EDIT: I moved this review to the Blog almost 3 months after its initial publication as a post on Facebook.

Unconsciously, 3 months have passed, during which I have been riding the carbon wheels from EliteWheels described below almost every day.

In a few days, I plan to make a new review in the blog: Carbon Wheels from EliteWheels, 3 Months Later.

SPOILER: However, this review will be very short, as I only have superlatives to share about the wheels after about 3 months and 2000+ km of testing on both good and bad roads - including several brevets, one of which was the legendary Ruzhevo 400 with strong headwinds and crosswinds and heavy rain, as well as a few shorter 200 km brevets on relatively poor roads.

Brief Initial Review of EliteWheels Carbon Wheels from AliExpress

The wheels arrived on January 16, 2023, after exactly 2 months and 5 days of waiting.

HURRAY! :)

The actual delivery time after my order was:

- It took about 3 weeks for them in thefactory in China to produce the wheels. After the wheels were ready, they notified me via message and sent pictures in the chat, and then shipped them to me.

- It took about a month and a half to ship the wheels to Bulgaria.

I ordered the wheels with the following additional charges to the price:

+ $33 specifically for this design

+ $50 extra for the lighter spokes, which are 100 grams.

Total cost: $275 + $33 + $50 = $358

IMPORTANT: They DID NOT charge me VAT on top of the paid price!!!

The price of the EliteWheels Carbon wheels that you see and select in the EliteWheels store on AliExpress is higher because it includes a 20% VAT charge.

However, when you pay for your order, the store automatically removes the VAT, and you actually pay 20% less than the advertised price!

Here, the wheels passed customs WITHOUT any additional charges!!!

Mitko Peshev told me the exact same thing happened to him when he took his Carbon Wheels from EliteWheels 6 months before I did.

I added the Carbon Wheels to my cart in Aliexpress about a month before the purchase, waiting for a real discount.

During the big AliExpress sale on 11.11, they lowered the price of the EliteWheels Carbon Wheels by around $30-35...

I waited a few more days and 2 hours before the end of the 11.11 anniversary promotion, Aliexpress gave me a coupon for 80 BGN to use immediately or lose it... I used it!

:) ;) :)

The Carbon Wheels traveled for a month and a half, yes... very long, but at least they arrived in perfect condition.

- weight of the Carbon Wheels: 1525 g

- cross-section thickness of the rim is 27 mm, to provide maximum aero transition for my 28 mm tires that I use

- longitudinal width of the rim is 47 mm

The hubs of these wheels are officially made 1:1 as a model of DT SWISS, whose patent has expired, and their parts are mutually interchangeable.

Their sound is phenomenal!

It turns out that MANY riders in Bulgaria use carbon wheels specifically from this manufacturer EliteWheels.

On YouTube, it's also popping up with only positive reviews for this manufacturer.

Below I'm sharing a link to the wheels on AliExpress that I'm reviewing:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mO1VWm2

After the EliteWheels Carbon wheels arrived, my first job was to weigh them and check them on the stand in my workshop.

The weight according to my scale turned out to be 3-5 grams more?!? than the weight the manufacturer sent me ... :) ;) :)

As I expected, the wheels were ABSOLUTELY straight without any bends or twists.

I will check them again on the stand in 2-3 weeks, but I don't expect any issues.

After two days and only three rides in total so far, but riding in the extremely windy conditions yesterday and in the wet weather today, I feel the Carbon Wheels... as if I am riding a Subaru - the best of the best for me personally!

Yesterday in the windy conditions, when the wind was blowing sideways, I felt my bicycle Pips quite well overall.

At one point, during the long descent towards Lovech, a truck overtook me with dirty exhaust fumes just a few feet away from me, and the influence of the airflow during overtaking was not so extreme...

Overall, throughout yesterday's windy ride, I felt my bicycle Pips very stable.

But I can't describe the feeling with these Carbon Wheels on the flat road when the wind became head-on...

Speed is not felt, you spin and fly... :)

Even Strava gave me a carrot yesterday (a KOM) which Zhoro or Yuterov will take away when they come to ride back here...

You'll know that Georgi Ivanov (and no less Plamen Yuterov) REALLY love to collect (bits of) carrots (Strava KOM) from the hardworking and diligent carrot (KOM) farmers around the world! ... :)

Today was wet, it rained at night and I purposely drove through puddles to get the Carbon Wheels and calipers wet and test the braking. Turns out the braking is actually NOT bad... we'll see how it is in heavy rain, but overall they surprisingly brake very well on both dry and wet surfaces.

Today I specifically rode up to Devetaki, had coffee and rode back the same way because the descent was endlessly unpleasant with a grade of 7-10% - the asphalt is old with large grains of stone protruding from the surface and there are also quite a few cracks.

Yesterday I pumped up the rear tire to 67 psi and the front tire to about 60 psi for similar surfaces. These parameters are optimal for our weight with my bicycle Pips and tire thickness, at least according to the SRAM website:  

https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure

The feeling going down and in terms of braking and vibrations was SUPER, especially compared to before... but before, my tires were significantly more inflated, in fact... :)

So far, I've only tested the brake pads that came with the Carbon Wheels but a month ago I bought some other spare carbon brake pads from AliExpress, I will test them and the ones that came with the Carbon Wheels post in real RAIN to see if there is a difference in braking quality.

:) ;) :)

P.S. IMPORTANT AND ACCURATE QUOTES on the topic (from my spouse):

"Your new plastic tires look very nice!" ... :) ;) :)

and

"Are those two tires actually more expensive than all four tires for the Subaru?!?"

... ...... ...... ;) ;) ;)