Jose came to us with a pair of wheels he’d bought via a popular auction site. He asked us to help glue some new tubular tyres on for him. Unfortunately we had to advise him of the bad news, the rear rim nipples were pulling through the carbon rim, and the wheel had to be completely rebuilt. But every cloud has a silver lining! Our new XLR8 Mistral T series of carbon tubulars has arrived. We quickly identified that the Mistral T55 would be a sensible replacement for the old rim, for a number of reasons.
The Reynolds Stratus DV UL wheelset was (and still is) an extremely lightweight, aero wheelset. To this day, these rims are amongst the lightest available. However, with light weight comes compromise. Ideally a few extra spokes will do the trick, but not in the case of these wheels. The original rear wheel build was a beautiful White Industries LTA hub, with 20 Sapim Laser spokes, laced to the ultralight rim. For all but the lightest of riders, this spec is a recipe for disaster – too light, and it had been. The few spokes had resulted in highly concentrated loads onto the lightweight rim, and the failure at the nipple hole.
We decided that the XLR8 Mistral T55 would be a great replacement due to it’s added strength, meaning that the original low spoke count hub could be reused, but reliability maintained. They also have a beautiful matte finish, that complemented the front Reynolds, and are made in Taiwan by one of the worlds largest manufacturers. Laced with Sapim Lasers on the offside, and Sapim Race on the driveside, lateral stiffness is further increased (and equalised somewhat left to right). The deeper rim (55mm vs the original 46mm) increases strength and stiffness, whilst further increasing aero benefits.
DT Prolock alloy internal nipples mean that a super high spoke tensions are not required to stop nipples from unwinding and the wheel coming out of true. More moderate tension also ensures that impact related tension spikes will not pull a nipple again. In total, the wheelset comes in at a scant 1250g!
Get in contact if you’ve got a problem with your carbon wheels. We make a habit of rebuilding better than original spec.