$389 ProX LightCarbon Carbon Bike Wheels
Introduction
ProX is not a company that is widely known for it’s carbon offerings but it’s sister brand LightCarbon is frequently mentioned on the usual web forums when it comes to bike frames at affordable prices. ProX is a Chinese company based in Xiamen and all orders are fulfilled directly from there. From dispatch they took about a week to travel to Europe for review. ProX originally sold via OEM channels but have recently started selling directly to the consumer, this is a change that is sweeping across the market.
The headline statistic on these wheels is the price. $389 (this will vary depending on local taxes and where you live) is firmly at the budget end of carbon wheel territory and at the time of writing it was the cheapest available and undercut several aluminium alternatives.
Hubs
The hubs are a generic far eastern unit. The hubs use a blanket 15267 bearing on every landing. This does make ordering replacements easy and means that ProX have a smaller parts bin but the size is not ISO or JIS standardized. Hence, any replacement will be difficult to get from a tier 1 bearing supplier (SKF, NTN, FAG, NSK etc). The overall fit and function of the hub is good. The bearing fits were all very good and the use of CN clearance bearings means the bearing friction was low.
After 1000km of use, the bearings did not exhibit any indications of impending failure.
The hubs feature a 6 pawl ratchet engagement, the pawls and springs are held captive by an additional plastic cover plate that is an interference onto the edge of the freehub. This is a good design feature as it prevents the pawls falling out during disassembly.
Residual Imbalance
The residual imbalance was low, slightly over 410g.mm, the limit value being 610g.mm
High imbalance values are associated with premature bearing failure and a tendency to cause the speed wobble at speeds in excess of 40kph
Crosswind Stability
The wheel rim is shallow and thus the crosswind stability is very good. The likelihood of any twitching would require an extremely blustery day.
Rims
The rim construction is robust, the carbon is much thicker than a lot of wheels. It measures at 38mm deep. Internally, the wheel rims show little evidence of layer displacement and no visible tenting was observed. A baseline Ultrasonic check did not show any voids.
The rim periphery uses a slit brake track, this is extremely effective in inclement weather wear the initial bite of the brake pads is much better than traditional flat brake tracks.
Internally, the rims are very lean, there is little evidence of tenting or layer displacement. This is coupled with a much thicker wall thickness of carbon.
Aerodynamic Performance
Aerodynamic Performance is shown below, note the Farsports and Winspace wheels are considerably deeper.
Overall
There is not really much wrong with the wheels. They are firmly aimed at the cost conscious racer and the only real compromise is the weight, the thicker carbon will hinder anyone who wants to accelerate quickly or go up hills. The hubs are of reasonable quality. The spokes are of proven design and provenance. The rim construction is well above average. If you are on a budget or want a robust set of training wheels, the ProX wheelset does represent a good offering.
Watch on YouTube
You can watch the full review on Youtube here
Links
Hi,
Nice to see that the ProX wheels arent crap. What do you think about the ProX C66DB carbon spoke wheels? They look very similar to the Elite-Wheels Drive wheels, but for a much more affordable price. They told me $539 for the set and $98 for shipping to the netherlands. Interested to see your opinion on them!
Kind regards,
Hein
I can’t really say on specifics, but overall they don’t seem to be a bad brand. They are OEM to lots of people.
Hi,
I actually bought some of these wheels (50 mm version though). The front drive-side brake track started deteriorating almost immediately (became somewhat concave and even had some exposed fibrous looking bits) and the corresponding brake pad also wore down extremely quickly (within 150 km). I think they’ll send me a replacement rim under warranty, but I was wondering if you ran into any issues along those lines/why that might have happened (their warranty department basically said “real riding conditions are complicated,” which is, of course, true, but it still seems a bit surprising that a brand new rim would develop these problems without some underlying cause). When you tested, did you use the brake pads they supplied with the wheels?
Michael
Hi,
I actually bought these wheels (50mm version) and the front wheel brake track (just drive-side) started deteriorating almost immediately (less than 150 km). Deterioration also correlated to excessive brake pad wear on the same side. The brake track became somewhat concave across part of the arc of the rim and it seems like some of the fibers are already exposed. They are going to warranty the rim, and they’ve been receptive overall (but it’s still extremely annoying to rebuild a totally new wheel). Any idea why this might have happened so soon to a new rim of this construction?
Michael