Lew Racing 2008

Vendredi 21 septembre 2007

Lew racing makes the most advanced rims available. It's obvious. When they update them, you always wonder how they can possibly improve on them... Here's the good news for next year.
	First, stiffness and strength of the PRO VT-1 rims is up 85% for 2008. This new product launch will be announced officially at Interbike. The rims, handmade in the USA, are able to withstand up to 65 pounds of lateral deflection against 30 pounds for the first version. According to Paul Lew, this improvement is thanks to advancements in their DEX-LCM technology. It allows them to achieve material properties that exceed typical laminate performance. Secondly, rims are now available in 16, 20, 24, 28, 32 hole versions for full custom handmade wheels. Thus, the stiffness and durability of the wheel can match riders requirements exactly. Thirdly, the rims now have a 2 year warranty against manufacturer's defects or a 4 year 'no question asked' warranty for an additionnal $100USD. Fourth, the rim drillings holes are now smaller for better resistance Last but not least, the rims are now guaranteed sub 280g!
Now we've been through the headlines, let's see if the finish of the rims - a weak point for previous versions - is better. We can confirm a marked aesthetic improvement : the rim and its large logos are darker and glossier, discreet and very classy. This will please those who favour wheels with the stealth look! The wall flanges and the tubular bed are far nicer, it seems like the fibres are better placed and the imperfections of the first versions have almost all gone.
Depending on lighting and viewing angle, the material texture logo is clearly visible or stealth. The new version is on the left below with the bigger logo.


Unexpectedly, the camera flash shows a few interesting things: it revealed the carbon/boron fibre. The visible fibre is very special. It doesn't look like the normal unidirectional fibre. It seems like the 2008 rims have some folds on the walls while the 2007 rims have homogeneous walls and folded tubular bed. Actually, according to Paul Lew: "The skin appearance is unrelated to folded reinforcement. Increased modulus induced through iontophoresis (a component of the DEX-LCM Process) creates a high-density high, high-strentgh multi-dimensional geometic region in indentified regions of the rim requiring improved performance. This is a proprietary Lew Racing process which produces laminate performace similar to MWCNTs (multiwall carbon nanotube) technology." Obviously.
Click to enlarge (741kb)
The weight of the rim is definitely amazing. 268g for a 46mm deep rim in 24 holes mean the best weight/height ratio on the market! Normally such light rims are fragile... this one resists up to 200kg of spoke tension and the resistance is certainly the highest according to the tests performed. We will present a couple of hand built wheels using these rims in a few days to show you what these rims look like as complete wheels.

Two rims comes with a double wheelbag to hold the complete wheelset. It is very high quality, actually just like the rims. The center part has a high density foam to protect the hub axles and there are pockets for tools on each side.

In conclusion, it seems like Lew Racing have pushed the limits even further. Now, we are able to build custom aero wheels for less than 880g... could we imagine this some years ago...? Stay tuned, we have some 900/1000g handbuilt wheelsets to present soon. Oh, did I forget something? The Lew Racing custom rim buildup program price has come down: $2495 USD against $2995USD. For those who are not aware of it, these are built with Tune Mig70/Mag190 and Sapim Cx-ray, weighing around 980g a set..