Yoeleo Carbon Clincher Wheels Reviews

By Author: Leo Yoeleo
Total Articles: 1
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My First Three Wheelsets

When I took delivery of the wheels in June of 2014, my concerns disappeared. I was very impressed with the quality. After I had put a few hundred miles on them, some of my friends decided to take the jump and order rim brake wheels. They too were impressed. Ultimately, I put 4000+ miles on those wheels. They were hard miles on NJ roads with quite a few pot-holes, bumps, etc. I did not take it easy on them. They never went out of true and I had no issues with them. None of my friends with rim brake models had issues either (I think it was 3 or 4 of my direct riding buddies that ordered them). Below is a picture of my Tricross with that first set of wheels. I sold that bike in February of 2015 with the wheels and the current owner is still using them and they’re going strong.
In October of 2014, I bought my Venge frame and proceeded to build that up. I bought a set of 50x25mm SAT Superlight wheels from Yoeleo this time. As soon as I opened the box, I was impressed. They were light, and when I put them on a scale, they were within 3 grams of what Yoeleo said they would weigh. Yoeleo’s SAT ...
... technology means that there are no spoke holes drilled in the rim bed. This has a number of advantages. The biggest advantage is that the carbon is preserved and there are no holes drilled in it, which strengthens the wheel. It also means that you don’t have to use rim tape because there are no nipples or drill hole edges to damage the tube or cause punctures. The solid rim bed also allows for increased tire pressures and inflation capacity. I ordered them with the Yoeleo SL-Pro hubs which include ceramic bearings. These things just spin and spin and spin.
Below are some pics of my 50mm rims with no tires mounted. You can see the SAT technology with no spoke holes drilled in the rim bed.
Yoeleo uses a basalt brake track and I grabbed a photo of what that looks like, as well as the 3k carbon weave and matte finish.

In March of 2015, I bought my Allez and ordered a set of 60x25mm SAT Superlight wheels. I put the 60’s on the Venge and moved the 50’s to the Allez. The 60’s were built to the exact same spec as the 50’s and performed just as well. They are slightly heavier, which isn’t the best on some of the climbs I do, but there’s definitely a little bit of an advantage on the flats and on descents. Over the past year and a bit, I’ve put over 4000 miles on both sets of wheels, again without issue.

As a testament to their strength and build quality, in Oct. 2015, I was involved in a tangle with a friend of mine. His rear quick release ended up getting hooked with right side if my front fork on the Venge at nearly 30 mph. Somehow we managed to stay upright and not crash, but the spokes on the right side of my front wheel took a lot of damage as they smashed against his left side chain stay and the bikes continued to roll to a stop. Of the 10 spokes on the right side of the front wheel, 5 were completely broken in half and the other 5 were badly bent. I brought the wheel to my shop and my mechanic was impressed. None of the spokes had pulled out of the carbon or damaged the carbon hoop. The spokes themselves had broken first. There were a few spoke holes on the hub that he thought might have stretched and tweaked a bit and he wasn’t positive that new spokes would reseat properly so I ordered a new hub from Yoeleo. I had it in less than a week. It actually took the shop longer to get the spokes than it did for me to get the hub. This aspect of my experience in dealing with Yoeleo is of particular interest to me because one of the areas that people often cite as a downfall of buying Chinese carbon wheels or frames is a lack of customer support. When my mechanic saw the new hub, he was further impressed. He could see several areas where they had modified and improved their design and he was impressed that a so-called “non-name brand” wheel company would be investing the time and money to refine their design and make it better. As he re-built the wheel, he was even more impressed with just how much stress they had gone through without failing. He said he’s seen wheels from many name brand companies that hadn’t fared as well during similar crashes or accidents. I continue to ride both sets of 50 and 60mm wheels without issue.
The biggest issue I have had, is that at slow speeds, there is a slight amount of brake pulse that comes back through the levers. Its not excessive and its never caused me to crash or caused me any issues, but I can feel it, particularly at slow speeds as I’m coming to a final stop at a stoplight, maybe under 10 mph. At high speeds, I don’t seem to feel it at all. It also seems to be more noticeable if the bike is dirty. My mechanic said that its most likely some build up of brake pad material in the brake track and not related to the wheels. He suggested that I clean the wheels more often and I’ve noticed that when the bike is freshly cleaned the problem is almost all gone. My mechanic also said that this is a problem with many carbon wheels at almost all price points.