My roady questions continue. I’ve had a chat with Harry Rowlands about some hand made wheels.
He seems like a nice chap, and I like the idea hand made wheels. But for the same sort of dosh could get some quite decent factory jobbies.
So handmade Mavic Open Pro 2 on Miche hubs £250, or Mavic kysrium Equipe with lightweight tyres £300, (merlin)
What you recon?

Just had this exact dilema. My final thoughts were nice bomb proof all year round wheels – handbuilt open pro. Summer bike nice and racey and look a bit better – factory wheel. Got some £300 rs80 from planet x and they are lovely. I’m sure you wont regret whatever you get, they are all wheels after all and just go round and round.

aero spokes on the mavics, but the hand built would be easier to replace if a spoke broke? This might not be a problem depending on the use of the bike, eg racing?

Other threads on here opinions were toward hand built, but I know, really, either will be loads better than my grumbly egg shaped wheels.
Talking to Harry Rowlands, one of his big reasons for choosing Miche hubs etc are reliability and avsilability of spares etc as well as performance. I like this.

Ksyrium Equipe’s aren’t great IME – neither are most other factory wheels at that sort of price – they look nice but you end up with heavier wheels for the money and they can be a pain to fix if you break a spoke or rim.

Mavic Open Pro 2 on Miche hubs £250

That does sound quite expensive though. I’d suggest something similar but build them yourself (it’s really quite easy and a useful skill to have).

I must admit, I’d love to have a go at building them. Let’s face it theres nowt on telly after work.
I would like a wheel jig so i can sit at the kitchen table in comfort, 6music on radio.
Is it easy to mess up though? I do like a tinker about.

It’s easy peasy providing you have patience and watch one of the hundreds of ‘how to’ videos online.

It’s how I learnt many years ago and I’m still using the wheelset I built at the time =)

I’ve got Ksyrium Equipe’s on my road bike – they transformed it after having some battered Shimano ones on there.
Lots of commuting on them last winter and they’re still pin straight and no broken spokes.
I also have handbuilt Mavic Open Sport (not Pro) wheels on my fixed commuter, 36 spokers, which are a bit heavier but utterly bombproof.

For £299 – the rs80’s would be my choice without hesitation. I own factory and hand built wheels so don’t have any real bias. Life is too short for building my own wheels, that’s time i could be riding.

Life is too short for building my own wheels, that’s time i could be riding.

Building wheels is very rewarding and even therapeutic, there’s plenty of downtime when most people aren’t riding bikes anyway, it’s BS to say you’d be riding your bike every minute available

Anyway, Roger Musson’s excellent eBook is worth £9
http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

Got some of these, fully aero and brilliant so far…

http://www.bicycleshack.eu/2012/06/06/forza-cirrus-clincher-wheels-black/

 it’s BS to say you’d be riding your bike every minute available

Good job I didn’t say it then; I’m pleased to hear you get such pleasure building your own wheels. There is just a chance my life may be a little different to yours, and for me due to other commitments my riding versus tinkering time are usually at the expense of each other. I’m lucky I do a few things I find very rewarding and enjoyable. I’m sorry you feel the need to be so angry about such matters. So for clarity; i find life too short for building my own wheels, others don’t.

+1 for Roger’s book ….

Handbuilts are nice (Ambrosio on openpros 🙂 )
Kysrium Elites ?

Aero Factory Vs Handbuilt… Soon to be the new “what tyres” thread? 😉

Some people will tell you it’s got to be aero, some people will say handbuilts every time. But I’d think about what riding you do first before anything else.

How often do you ride your road bike? When you go out is it for 30-40 fast miles at a good average speed, or is it for hours and hours covering larger distances but at a more relaxed pace? Have you got a head down, arse up race rep bike that’s as stiff as a very stiff thing and you like it like that, or do you have a “Sportive” geometry frame with a longer head tube and more forgiving back end?

