In late May I cracked my rims going over a seam on the road, you know these ones on bridges. But this one was especially bad in that the tarmac just before the seam was cracked. I cannot say for sure that this is due to a manufacturing issue of the wheel, I was in a big group and many other ridders where okay going over the same feature. Though a couple of riders, on ENVE and Zipp had issues as well.
I contacted customer service and told them what happened. Tom Zheng was very responsive and arranged to send a new rim free of charge!! This is simply great customer service from a small team. Thanks a lot Tom for your help.

I wanted to share this because the main reason people say it’s worth it to buy a mainstream brand is the warranty. Granted an ENVE or a Zipp warranty is gonna be better than panda podium in general. But I wanted to share my experience in this case since this level of support is on bar of the big brands.

The wheels these replaced were much heavier, I think 1702g for a 50mm deep rim, White Industries CLD hub, Sapim CX-Ray spokes. They were my daily drivers, and are just fine. But I wanted lighter.

The 4045s are basically same specs, but much lighter, and have a hooked rim, which is all I really wanted in a wheel package. Saved up and made the purchase. Panda Podium makes it not as much of a “plunge” feeling when you’re spending real money on products, so I felt like I’d have after purchase support for sure.

Wheels have no wobble at all in the truing stand, spokes are nice and stiff (thick bladed carbon), no pings or pops when you first ride them, nothing, they were built well. Bearings don’t have any play either. I don’t have 10000 miles on them either at this point, but they seem just fine. Coming from steel spokes to carbon, the ride feel is more noticeable, you’ll feel more of the buzz for sure, but it’s not in any way uncomfortable, just noticeable if you do a back to back ride from steel spokes.

Light wheels still rule. The spin up to speed is back to under 10 pedal strokes. You notice this if you’re up and down a lot in traffic, or a crit person, cresting a small ring hill and immediately go big ring to a decent, you’ll get up to speed faster. You also get the added benefit of better braking control, less mass. Where you do feel a slight penalty (lack of better word) is if you’re on flat ground at a cruise speed, the wheels want to slow up more if you have to coast for a few. Luckily they get back to speed nice and fast, so no biggie. It just depends on your riding style and what you want. You can probably just run the “heavy” deeper version of the wheels, but I hate the crosswind factor, it gets old after about an hour of getting blown around.

Just some notes, I’m 70kg, roads are mostly normal roads, nothing great but nothing ridiculous either in terms of bad. Once in a while I’ll hit something big, but I’m again, pretty light so don’t crush wheels like a heavier rider. I ride 600 hours a year, so put stuff through some work, but not abuse, just a lot of use. I mounted 28mm GP5000 S TR’s on these, and did not use levers. I did leave the tires out in the sun for about 20 minutes on a warm day, it was tough at the end but not absurd, again I did it with my thumbs. Inflated with a floor pump and the tires held air without sealant for a day before they went low. Filled with sealant next day and they’ve been good since. 25mm I think would have been too narrow, mainly because if you do flat, the tire isn’t going to be able to protect the rim as well if you are riding on the road. 28mm give you some wiggle room. 28s are also about in line with the rim width, so aero enough. If you can feel or detect a difference, then go smaller, I don’t personally care enough and would rather have some meat on the rim if I flat.

Great wheels, thanks Panda Podium for the site as well, I never would have found these wheels without a storefront to bring them to light.