Delving into the murky world of OEM wheels here.

Bianchi are now doing a relatively nice looking gravel bike (‘relatively’ as in, if you’ve always hankered after a celeste Bianchi since you were a kid).

Problem is, when I was looking at road bikes a couple of years ago, I couldn’t get over the level of nasty cost saving components on Bianchi bikes, a £2k Potenza road bike actually had FSA cranks, FSA brakes, cheap wheels, etc. etc.

On their GRX600 gravel bike they only cost saving appears to be the GRX400 brakes and the Alex CDX22 wheels. Doing a bit of research it appears Alex make wheels for a lot of others (wondering if they actually make the rims for Novatec wheels) so wondering if these might actually be OK.

At £2k I won’t be leaving any budget to upgrade the wheels so don’t want to be stuck with something lumpen and dull.

Ta

Not sure about thouse wheels, but I’ve had no real complaints with the Alex rims CDX4 wheelset on my ‘cross bike. Easy to set up tubless, still reasonably true given I run pressures that result in rim clatters most races. Bearings didnt last super long before replacing, but I guess with mud and jet-washing that may not be surprising.

Yeah, I don’t doubt that they’ll be solid, just not sure they’ll be anything special. Had secretly hoped that they were actually the same as the Novatec CXDs, based on the name, but a quick spoke count on the picture above suggests not, 32 spokes front and rear, so not a race wheel anyway!

There’s a Bianchi shop near me in Edinburgh, will wait for an excuse to go and tyre kick..

Like most OEM wheels, they’re probably the best you can get from a Taiwanese catalog for 50p and a fluff covered half sucked boiled sweet.

410g, so fairly light. But only 17mm internal width so the lightweight it hardly surprising. Those hubs have sealed bearings which is nicer than some Formula offerings but quite heavy.

If you want really good wheels then something will have to give, either budget or the name on the down tube. It is a nice looking bike though, you could always buy it then get some nice wheels in Spring once winter has done it’s worst if they turn out to be bad. But really you would be saving weight in the hubs and getting a wider (probably slightly heavier) rim so it’s borderline unless you were spending quite a lot.

Or if you can bear the shame of having 105 rather than GRX on the crank, the 2019 version is on sale for £400 less!

32 spokes front and rear, so not a race wheel anyway!

Depends on your definition of gravel, I picked up some bargain 28h stans rims and question the sanity of that particular bargain fairly frequently.

Unlike road wheels they’ll be shod with 200g heavier tyres and another 200g (at least) of mud for half the year. Saving 50g on the spokes is a few seconds over 100km. Having to bail out due to a buckled wheel is a very slow and expensive taxi ride back from the arse end of nowhere.

Huh, good research skills there TiNaS! The hubs seem OK actually, 150g and 355g a piece, 410g from the rims + 500g for DB spokes and nipples = 1825g.

Maybe not bloaters after all, my budget of approx £350 – £500 for new wheels wouldn’t get you much lighter for the sort of features I want, maybe 150g at best.

Could even look at re-building with fancy spokes if I could be bothered, or maybe after a first season of CX.

OK Bianchi, you’re back in the room!

My avro (Road bike) came with Alex cxd26 rims. I’ve used them for a few years. They are still true, on the same bearings and easy to set up tubeless. I think they weigh 1600g. I can’t fault them.

If you wanted to save some weight just change the rear hub. 355g is on the heavy side. The rims are a good weight.