I'm really asking this question for my brother.

He has a 06 or 07 YFZ450. We ride mostly rough rocky trails. I was smart and bought a polaris sportsman 500 where he wanted the sporty quad.

Since we ride in such poor trail conditions he kills rims like they are nothing, usually 2 sets a year for the past 2 years. Usually the rims are .190 aluminum or some pretty pricey douglas wheels. Now he is talking about getting aluminum beadlocks or carbon fiber rims.

For rough rocky trail conditions would you suggest carbon fiber rims?

90% of the time he bents the edge of the rim and sometimes puts a nice flat spot in them.

 

WOW... what is the price of these carbon wheels? I to have bent a wheel or two, but since I went to a set of douglas beadlocks... I have not had an issue.

 

Something I'm sure he has already tried but perhaps run with higher air pressures than normal? If the terrain is that rough it won't ride much differently but it will sure be easier on the rims.

 

I would try ITP rims and tires to match. When they are matched up they have the lip of the rim rolled in snug up to the tire. It don't stick out like the Douglas lips and shouldn't be as easy to catch.

 

The carbon fiber rims will definitely take a beating, and probably outlive the aluminum ones. On the downside, he will be paying twice as much if not more for the carbon fiber over the aluminum.

 

Tell him to run 6-ply sport radials like the Maxxis i-Razr (for example), pumped up to about 7-9 PSI, on beadlock rims..... If he bends aluminum like that he will destroy carbon fiber too...... If he does not want beadlock tell him to try the ITP or DWT Baja style.....

Carbon fiber are nice, they are very light and very strong. But they are not indestructible as I've seen them broken and shattered more than once..... And if you shatter a carbon fiber wheel you are not limping back to the truck or house you are getting towed..... A bent aluminum wheel will usually still get you home.....

 

one thing about carbon fiber that they dont tell you is that carbon fiber has a lifespan. it will eventually fail

 

If I am not mistaken though the carbon fiber wheels do have a lifetime warranty against breaking but I may be wrong. I don't go through rims enough to justify the cost for a carbon fiber wheel.

 

The cost of carbon fiber is not about durability its about weight. I don't know when people started believing that carbon fiber was stronger than aluminum. Its really not.... It is lighter, and nearly as strong which makes it perfect for racing applications.....

But under stress a carbon wheel will fail just like a strong aluminum wheel will. The material of carbon fiber really shines when its added to the surface of another material like metal or wood, plastic, fiberglass etc.... then it can make those materials stronger than they would normally be.

But all by itself carbon fiber is not the strongest wheel option. If it was you'd see everyone who races Baja use them and they don't.

 

I was talking more from the warranty stand point than anything.