Help finding a lightish road wheelset for my gravel bike please

I could do with some help from you knowledgeable lot please.

I have gravel bike (2022 Specialized Diverge Carbon Pro) which I love bimbling about on rough roads & tracks etc locally, and is my only non MTB.  However, my partner has recently got into road cycling & so I’m suddenly finding myself riding on the road quite a bit.

Predictably, she’s far quicker than me, so rather than starting to exercise more or eat better, drink less, etc my immediate instinct is obviously to throw money at the problem.

I’m too lazy to change tires (especially as I set my gravel bike up tubeless) so I was thinking of taking advantage of the January sales & getting myself a lighter road wheelset, which I could pop some lighter, less chunky tires on.

Trouble is I’ve got no idea where to start?! I don’t really know what good looks like… I’m a bit clueless about what to look for or how much I realistically need to spend to get something compatible with my current bike.

I’ve got no idea what my stock wheelsets weighs to compare, so any help would be massively appreciated.

I got as far as looking at some of the stuff on Merlin Cycles before getting overwhelmed & giving up.

For context, I’m pretty short & light, so can definitely go with something at the lighter/less robust end. Needs to be disc brake & sram compatible… Budget I guess £300-400, but again don’t really know what’s appropriate/worth stretching to?

Anything with DT Swiss written on it would be a good place to start.

I just picked up a second set of Just Riding Along wheels sh this week, the new ones I got in the summer were £500ish and noticably better than the stock wheels on my 2024 Diverge Carbon.

Roval Alpinist SLX Disc 700c Wheelset are sub £500 and another option

When I bought a wheelset a few years back it was hard to beat Hunt for price vs weight. I ended up with 4seasons road wheels which are meant to be 1550g (that was the v1). Hubs are still running smooth since I got them in 2018. Feel fast and look decent.

These are probably the current version

HUNT 4 Season Pro Disc Wheelset

If you could go up to just over £600 you could get some carbon ones – the 40mm deep ones are probably a good allrounder:

HUNT 40 Carbon Disc Wheelset

Thanks everyone!

Taking your guts advice to look at Hunt – would these be a reasonable bet & work with my Diverge set up?

HUNT 4 Season Pro Disc Wheelset

Sorry Joebristol – I didn’t spot your links before replying… Thanks for the recommendations.

Definitely tempted by the carbon(!) but not sure I can justify… Would either work with my set up? (Sorry for being a bit clueless?)

Sticking with Hunt, I’ve got these on my Cervelo Caledonia with some 35mm tyres and noticed a massive difference over the stock wheels it came with. Alloy but still not a bad weight and the aero seems to make a difference.

HUNT 34 Aero Wide Disc SL Wheelset

Thanks!

Definitely look like Hunt are with exploring.

I’ve just found the spec from my current bike, it’s the Diverge Sport, not Pro

Looking at this, do you think any of the Hunt wheels mentioned above would be a worthwhile upgrade?

And additionally, is there anything I need to think about in terms of compatibility? (Guess I’ll need to buy another pair of rotors…)

Oh & least but not least, any advice re tires?

Thanks again & Ssrry for being so needy!

Looks like your bike has a 10-50 cassette so must have an XDR freehub. 142 x 12mm rear and 100 x 12mm front so any of the Hunt options for disc brakes should have an option that’ll fit your diverge.

For road tyres it’s hard to beat Continental GP5000s. On a gravel bike the 700c x 32c size should fit. Either tubeless or with tubes depending on your preference. For me at that size I’d run with tubes and fairly high pressure – 80-90 psi. If you’re running  lower then tubeless could work – it just doesn’t seal well at high road pressures.

GP5000 with some tpu tubes ( or tubeless)will make a big difference to speed. I would go 28mm for general road use.

Just noticed you’ve changed what you said your bike is – sport not pro.

In which case you still have the same acke standards, but you need a standard Shimano hg freehub I think.

Mine are the same as the gravel wheels. Miche hubs, sapim race and open pros. The gravel are shiny and the road are black. Not a bad weight but rim brakes. Bike is sub eight kilos and it doesn’t squeal when i try and stop!

11-32 gravel, 11-26 Road with a 44T chainring.

