2018 Venn Wheels Review
Posted by Trevor Barrett on
We're pleased to announced we're now stocking Venn Wheels and they're pretty special. Check out the review by www.bikerumor.com
Velocite’s new Venn Composite rims break the mold w/ filament wound, single strand carbon construction
Velocite has launched a new brand called Venn Composites to produce rims unlike anything we’ve seen before. There are two models, one using a filament wound construction and one using a continuous fiber construction to eliminate seams and misaligned patterns. We’ll start with the filament wound version:
The traditional method of making carbon fiber rims involves cutting pieces from a sheet of woven or unidirectional carbon, laying them into or over a mold, and layering those pieces in precise positions and directions to create a rim. It’s then pressed inside an outer mold, heated and cured, and then out comes a mostly finished rim.
Filament wound rims, however, pull carbon tow straight off the spool, run it through the resin and wrap it tightly around a mandrel in one continuous fiber. The strand is under constant tension, and it’s always wrapping itself in the exact spot it needs to be.
The benefits of this design are numerous. For starters, it’s mostly automated, so it’s consistent and perfect from rim to rim. Second, there’s no adverse angles to the carbon strands. Anytime a fiber is bent too severely, it creates a weak spot, and since nothing is woven on the body of the rim, there are no fibers being crimped around one another. Then there’s the efficiency. Not only are labor costs lower, material costs are, too, since there’s no scrap being cut away from carbon sheets.
From a rider’s perspective, it creates a stiffer rim that might just end up being less expensive, too…
The graphic shown here is a generic example of the filament winding process, but it’s not representative of how they’re doing it exactly. The actual process is something Velocite CEO and R&D director Victor Major isn’t willing to divulge, but it’s similar…for the body of the rim. The rim bed and brake walls are constructed in a separate mold, and then the bead hook is machined out in a process similar to current production methods used by Reynolds and others. But, the way the rim bed is made is mostly automated and uses another process they’re not quite ready to make public.
The body of the rim is filament wound and then co-cured to form a permanent, molecular bond with the rim bed piece to create a single piece. Major pointed out that it’s not just two pieces glued together, that the process actually creates a single piece.
The filament wound rims are called REV 35, and they’ll offer three versions: Disc brake-only clincher, rim brake clincher and rim brake compatible tubular. Basic specs are:
The measurements are depth x external width, so yes, they’re wide, measuring in at a massive 28mm outside width. Major says that’s the widest they could possibly go and fit into a standard road rim brake. He says they went so wide because it needed that girth to make for proper aerodynamics on such a shallow rim.
Read full review @www.bikerumor.com