re [CR]Super Champion Gentleman 81 clincher rims

From: "Mark J. Encarnacion" <markenki@hotmail.com>

"How good are the Super Champion Gentleman 81 rims? Do they compare to the Mavic MA2? How is quality control? Are they nice and true to begin with, or do you need to use a lot of spoke tension to get them in line? Finally, what are the dimensions (width and height)?

They're mentioned on http://www.classicrendezvous.com/France/S_Champion.htm, so I suppose they're on topic; apologies if not."

Hi Mark, You can find some info on these rims from the Cyclo-Pedia catalog on Mark Bulgier's site: http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/catalogs/cyclo-pedia-74/ just go to Page 26, "rims" There you'll see that it is listed as 22.5mm wide, and 510 grams. There's also a nice illustration showing the cross section and construction style.

While these were some of the best clincher rims of their day, the standards were a bit looser back then. They built up reasonably straight, and the rim joint wasn't too bad..... I'd say that the MA2 is a bit easier to work with, though.

regards,
Steve Kurt
Peoria, IL