Our friends over at Schlick Cycles got in a set of the new 50mm-wide Sarma Naran 29+ Carbon Rims recently and we got a chance to check them out!
The construction of the rims are similar to the Naran 80s that we’ve been riding for quite a while now; that is a double wall carbon build with a pronounced ridge near the beadwall to assist in tubeless setup. If they work anything like the 80mm Narans these will be an easy tubeless set up.
The cross section image above is from the Sarma USA website.
Of note on the recently delivered rims is a notice from Sarma USA that the wheel builder needs to use nipple washers to disperse the spoke tension load and they also recommend a nipple like the Sapim PolyAX that self aligns so make sure your wheel builder follows these guidelines.
Sarma Carbon Naran 29+ Rims
- Width: 50mm
- Weight: 543g (As tested, both of these rims weighed exactly the same. Nice quality control!)
- Drilling: Centered – 32 holes, spoke holes offset ± 7 mm
- Tubeless Ready
These particular Narans will be built up with I9 hubs and Sapim CX-Ray spokes! Should be a killer wheel set.
I would love to see a shootout between these and a set of Rabbit Holes! Sure they are pretty sweet but I seriously doubt that they are much stiffer than the Rabbit Holes and they are only 60 +/- grams lighter! I will stick with the Rabbit’s for now!
Rob, the Rabbit Hole you’re talking about is a 26″ rim. The 29″ Rabbit Hole is 700g, so these rims are over one third of a pound lighter, each! In my experience, carbon MTB rims are significantly stiffer than any Al rim as well, although it’s tough comparing apples and oranges.
The 29+ Rabbit Holes appear to be about 150gr heavier per rim, according to Surly’s specs. But they are only $300 for a pair of rims. Sarma is listing these at $1200 per pair of rims, which seems hard to justify, even for over a half pound of wheel weight savings. I’d love to see these up against the Hugo 29+ which split the difference in weight, and are closer in price to the Rabbits. Seems like that would be the go-to 29er + wheelset for now.
Nick, my bad! Either way, the rabbit hole or Hugo is still by far the better value. I mean a half pound is really not worth the difference in price. 1200 vs 300! I guess to each his own!