Stans Alpha 340 Rims
Posted on November 13, 2010 by Richard There have been 7 comment(s)
We started building with Stan's Alpha 340 rims about 4 moths ago and now have built several sets. These rims are the lightest alloy clincher rim we offer and to my knowledge are the lightest alloy clincher currently available. Light is not the only attribute this rims has it is also surprisingly strong. We have upgraded our strength rating on this rim from 2 out 5 to 3 out 5. I believe one of the reasons for its light yet strong nature is the higher placement of the bridge, this higher placement of the bridge is designed to accommodate better seating of tubeless tires (which it does well) however it also adds heaps of extra torsional strength to the rim as well.
There are a couple cons to this rim. Stan's requires that there wheels be built to a lower tension (around 95 kgf) and that paired with super light weight spokes (that work much better under higher tension) you may find that broken spokes are more common and wheels coming out of true are more common with this rim. The only other thing is this rim is one of the most expensive alloy rims on the market but given it Superior weight to strength ratio it is still much much cheaper than any of the carbon options that would even come close. Which make this rim a comparative steel.
If you are looking to build a super light weight wheel with very little compromise the Stan's Alpha 340 is a great choice.
STANS 340 ALPHA RIM
This post was posted in Product Review
If you have any further questions regarding this product I will be happy to answer them. Thank you.
Posted on November 26, 2010 at 1:02 am
Thank you for the nice feedback. I will be posting a lot more in the coming days.
Posted on November 26, 2010 at 1:05 am
I have no lack of material to write about and expect to be updating the blog 2 to 3 times a week. Thank you.
Posted on November 28, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Would the stans Alpha 340 rims work for a 210 lbs. road cyclist using bladed spokes?
Posted on July 8, 2011 at 8:56 am
I have noticed that Comp. cyclist sells a Stans ZTR Alpha 340 team wheelset , with a 24/28 spoke count using DT Swiss supercomp spokes , DT alloy nipples, and american classic hubs! This build is rate for 230lbs riders and recommended for cross usage. Is this build likely to come out of true? Have you had positive feedback from your customers with Stan's wheel products? Would a White industries hub work well with this build?
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 9:08 am
Yes the wheel will support a rider of 230 lbs with out any issue. However I would modify the build using the White Industries hubs as the are our most prefered for several reasons. Along with DT Comps and DT ProLock nipples. Hope this helps. Thank you.
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 1:34 pm
The lowish tension that Stans recommended, we abandoned a while ago. We now build these to 120 kgf. I recently spoke to Stans at the Interbike trade show regarding this very issue and they confessed that they to had started to build the Alpha 340's and several other models to 110 +kgf. Since we started doing this we have had no issues with lighter spokes.
The lighter the spoke the harder the spoke which means that with less mass it has a tendency to flex more (causing premature failure). This is where the higher tension helps eliminate the flex that causes spoke failure. All that being said, 4 additional spokes roughly adds 10% more strength and in turn also increases the durability of the rim and the spokes with typically only a 20 to 30 gram penalty per wheel. So my take is, when considering between 20/24 versus 24/28, more is better. Thank you.
Posted on October 24, 2011 at 4:59 pm