Hey everyone, welcome or welcome back!
Many of you know that I like to build my own wheels
this is a set of carbons built around 350 hubs
but building from scratch is not necessarily inexpensive and it might require some skills and tools as well.
If you want affordable, chances are you're gonna buy a complete set
and as most of our carbon if not 90% of carbon anything is built in Asia
I decided to try out a pre-built set from a new manufacturer.
This is ICAN Cycling that's giving me a 2 year warranty for this new set of wheels.
Let's check them out!
There's nothing special about the box they come in but wheels are kept securely in place
by this piece of styrofoam.
Also here, if you're stickler for details
you're going to find the serial number for this wheelset
and also the model and when this was purchased so very good attention to detail so far.
Let's take them out of the box and the wheels are individually wrapped
Tadaa...!
Here it is, beautiful new set of ICAN wheels
F930 - this is what they call a trail model
but they have 6 carbon models available for mountain biking.
Wheels are built around this rim which is a 30mm internal kind of standard for today.
Also, it has 25mm height, usually you would want a shallower rim like this one
because that vertical compliance gives you comfort especially if you're running a wheel set like this on a hardtail.
The finish of the rim is matte black which is quite common for carbon rims
and you have this dirty gray for the decals.
As for the quality of the build I know these are hand built not machine built
and if you look here in the corner there is no noticeable side to side or up and down wobble on this rim
and that's always a good sign for a wheel.
Equal spoke tension is important for a wheel well built and you know what?
These are built within 5%, even less than that, I wouldn't have built it better myself.
Both front and rear wheels use 28 spokes, and they are laced 3 cross
brass nipples that many of you probably like, 14 millimeter seems to be the length.
These are great because they don't corrode and they can be reused.
They do use Sapim Leader spokes but these are plain gauge so 2mm round end to end
they are not double butted so they are not thinner in the middle.
This is a bit unusual for carbon wheels that usually use double butted spokes, they are a bit more elastic.
And the default configuration comes with Novatec hubs
this is a D902SB-B12, it came with an XD driver but you can have this one with a Micro Spline
or the good old Shimano HG driver.
Front is Novatec as well, D791SB-B15 is the code, these are Boost wheels
so 110mm x 15mm spacing up front, with 148mm x 12mm in the rear.
And in this standard configuration you get the IS 6 bolt rotor mount.
If you're not that familiar with Novatec these are not premium hubs
but Novatec is a huge manufacturer in Asia for a lot of brands.
I've been using Novatec on this custom set of wheels for the last couple of years
and they work just fine, sealed bearings inside, I haven't had any issues with the bearings,
so I didn't hesitate to get the Novatec hubs
If you're still not convinced, in the drop down menu on their site they do offer a DT Swiss 350 or 240 EXP hubs option
however once you build the wheels with those hubs they are not going to be considered affordable anymore
as price is going to increase quite a bit.
However for you folks, viewers of my channel,
ICAN setup a discount code that can be used on any of their MTB wheels
so make sure you check the description of the video to take advantage of that!
I know you're gonna ask me for points of engagement and this is 40 clicks here, so that's 9 degrees.
It's not too bad anything above 36 clicks for me it's fine .
And when it comes to noise, this is not necessarily the quietest hub up there
but it's not gonna be the loudest either.
You're gonna need two flat spanners, 17 mm to loosen up this axle
and once you do that you can take out the axle and the freehub body
and here's the inside of the hub which is pretty neat
it looks very similar to something like a Hope 4 hub
with this big seal right on top.
And the budget aspect of the hubs is also reflected in the weight as they are not the lightest.
Remember we have plain gauge spokes, those are not the lightest,
we have brass nipples which are not the lightest either
and that equates with about 1800 grams for this wheelset.
To be more precise the rear wheel is 1012 grams
and front is at 806 so 1820 grams for the wheelset.
Obviously you're gonna add a few more grams for the valves and also the rim tape.
And talk about tape I like to use DT Swiss or Schwalbe
for 30 mm ID you need either 30 or this 32 mm.
I usually start taping right past the valve and overlap right here at the valve
this is how easy it's gonna be to do.
Get your favorite sealant, this year I started using Muc-Off NO Puncture, it's a bit thicker than Stan's
and I'll probably gonna install Maxxis tires on this set of wheels
setting it up as more of a trail set for my bikes.
Keith Bontrager famously said: strong, light, and cheap, pick two!
I expect this set of wheels to be strong, it is very well built by my own standards
and I'm looking forward to using it but I'm gonna document that in a future video.
Price-wise, this is relatively cheap for a carbon set of wheels and with the discount in the description below
that would make the deal even sweeter!
So what do you guys think?
Do you use any of these budget carbon wheelsets
or you're settling for premium aluminum or the more expensive carbon that you can find in marketplace out there?
I would love to hear your opinions!
As usual, if you found this video useful
don't forget to like, subscribe, comment,
and until next time hope to see you folks on the trails
why not riding some awesome awesome bikes.
Cheers guys, cheers!