Carbon fiber rims and heat don’t make a happy family. Hard braking is known to tear them up. Made of a carbon fiber and resin combo, the heat generated from the friction of the brake pad against the sidewall can warm things up enough that the resin may soften too much from the heat, letting the sidewall deform and lead to possible blowouts or reduced braking performance.
Lightweight claims that this problem is eliminated in their Meilenstein C (translation: Milestone C) wheels. Partnered with aeronautic companies, Lightweight has access to a few carbon fiber materials generally unknown to the cycling industry. Using a step by step fabrication process, they have created a new wheel to sustain shape at temperatures much higher than standard braking will emit.
How do they do this?
From their materials: “By using such exclusive and unknown carbon fibre materials – at least for the rest of the bike business – we are able to create the rim layup even more clincher specific than ever before. The new materials also changed the whole wheel building process dramatically. By using totally new technologies we at LIGHTWEIGHT reach an even higher control level of every second of the heating process. Thanks to this we are able to insert very specific temperatures to the different parts of the wheel at super exactly calculated time periods during the whole wheel building manufacturing (process).”
They weigh in at 1180g per pair. 16 spokes on the front, 20 spokes on the rear…much more than that prototype we saw at Eurobike!