Rider Profile
Name : Craig Mathews
Origin : Northern California
Info :
130lbs, 5'5"
Local Club: Chico Velo.
I average about 6000 miles per year, about 75% of which is on the road. My specialty is climbing, and I love centuries and double centuries. My off-road riding ranges from rough-and-slow to flowy-and-fast. The past few years have included several longer gravel rides. 2022 will begin my 35th year of cycling.
Specifications
MTB 1
Frameset : Ibis HD3
Fork : RockShox Pike
Groupset : Sram X01 Eagle
Dropper Post : BikeYoke
Rims : Light Bicycle AM727 Recon Pro 32H
Hubs : American Classic
Spokes : DT Swiss Comp 14/15G
Nipples : DT Swiss Aluminum
Tires : Schwalbe Nobby Nic 2.6”
MTB 2
Frameset : Ibis Ripmo
Fork : Fox 36
Groupset : Sram X01 Eagle
Dropper Post : BikeYoke
Rims : Light Bicycle AM927 Recon Pro 28H
Hubs : Bitex Hubs
Spokes : Sapim Race 14/15G
Nipples : DT Swiss Aluminum
Tires : Specialized Butcher 2.6” (F) Eliminator 2.3” (R)
Road Bike (coming soon)
Frameset : Cruzbike V20
Rims : Light Bicycle AR465 Disc Tubeless
Hubs : Bitex Hubs
Spokes : Sapim CX Ray
Nipples : DT Swiss Aluminum
Tires : Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless 25c
Light Bicycle pulls many of us in with their prices.
I’m not one to write reviews of companies and their products, and yet, here I am, writing on behalf of Light Bicycle. They pull many of us in with their prices. “Carbon rims for how much?” When some companies charge $1000.00 just for a rim, we wonder how Light Bicycle does it. Well, they’re from China, as if that alone is a proper explanation. Or, these rims don’t cost much because they probably aren’t very good. Or, heck, at that price, even if they don’t hold up, I’m not out much money. If they last a season, that’s cool.
Of course, most of those thoughts are so 15-plus-years-ago.
My days with aluminum were over.
My first pair of carbon wheels came out of necessity in 2015 when lower back pain forced me to switch from riding a race-oriented diamond-frame road bike to a race-oriented recumbent road bike.
I had always built my own wheels because as a 130lb. climber, I put a premium on having fast, lightweight hoops. Building my own wheels meant that I could design the best wheelset for me, right down to spoke count, spoke gauge, cross pattern, and rim width and depth, typically for a fraction of what I would spend on a prebuilt set of higher-end wheels that still might not quite be what I want. Besides, building wheels is fun and oh, so satisfying.
The issue with going recumbent was that while I gained more speed over the diamond-frame bike, I lost the ability to unweight the bike to clear and hop over road debris and imperfections—rocks, potholes, uneven joints, etc. Within the first year I had trashed three aluminum front rims. Aside from the hassle of tearing down and rebuilding every few months, the cost of rims was adding up. But the thought of building up a heavy-duty Clydesdale-grade wheel didn’t sit well with me. I knew about carbon wheels, and how they could take a beating while still being lightweight, but the high prices had kept me away. Yet, after denting that third aluminum rim beyond repair, I decided to have Pro Wheel Builder build me a set of NOX carbon wheels, laced to DT Swiss 240 hubs. While it took my credit card a while to cool down after the $1800.00 charge, it ended up being worth every cent; I’m still riding these wheels six years later, and after over 16,000 miles, they are as straight and stout as the day I pulled them out of the box, without a single trip to the truing stand. My days with aluminum were over.
I found a lower-risk chance to try a pair of affordable carbon rims and to build my first carbon wheelset.
I didn’t build those wheels myself because I didn’t know enough about carbon rims to feel comfortable working with them; because the rims sold by reputable brands were priced beyond what I thought was reasonable; and because internet forums were filled with 15-year-old horror stories about “cheap Chinese rims” failing catastrophically at the worst moments. But when I bought a second recumbent for errands and commuting, I figured there was a lower-risk chance to try a pair of affordable carbon rims and to build my first carbon wheelset. I settled on Light Bicycle’s 650B Recon series CX rims.
In brief, they cost less than $200.00 per rim, built up easier than any aluminum rim I’d ever used, were lighter than most aluminum rims, and were hassle-free over the four years that I rode that bike. When I sold the bike last year, the Light Bicycle wheels were a selling point.
When I descend, the only thing holding me back is my nerves, not my wheels.
So I set my hesitations aside and built up a pair of Light Bicycle’s Recon Pro AM727 rims, laced to American Classic hubs, 32 spoke count for my Ibis Mojo HD3 mountain bike, and my local trails in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park - an angry collection of rock gardens and drops, twisting torturously across lava cap (my motto is: Bidwell Park, you learn to love it). Upper Park even has a trail called “Hacksaw” because riding it is like riding a giant hacksaw blade. The trail has earned tire companies a fair bit of coin.
Anyway, as I built these wheels, I knew they were going to take a beating. Two years of beating later, including multiple Downieville runs and a romp across Moab, these wheels remain true, sound, and reliable, despite rock scars and several square-edge hits that probably would have ended aluminum rims.
People who review bicycle equipment for a living speak of nuances that I cannot address. I have never had 10 pairs of different manufacturers’ wheels and a whole week in Winter outside of Sedona, Arizona to try them all out, back-to-back-to-back. I cannot speak to how the Recon Pro AM727 compares to, say, Enve or Roval, or wax poetic about stiffness vs. compliance, or tracking precision, or how they “spin up”. All I know is that these AM727 wheels are light, strong, reliable, and affordable. Once a rider adds 2.6-inch tires, five inches of squishy front and rear travel, and some of the gnarliest terrain around (my second Bidwell Park motto: If you can ride Bidwell, you can ride anywhere), I have a feeling that the finer nuances don’t matter that much. When me and my buddies climb, I’m usually the first to the top. When we descend, the only thing holding me back is my nerves, not my wheels.
To be continued...
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January 14th, 2022 | Light Bicycle
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