Rigida Andra Rims

[Magnus]

Has anyone used the tungstein carbide coated rims from Rigida?  I am especially interested in how they perform in wet or even snowy conditions.
My Raven Catalyst came with Mavic Ceramic coated rims and I spend most of my winters without brakes, almost.  When the rims get wet they loose 90% of their braking power.  Now my rear rim has developed a crack so I am considering the Rigida rims as a replacement.

Magnus Thor
Iceland

[PH]

I have a Rigida Carbide coated rim on the front of my Raven.  In the dry it’s as good as the best alternative rim brakes, in the wet it outperforms everything else I’ve tried including Magura rim hydraulics.  It should also last long enough to be an economical option. The only downsides are you have to use the right pads, they're not the cheapest.  And they squeal like nothing I've heard before, this is supposed to wear off after a thousand miles, I've done twice that and although slightly better they're not quiet.  I went for the Grizzly on the front rather than the Andra, it's lighter and eyeleted, when the other needs replacing I'll use the Rohloff drilled Andra.  I wish I could get hold of the 700c version, I wouldn't use anything else.
Oh yeah, third downside, having the best brakes in a group isn’t always an advantage

[pitbull]

I had Mavic EX721 ceramic rims on my Raven Tour for about 18 months, and despite trying a range of brake pads I could never get decent braking performance in the wet. The first few rotations of braking seemed to have very little effect, and then lots of finger pressure would eventually bring the bike to a juddering halt.

I recently changed to the Rigida Andra tungsten carbide coated rims with the blue Swisstop pads (I've done about 500 miles with them). In comparison, the dry weather braking isn't quite as good, but the wet weather braking is much better. Yes, you lose some braking performance in the wet, but there's no longer the panic of nothing seeming to happen when you first apply the brakes, or having to keep the brakes on going down hill to attempt to dry them out. They do make a bit of noise on occasion, but now that's usually just when the weather's damp, and I can put up with that in exchange for being able to stop!

[davefife]

Just done 300 miles on these rims on the RST round a very wet Mull, Ardnamurchan and Lochaber at the weekend.  They went on the bike after wearing out the cr18 rims that were supplied with the bike when new just over 3 years and 10,000 miles ago.  StJS cycles fitted them with new spokes and nipples and i have no acute angle spokes as shown on other posts on hubs, rims, spokes.  I am using swisstop blue pads.  At the moment they are noisy when braking strongly but no complaints in the stopping power.  The front also judders to a halt so a different front/rear split in braking sharply will need to be developed.

I am looking for x3 the distance out of these rims - i.e. 30,000miles, anyone any thoughts?

[avdave]

I too have the Catalyst with the Mavic ceramic rims and  I've also been acutely aware of how the performance suffered in in the wet and mud. I've just changed the front to an Avid bb7 as I'd specified a disc compatible hub originally. The improvement is massive and I only wish I could have them at the back as well.