Alexrims stockists?

[mzjo]

Alexrims have two models of rim that are of particular interest to me, being 650B rims for rim brakes in a sensible width for road tyres and 32h. Unfortunately there is no french importer. There is an english importer and several dealers listed but the rims that I want don't appear on the importer's website. There is a shop in Holland selling Alexrims products but again not the rims that interest me. The main european importer would appear to be in Germany. The rims that interest me are described by Alexrims on their website as "popular"models! Any ideas who I approach?

FWIW The Confrérie des 650 currently fit an Ambrosio rim that is available in France but it is only available in 36h. I want to build on a pair of vintage Mavic hubs in 32h. The Alexrims are the first that I have found that appear reasonable in price (not Compass type prices!)

[Brucey]

Alex make some nice rims but they mostly appear as OEM fitments. For a long time there was no UK importer. Now there is an importer and they list.... five rims.   

How wide are the rims you are interested in?  One option is VO Diagonale rims. They take 32-45mm tyres.

cheers

[mzjo]

The rims that I am interested in are 19mm. The Hutchinson tyre is nominally 30mm but measures 32 on my ZAC19 rims (which may well be 18mm wide). The biggest tyre that I am likely to fit is a nominal 38 that measures 34mm.

I have found the Velo Orange rims, they appear to be about the same width as the Alex, just fractionally heavier but getting on for double the price! 76€ a piece from the french supplier (who would appear to deal a lot in USA suppliers, very comprehensive catalogue but not entry level pricing!)

[Brucey]

I just measured a VO diagonal rim and the rim extrusion is

24.4mm outer width
18.2mm inner width
16.2mm total depth
570g in 584mm format (using my scales anyway)
nice thick braking surfaces (~1.7mm at the most stressed point just above the BSD)



The extrusion  reminds me a lot of a Sun CR18 rim, but the VO extrusion is just a bit bigger, heavier (and hopefully stronger) all round. If you like shiny things, these rims are nicely polished.

A wheelbuilder local to me describes them as being 'a PITA to build with'. The main reason being that if the spokes poke out of the top of the nipple at all, they are in danger of poking through the rim tape too; the rim is double walled but the cavity is very shallow.  If you wanted to dress protruding spoke ends, you would need to use a burr grinder. A secondary reason is that this particular wheelbuilder leans on a horizontal wheel both sides to stress-relieve it.   This means that a rim that isn't super stiff (in torsion and/or bending) is in some danger of pringling in a heavily dished rear wheel.

cheers

[Ian gaggiaport]

I release the stress by leaning on a horizontal wheel.
Following instructions from a popular online PDF on wheel building.. what's the alternative?
I know one builder that walks on the spokes  but I haven't tried that method..

[Brucey]

squeezing parallel pairs in the plane of the wheel (as per Jobst Brandt) or squeezing crossings in towards the centre plane of the wheel.

There are many ways of doing it but the above methods don't put a net lateral bending stress into the rim.

cheers

[Ian gaggiaport]

Thanks.. I follow jobs' and muson's methods.
But as I'm self taught I have adopted a slight mish mas of methods.
I use the methods above and then the horizontal press..
I be more careful next time

Thanks 👍

PBP rims. !