Mad Fiber carbon road wheels – First look

16 comments
By BikeRadar | Wednesday, May 19, 2010 11.00am

These stunning-looking carbon fibre road wheels are the progeny of a collaboration between bike industry veteran Ric Hjertberg and aerospace engineer Max Kismarton.

Weighing in at a claimed 1,085g a pair, and costing a whopping US$2,599, they're the first product from new company Mad Fiber.

This Seattle-based business was set up with the aim of combining aerospace technology and production practices with Hjertberg's decades of bicycle wheel building and design experience – he founded Wheelsmith and Wheel Fanatyk, and was previously new technology manager for FSA – to create the ultimate carbon bike wheel.

Joining him in the new business is chief technologist Kismarton, an instructor in aerospace engineering with Kansas University and engineer for one of the world’s largest aerospace firms, and chief operating and financial officer (and cycling enthusiast and coach) Russ Riggins.

Flange and spokes: flange and spokes

Mad Fiber were clear from the start that they didn't want to simply try to replicate a metal wheel in carbon fibre. As a result, their wheels differ from other carbon hoops in two main ways. Firstly, instead of using the usual bladders and moulds, the rim is built in three separate pieces – two sidewalls and the tyre seat. The idea is that this minimises voids and eliminates the use of excess resin, thus increasing strength and reducing weight.

Secondly, rather than drilling or moulding spoke holes into the rim, wide carbon spokes are bonded to both the rim walls and the flanges. This spreads wheel loads over a broad area, but raises the question of how the wheel is going to be tensioned. In this case, precise calculations are made as to where the flanges should be bonded to the hub body in order to achieve the correct tension.

Rear flange spoke and freehub: rear flange spoke and freehub

The tubular wheels have 60mm (front) and 66mm (rear) deep rims, 12 front/18 rear bladed spokes and narrow flange spacing. Mad Fiber claim they have excelled in wind tunnel tests, particularly when exposed to crosswinds.

They come with a White Industries titanium freehub body (Shimano or Campagnolo, nine- or 10-speed), with a three-pawl/24-tooth ratchet mechanism and 15mm chromoly axle. Also supplied are skewers, cork brake shoes, wheel bags and valve extenders. There's a four-year warranty and crash replacement programme, and no rider weight limit.

We're planning to catch up with Hjertberg at the Tour of California for the full lowdown. For now, if you want more information you'll have to visit www.madfiber.com. The wheelset should be available to the public by the summer.

Front hub and spoke assembly: front hub and spoke assembly

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User Comments

There are 16 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 16 of 16 comments

  • Very fancy, but who'd want a set of wheels with such obvious spelling errors on them?

  • "Very fancy, but who'd want a set of wheels with such obvious spelling errors on them?"

    That's the US spelling of fibre.

  • American spelling? Wrong then...

  • American spelling of anything is so incredibly wrong. The US dictionary was created as it was to hard for them to think words like colour are spelt how they sound when someone without a colonial accent says them.

    Back to the wheels, speaking from an engineering point of view, how good are those spokes going o be in an abnormal impact?

  • They look nice though.

  • "how good are those spokes going o be in an abnormal impact?"

    Frickin' expensive to replace I'd say! Although 4 years warranty means that's not so scary.. Unlike the price

  • ...yet, we're all happy to spend £1500 despite the two Ps in Zipp? Be consistent, boys and girls.

    Spelling aside: Nice looking and (relatively) reasonably well priced wheels, four year warranty and crash replacement programme. All good. I'd just be a little concerned, as the article points out, about truing it.

  • After cracking something on my carbone ultimate rear wheel, I wouldn't bother with any bonded full carbon spokes. Crash replacement is fine but what I found with Mavic, if you're the 2nd owner even if you buy new off someone who got them on a bike build (Scott Addict etc) they're not interested.

    I now have the Corima Aero+ which weigh almost the same and cycle knowing I can true or replace the spokes.

  • "...yet, we're all happy to spend £1500 despite the two Ps in Zipp? Be consistent, boys and girls."

    But 'Zipp' is a proper noun, not a variation of a spelling, therefore it can be spelt anyway that the 'owner' chooses. eg, If I choose to spell my name Mattttttt, then it's correct, as it's my name.

    Sorry to be pedantic, but you should know better than to correct spelling/grammer on the internet ;o)

    Go on...... someone point out my deliberate mistake ;o)

  • Scary price and scary wheels, wouldn't want to hit too many potholes with them on yer bike. Look amazing though!!

  • "All good. I'd just be a little concerned, as the article points out, about truing it." - Do you mean tension the spokes or true the wheel?

    The website explains how the spokes are tensioned, they bond the spoke to the rim and part of the hub flat without any dishing and then use a jig to force the spokes into a dish and insert the remainder of the hub and glue the hub parts together - a neat trick, providing dishing gives enough tension.

    How they can tension an individual spoke if only a single spoke has been replaced for a repair, I'm not sure, as they can't easily use the dishing trick once the wheel is bonded together.

    Trueing the wheel will be the same challenge all the other carbon wheel manufacturers face, I'm sure they will bond the bearing carriers to the hub so that they can true the wheel. That's what Corima, Zipp, Xentis, HED etc do. Zipp have re-trued and re-hubbed my 950 disc wheel three times. so I'm sure Madfiber can re-true a wheel after a repair.

  • To MattC59,

    Grammar, not grammer.

  • I like carbon fibre and I'm not an accountant so blow yourself Russ...

  • Good article, this idea requires people understand! !mbt shoes

  • Actually, you made two mistakes MattC59

    In this context, the word "fiber" is also a proper noun and can be spelt however the owner chooses.

    Got to love pedantic - it's wot the interweb was inventerised for.

    (that should keep someone going for a while) :-D

  • Why are people shocked by the price--I thought they were going to be more expensive for a high-tech 1100g wheelset. Popular ZIPP, Reynolds and EDGE wheels are quite a bit heavier and similarly priced... the lighter wheels from Carbon Sports and Reynolds are dramatically more expensive.

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