Review LEW Pro VT-1 wheelset

Nils from fairwheelbikes.com has reviewed the new wheelset VT-1 from LEW:

Weight (set): claimed 880g, actual 870g (front ca. 362g, rear ca. 509g [yes this does not add up to 870g, but is because of inaccuracies of the scale])

Initial opinions after the maiden trip of 110km, to be updated later.

- Visual appearance, aesthetics and cosmetics: check here
I’d rate the quality quite okay, but by no means perfect. Whilst the surface of the rim has been very smooth, you have easily been able to find some imperfectnesses such as not totally smooth layers of the fibers or even patchworks. Nothing that would be unusual with items like that though and it actually was my brother who at first sight said “just the same as with LWs”. The spokes probably have the best of a finish in this ensemble and look pretty much nicer than those of LWs. Due to the construction you have still been able to spot glue at the spoke and rim interface though. After all for that kind of a price tag I think it is necessary to mention these imperfectnesses as some people might be very anal when throwing out that much money. The roundness of the wheels and surface smoothness (with a special stress on the brake track) have been very good though. Whilst the cassette hub body has really been nicely machined, it seems as if the pawls have quite some drag. Also the clutch makes quite a sound as well - some people will love this, others don’t.
Edit: there apparently seems to be a problem with my freehub though as even without a cassette, it is very hard to freewheel. Seems (or feels) as if there was a bearing problem.

- First observations (accessory)
Both the front and rear wheel come with counterweights on one spoke just exactly opposite of the valve holes. These do not work as computer magnet though and I have been surprised that they have not included any rim magnet either (as I thought I had read so before..). Also it was surprising that the wheels came without a manual. I know it is downloadable from their website and personally I don’t really care any much for it anyways, however at least for German standards a (printed) manual is an absolute must! The wheel bags have been of a pretty high quality though and well-cushioned. The wheels are supplied with a pair of shrink hoses to go around the valve stem to avoid rattling as well as a cassette spacer.

- Tire mounting
Tire mounting and alignment has been as easy as with no other rim I have tried before (Zipp 280, Corima Medium, Corima Aero, LW Std, LW Obermayer). I actually give credit to the rim’s Tri-Lock channel there which seems to be working wonders; it might also be though that the rim is just slightly smaller in diameter. This does not really seem to be the fact though. Also whilst that Tri-Lock channel is claimed to help correct inaccuracies of (handmade) tires, I am not sure whether that Tri-Lock channel has a negative effect on the tire-glue-rim interconnection. So far the tires have held fine and I have not had any concerns or negative surprises either (but it has only been one single ride so far). As baseline tire mounting & aligning has only taken like 2mins per tire to stress how very easy it was. However and also worth mentioning: upon mounting the tires (with pretty much standard valve extensions) I have found that the valve holes (of the rims) have been extremely tight of a fit, so I have been enlargening them slightly with a round file.

- First inspection (bearings, braking)
So up in (the dropouts of) the bike I already wanted to test the wheels’ lateral stiffnesses. To my surprise both the front and rear wheel had some play in them (with fully closed and very tight QRs). Both wheels easily had 1mm of play into each direction. This might have been on purpose though to allow the bearings to spin very freely (not at last as it also is the recommended way to tighten down one’s integrated BB/spindle interface). However this is definitely worth mentioning as out on the ride this comes with some noticeable characteristics (see below). The wheels spin really very freely and due to the low weight of the wheels and the rims in specific the acceleration is great as well. It feels a bit like floating. However the loose bearings call their attention when riding over not so smooth surfaces by a slightly rattling sound once in a while (so nothing frequent, but still absolutely there) [remark: I have been trying two different sets of skewers to make sure this was not due to an insufficient clamping force]. The biggest drawback has been when braking though: whilst the standard non-carbon brake pads (Swissstop Flash Black; LEW recommends no special pads are needed) really gripped surprisingly well - with the front being on the same level as a Campy Nucleon alu rim/Campy rubber pad combo, the rear even being better than that - the front “vibrated” a lot under braking. I don’t mean vibration of the wheel that can be felt on your bars (as I already had that before with a set of Corima Medium wheels), but with a (for some people) nerve-robbing and very frequent sound. It sounded as if something was dragging like every 1/2 turn upon braking - however when putting a finger on either side of the brake tracks while floating they were as smooth as it gets, so this can only be due to the loose bearings. The rear however did not share this same effect, which must be because of the different weight balance and braking power there. At least the pads did not squeal at all on the rims - unlike the LW Obermayer/LW brake pad/0G brake combination that my brother is currently running. As said I have been positively surprised by the brake performance, not that it would have been that remarkable good, but at least it has not been any worse than the performance on an alu rim - at least in dry conditions: I will yet have to see about the braking performance in the wet and will report back on it. The pads did not melt nor start to stink either when braking hard on the rim surface (unlike with some other carbon rim/brake pad combos): I have been doing one 60+kph -> 30-kph 90° bend and another 80+kph -> 55-kph 80° bend today. The rim did heat up, though probably not as much as my brother’s Obermayers although this is very much to be argued as we neither are the same weight, nor probably were doing exactly the same speed, haven’t been taking the exactly same lines and probably also not been braking exactly the same. Still my rims have been slightly cooler and my brother has actually also been complaining about “fading” (due to melting pads probably). However when swapping bikes with my brothers (as mentioned Obermayer/Swissstop LW pads/0G combo opposed to LEW/Swissstop Flash/AX Orion) I have really been shocked: that thing brakes on a dime - unbelievable! I largely ascribe this to the Orion brakes though which are quite a bit weaker than the 0Gs. As said in comparison to alu rims the braking performance (under dry conditions) has been very comparable.

