mleddy

One piece carbon fiber wheels that should improve ride and performance. Pretty cool!

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/...ntcmp=features

ChristopherG

Too much possibility for catastrophic failure. Carbon does not take impact well and any damage that will dent or crack aluminum will be much worse with carbon.

mleddy

Looks like they CT scan the wheels to guarantee the manufacturing process and state that the wheel should be comparable to aluminum or steel wheels.

"They're ideal candidates for high-performance cars, said Dingle, who pointed to the impressive durability, impact resistance, and performance under fatigue of carbon-fiber; he noted that if and when these wheels do fail, they do so in a relatively safe way—of gradually losing pressure at the bead. Life expectancy for the wheels is comparable to that of aluminum or steel wheels, even in harsh environments."

Of course Dingle does work for the company and would like to sell some of those $15K wheel sets so...

sclemmons

You could have 3 or 4 sets of Fikses for what those cost, and Fikse wheels can be brought back from a pothole catastrophe with a local repair or a trip to the factory.

mattyf

The problem with carbon fiber in structural applications like this is that damage can occur (say from hitting a pothole) without any visual cues that something is wrong. Too scary for me.

Tcc1999

That's a really good point. I've gone through more than a few sets of carbon fiber bicycle rims and often times you know you've killed a wheel when you get a dead sounding THUNK when you hit a pot hole. The rim often doesn't catastrophically fail but instead you get a small crack or soft spot. These can be hard to spot and if you miss them can lead to something worse down the road. As a matter of course I regularly inspect my bike rims for damage - I can't imagine how you'd inspect automobile tire rims for damage. The only time I've ever seen CF bicycle rims fail big time, and by this I mean explode into several pieces, have been a result of crashes, really really bad, broken bone type crashes.

Maybe it's also an apples to oranges comparison but I wonder if carbon fiber rims change the handling characteristics of a car. On a bicycle (and admittedly, the rim weight is a more significant proportion of the weight of the bike - plus you've only got two wheels so the dynamic forces are different) my CF rims, regardless of the profile, make the bike much more twitchy.

mattyf

I remember hearing about a spacecraft at work that took a small fall. It didn't look like any damage had been done, but the composites team came out to inspect. Their expert method was a keen ear and a quarter. They tapped around the structure looking for dead spots. In the end it was cleared for launch. As you mentioned the damage can be hard to stop. It can be hidden de-laminations between plys. So I guess you tap around your rims with a quarter every time you check the tire pressure.

Yep, the fail in a fantastic manner. This is why it also scares me a bit for parts of the car structure. Can you imagine a shattered A-Pillar coming at your neck during a crash? Yikes!

NC 997

I like 'em.. but I certainly wouldn't try to sell them using fuel efficiency as the primary purpose for a purchase. It would take many (many!) years and many (many) miles to make up the difference in what gas costs vs what a set of $15K wheels cost. Sorta like buying a Prius..

Alan C.

Curbing a set of those would bring tears to your eyes.