Remember aero really only starts to make much difference as you’re approaching and exceeding 20mph, so if you’re spending almost all your time below this speed then I wouldn’t worry about an aero rim… Also, it’s not just overall wheel weight you need to look at, aero profile ally rims are quite a bit heavier than non aero and though they might not be any heavier as a wheelset, they may be built on lightweight hubs, and hub weight isn’t really an issue in the grand scheme of things. Certainly a good handbuilt on a lightweight rim will accelerate faster than a deep section aero (hence also be better for climbing)…

You pays yer money and takes yer choice as they say!

I’m agnostic about factory vs handbuilt most of the time.

However, I wouldn;t bother with Ksyrium Equipes – save up for some Ksyrium Elites, which are a much better wheel.

I do, however, intend to do some wheelbuilding this winter. It’s probably not time or cost efficient, but I’m OK with that.

Thanks all, great advice.
I’m going to price a jig and all the shiite.

Just bought some Open Pro/Miche small flange/Sapim track wheels for my fixed wheel commuter for the same price. And they are lovely – almost a kilo lighter than the old wheels/tyres, well made, true and even tensioned. One ping, and they are all set. Of course you have a much greater choice for “normal” road wheels. But Harry was polite, knowledgeable, and very prompt. Ordered last Friday, ridden on Wednesday. Perfectly packaged too.

I’ve got a set of open pros on miche just great wheels easy to get spares not that be need them in the two years I’ve had them. Great set up IMHO.

Djaustin, thanks, it’s great to hear.
Funnily enough, a friend has asked me to source a £2k bike for him.
None of them have wheels near the spec of those discussed above.
New road bikes seem to get rubbish wheels.

Currently having a similar problem – new roadie 4 months ago, head ruled heart and I ended up with aero cosmic carbone’s (they were a cheap upgrade!)

Now winter is approaching I want something a bit cheaper to run around and been thinking it would be nice to have a lighter wheelset as I struggle to keep up with mates on climbs.

I tend to average 17-18.5 mph range over a distances of upto 100 miles. So don’t think I am really getting the benefits of the carbones over the extra weight.

Those RS80’s look tempting at £300. I was also thinking about pro-lite bracchino’s but they seem to have gone up a bit.

Harry Rowland wheels are excellent

Personally at this price point (hate that phrase) I’d go for handbuilts. Ksyriums/Racing 5’s/RS80’s all look quite nice but aren’t actually that good a wheel and you’ll get much more for your money getting a hand built set.

I’ve just bought a jig, book and all the parts needed to build my own wheels, not because I’m trying to save money (there’s no way it can be cheaper now) but because I think there will be something satisfying about riding a set of wheels I’ve built. Or terrifying depending on how well it goes…

Flange, be interesting to see how it goes. What jig did you get?

Harry Rowland builds fantastic wheels. I have a pair of mtb wheels he built for me at least 15 years ago (Mavic 321 on DX hubs) which are still going strong. Money well spent!

i use some pro lite merano on my cx bike as was an amazing offer on so gave it a go, strong and lightweight, not had to true them yet.

im sure the bracciano would be great on the road

The saga continues, just been given a pair of Bontrager race light wheels this morning.
It’s got a ten speed shimano cassette. Thought I’d try it on my 9 speed campy set up.
Oddly enough, it seems to work. Should it?

It shouldn’t, Campag vs shimano 9s are near identical, 0.2mm per shift out IIRC? shimano 10s is narrower overall than 9.

As for wheels, I’m biased against factory stuff, due to the nightmare of getting spares for them in the past* (this may now be different). I also build my own (time not a huge factor: a couple of hours building for years of riding).

Earlier this year I built some stans alphas on a lightweight 24H front hub and 32H 105 rear. 1550gm for £250 IIRC. The ride and feel is great (mostly due to tubeless I think) but the rims have been a bit fragile. I kind of regret not building the PX tub rims, they are crazy light, but low spoke count.

My memory of miche equipment was that it’s a bit crap. People forget spares availability for shimano is actually very good – for that reason I’d buy their wheels over mavic (see *).