AlexRims Race 28 Pro is a lowprice budget wheel set for those who needs a trainingwheel that can withstand torture, along with the user not caring about the weight or any fancy name of the wheelset.
Well, that is how it is on paper. It is a 28 mm profile, weighing in about 2 kg for a set, which.. Is a lot. And the name “AlexRims” is just something you don’t really wanna say, if there is a guy on some Lightweight or Zipp-wheels next to you. However, for wheels that costs less than filling your car’s fueltank, it is possible to look away from that. Nevertheless, will the weight and the dull name mean anything in the real world?
On the road
They came with my 2010 Scott Speedster S20, and I must admit, they are better than I expected. They are a bit heavy to accelerate up, but once they are up in speed, they roll well, thanks to the inertia of the wheels, which means they do not lose speed that fast, compared to lighter wheels. So if you are doing time trials, where you aren’t hitting high speeds, and cannot afford Zipp 808’s, or any other higher profile wheels, these wheels can do just fine. But if the speed gets high, you do feel that they could be more aerodynamic. 32 spokes and only 28 mm profile, isn’t going to be a great aero wheel, so if the speed goes above 45 km/h, you do feel the drag is greater, compared to some more aerodynamic wheels, like the Shimano C35 Dura Ace.
They came with my 2010 Scott Speedster S20, and I must admit, they are better than I expected. They are a bit heavy to accelerate up, but once they are up in speed, they roll well, thanks to the inertia of the wheels, which means they do not lose speed that fast, compared to lighter wheels. So if you are doing time trials, where you aren’t hitting high speeds, and cannot afford Zipp 808’s, or any other higher profile wheels, these wheels can do just fine. But if the speed gets high, you do feel that they could be more aerodynamic. 32 spokes and only 28 mm profile, isn’t going to be a great aero wheel, so if the speed goes above 45 km/h, you do feel the drag is greater, compared to some more aerodynamic wheels, like the Shimano C35 Dura Ace.
But they actually do roll really well. I tried comparing the hubs with the more expensive Mavic Cosmic Elite, and the AlexRims ended up rolling for a longer time than the Mavic’s. So you get some damn good hubs by buying these wheels!
They are strong too. They have been taking a lot of torture by me for 1½ years, and they are straight as new. However, of course with the 32 spokes, they are built to be punished. As a pair of training wheels, I can easily recommend them. In addition, if your weight is above 100 kg, they should be able to handle that too.
In sprints the many spokes also makes them very stiff. I do not feel any flex in them when sprinting, and I cannot hear the brakes scratching on the wheels, which can happen if the wheels are not stiff enough. Nevertheless, that is not the case here. The acceleration was as mentioned before, a bit bad, but I can’t feel much of a difference between these and some 200-300 grams lighter Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels.
The verdict
These wheels are not the fastest you can get, but for the price, I do not think you can get any better. The hubs are more than excellent for the price, and they are just as stiff and strong as you need any wheel to be. They may lack in aerodynamics and weight, but the price makes up for that. Therefore, if you have some fancy 1000-2000 euro tubular wheels used for racing; this would be a great buy for that price, ensuring you, that you have some training wheels you always can rely on. Especially when shifting back to the racingwheels, you will be feeling like you are flying. But as a pair of trainingwheels, these does the job perfectly.
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