- Stiffness:
When having thrown in the wheels into the bike and performing that unpopular “lateral stiffness observation”, I found the rear wheel to be pretty stiff whilst the front left a bit to desire as you have with relative ease been able to rock it ~4mm to either side. However when comparing them to my brother’s 12spoke Obermayers or my Neutron Ultra (in just the same fork), they have not really been any worse. I cannot yet comment on which ones in the end are really stiffer (or the stiffest) as it needs some more miles and probably also some direct cross-tests. For me (~60kg/132Ibs) they felt plenty stiff, but not really outstanding (from the competition in this league) either. They are definitely nothing like Tune’s (original) Olympic Golds though, but rather comparable to just these LW or Campy Neutron (probably even slightly stiffer than the latter ones). At no time I would have felt as if I needed any more stiffness though. They securely tracked through high-speed corners just as well as under load in slower ones. I have experienced no brake rubbing when climbing - however I run my brake pads 2-3mm away from the rim anyways.

- Aerodynamics:
The wheels feel well, but again it is not like they were riding on their own either. It is hard to really feel these slight differences among the top wheelsets anyways as you hardly ever ride in exactly the same conditions or with just exactly the same form and it is neither like one wheelset was constantly 1+kph faster than another one in this class anyways (at a reasonable speed of probably 43kph). However (as said with the given caution due to non-reproducible conditions) and without too much of a surprise they have been faster than my Neutrons in a 80kph descend by probably 3-4kph and about the same speed as the LWs. So after all the wheels feel well, but again not any outstanding but rather pretty similar in comparison to Obermayers. I do not know if that swirl generator lip actually works though, to be honest I have been really surprised at how small it is. You might want to come to think that other wheelsets already had about the same feature simply by having a seam of two joined rim halves there. You can really only slightly feel it with your finger nails and if they would not have pointed out that feature I would probably never have noticed it all. At least this feature is being attested a superior handling in crosswinds. As it has not been ultra windy today (although there actually has been quite some wind) I am not totally set to comment on this. I have at least not felt any need to hold my bars any tight(er) when riding through crosswinds (and also managed to ride free-hand through whatever wind arose), but it has not felt as if the wheels float on their own their either (as they seem to want you to believe). It is not like they were any better than low profile wheels (again without much surprise..). I will have to report back on this when I have some more miles on them and after having been exposed to different conditions. My brother actually said both our wheels (and bikes) actually feel very much the same, so as said there probably are only nuances of a differences anyways.
At least the wheels did not feel “too light to descend”. They descended and felt just like any other wheelset. There neither was any vibrating nor did they feel unbalanced, so I have right away been able to descend with great confidence and to make use of aero positions at higher speeds without worrying.

So bottom line after these first experiences with the wheels: I haven’t been astonished by them (it also might be that I am already used to high standards), however I have neither been disappointed. They brake well, coast very freely and accelerate very well. However as mentioned above (and as with everything) there also is another side of the coin.

I will report back when I have some more miles on them.
More Pictures on Nils´website pk0r.com

UPDATE
So a little more recent update on my findings. First of all thanks for the pleasant comments to my first impressions. However I have to constrain them or the probably overally rather a little negative or “unexcited” undertone by my nature. When knowing me, you will see that I am hardly ever excited about anything new, but rather always critical and sceptical - which probably isn’t the worst of an approach with today’s hype and marketing gossip (in general).

So first of all a big thanks to Lee at Lew and the team around him for very promptly having shipped out a spare parts replacement kit along with a set of USE Spin Stix skewers to me to check out my issues. The mentioned spare parts replacement kit includes (2) bearings, (5) thrust washers, and (3) pawls and retails for $100.

So to begin with I have been addressing the rear hub/freehub issue as already before I had the impression that there was a bearing problem inside the freehub which is why I asked for replacements. So I proceeded and disassembled the rear wheel - which has by the way been extremely easy and straightforward (I might add a couple of pics to my LEW picture gallery in a few) - and found that the non-drive-side/inner ceramic hybrid bearing of the freehub has been totally dead. I then went ahead to swap it with one of the newly supplied ones and reassembled the wheel. I have already been in contact with Lee at Lew about this and he stated they are aware of this “minor issue with the hybrid ceramic bearings” as “1 out of 20 seems to go bad after some miles are put on them due to general wear and tear”. Like that they might simply be including a spare bearing in the future with each wheelset. I did really appreciate the ease of the assembly & disassembly though, definitely worth mentioning, not at last also as this is of quite an importance in my books as well. Upon disassembly I by the way found that the complete rear axle only weights approx. 11-12g (18g incl. the drive side alu axle end cap with the non-drive side end cap weighting 7g).

As for the “loose bearings”: I have now been trying M2Racer QRs, Tune AC14, most recent Campy Record QRs and now also the USE Spin Stix, all of which have not resolved the issue. Lew states this is within acceptable tolerance though and as I have actually not really been bothered by it in the first place anyways, I am not really any concerned about it. However it definitely has to be mentioned that this is no dead silent wheelset as there are tinkling louds upon braking, as well as when going over not-so-even surfaces or simply when putting extensive torque into the wheelset. This seems to be the trade-off of the really extremely free and smooth spinning bearings (and wheels) - even under load. In defense of LEW one has to state though that they are already mentioning this minimal play in their online manual - the word “minimal” is then subject to interpretation.

As for some more riding impressions:
I have been testing them in some serious headwinds today and must say they really cut very nicely through them and have not shown any tendency to be pushed aside (despite of the low mass and high profile rim). They climb pretty fast as well, definitely on a level with the Obermayers. So for now my bottom line is: they are definitely a very decent wheelset that does not come without issues or its own characteristics though. More testing to come…

Edit: Some of the disassembly pics have been added here.