Rim Wars

Image courtesy of Hates Bicycle

So for my Chris King hub set I still have not decided upon rims to build up wheels from them. I was considering carbon, but the prices for those are a bit intimidating from the standpoint of my use case scenario. I mean, this is a bike that is almost twenty years old now! (Fargo Gen I) So, putting on bling-wheels seems a bit too much for me when I think about this bicycle. Making wheels which would be worth more than the rest of the bike seems....not wise. 

So, I have resigned myself to doing a wheel set in aluminum, just to use these Chris King hubs. Earlier in the week I was referred by a commenter to look at Sun/Ringle' Durocd rims. I also am a big fan of Velocity USA's Blunt SS rims. So, I did a compare and contrast with these two choices. They are remarkably similar in some significant ways. 

The Blunt SS

Image courtesy of Velocity USA

I have experience with this rim and it all has been positive. It's a fairly light rim for the inner width at a claimed 425 grams each. These build up nicely and look really good. 

For my uses it would be absolutely fine doing what I'd ask of it. Now, if I were actually mountain biking I would have some reservations. 

The Blunt SS isn't what I would call a rim for really fast, rough riding styles on tough trails. It can be flexy, easily dented, and some say it is problematic doing tubeless tires. (I have never had any issues running Blunt SS's tubeless, so....)

The price for a single Blunt SS 700c rim is $152.00 and these are made in the USA. 

The Sun Duroc 30:

As you can see from the cutaway diagram here, the Sun Duroc 30 is very close in specifications to a Blunt SS. The inner rim width is nearly identical, and in just about every way, the Duroc 30 seems to be analogous to a Blunt SS in the important areas. 

There are two things about the Duroc 30 which distinguish it from the Blunt SS and they are related to each other. 

Firstly, the Duroc 30 is a welded seam rim while the Blunt SS is not. This is a tiny thing in and of itself, but the nod goes to the Duroc here because welded seams can be more durable. Welding can also distort the rim walls, if done poorly, so having not seen any examples of this rim, I cannot say if Sun's production quality is good or no. Based upon other Sun rims I have seen I would guess this is a non-issue. 

The other related thing is weight. A welded seam weighs more than a pin and sleeve one does. So, this bears out as the Duroc 30 is a claimed 465 grams versus the Blunt SS at a claimed 425 grams each. Of course, the Duroc can be heavier just because of its extrusion design also, so we have to account somewhat for this possibility as well. 

The Duroc 30 costs about a hundred bucks each, so a savings of over $100.00 for a pair versus the Velocity product. I do not know where the Duroc is made, but I would hazard a guess that it is not made in the USA. 

Decisions:

I haven't done anything yet, but the Duroc gets some cred from a local rider here I respect, so I would not be afraid to use those rims. The made in USA thing is nice, but at this point spending around $200.00 versus $300.00 or more is a significant difference. One I cannot ignore. 

Soon I will make a decision. What would you do?