? I mostly ride in flats but sometimes I climb. Our roads here are not that perfect so there are time I got unexpected bumps while riding. I am worried that the carbon will not last on me and afraid that it might break while riding causing an accident.

[pope]

Actually my Fulcrum Racin Zero are nearly the same weight or are little bit lighter (1500grams) as your carbon wheels and have plenty of stiffness. And they did cost me half the price of carbon wheels.

[yendoradon]

Carbon wheels absorb road vibrations making carbon more comfortable.

[nkelsall]

No brainer ... #fatboys every day of the week 🤘🤘