I run GP5000 30c on the road wheels on standard Open Pros. They are fabulous. 30c seems a decent comfort balance on 15 mm internal rims. And run 33c gravel tyres. Also fine yesterday off road.

For your budget id be looking at 2nd hand carbon wheels

The likes of Vision SC40’s etc.. pop up at around £400ish and weigh under 1600 grams

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=vision+sc40&_sacat=0&_from=R40&LH_PrefLoc=1&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

Fulcrum Wind 40 DB again are around £400 and weight around 1600 grams

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=fulcrum+wind+40db&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&rt=nc&_odkw=vision+sc40&_osacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1

Freehubs are easily availible for whatever cassette you run and are easy enough to change

For that budget I’d get a set of carbon wheels from Elite on AliExpress

If you’re thinking of spending £500 on wheels, why not go all in on a second hand road bike?

How slow are you compared to your partner? Do you think lighter wheels will make enough of a difference? As Matt say, get a 2nd hand road bike.

Happy New Year!

I run the Hunt Carbon 40 with GP5000s tubeless referenced above on my gravel bike and can keep up with my roady mate on the flat. Hills are a different matter unrelated to kit…. I have 2x 11spd GRX but don’t seem to miss the extra teeth on the big ring.

Makes a significant difference to how the bike feels on the road compared to the OE Giant CRX2 carbon gravel wheelset, mostly due to the tyres.

That combo is a bit above your budget though. If money is tight I’d grasp the nettle and swap tyres first to see if you get the gains you want. Unlike others on here, I’ve had no issues with the GP5000 tubeless set up, I run them at 60psi front and 65 rear. Punctures do happen but so far the worst have been fixed with a bung.

If you buy different wheels and swap them over with your current wheels depending on the ride you want to do, you will probably find that you need to realign the calipers so that they don’t rub with one set of wheels, unless you use identical hubs. 6 bolt rotors can be fixed with spacers, centre lock less easy. You will also need a cassette as well as rotors and tyres, so this adds to your cost and over time you will also need to manage the chain wear and the effect it has on the two cassettes. If you run a chain until it dies, you will probably need to replace both cassettes when you replace the chain.

So it is not quite as straightforward as just buying another set of wheels and tyres.

No doubt someone will be along shortly to counter the above 😉

How slow are you compared to your partner? Do you think lighter wheels will make enough of a difference?

Tyres. If you’re struggling to keep up with your partner and she’s on road tyres and you’re on gravel ones, the difference is possibly more rolling resistance rather than wheel weight, I’d have thought. Depending on the balance of your riding, you might be better off getting nicer gravel rims and just putting some big P5000s on your existing gravel wheels.

You can test the hypothesis by buying some 32mm or similar road tyres and sticking them on your gravel wheels and seeing if that helps. Having a wheelset that’s 200g lighter will feel nicer for sure – livelier, quicker to accelerate etc – but the tyres are going to make more difference to actual speed, I think. If you fit road tyres and still can’t keep up, you need to sort out your fitness 🙂

I was wondering what you’d get for about £500 full bike wise and it looks like you could score a decent carbon, rim braked roadie around your price range.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167134218593

Push the boat out a little and one of our regular posters has a tasty disk brake specialized that might fit you.

Specialized road bike size 52

I’ll probably have some 40mm deep Just Riding Along Mahi Mahi wheels for sale in the next few days – will be around your budget and will have HG/XD/XDR and Microspline free hubs coming with the set. Beautifully made and running – under 1500g (just check out the reviews and comments above). Drop me a line if interested #notsostealthad

Have a look at Strada handbuilt wheels.

I use my Crux as a fast road bike. I managed to get a set of these, Rival Alpinist.  DT swiss hubs and quite light. Brilliant wheelset.https://www.cyclesuk.com/shop/components/sub/wheels/specialized-alpinist-slx-disc-wheels-130063/option/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7NO7BhDsARIsADg_hIY7tjK8ZZgBhkNwplHrR49jugtU3IdmwVJLxr6pGzKQ2NWV3ulVElYaAolhEALw_wcB

Thanks for all the responses everyone & Happy New Year! 🙂

Super helpful stuff, although as always the way with STW, I seem to be quickly disappearing down a rabbit hole!

I can definitely see the appeal of just buying a secondhand road bike, but I love the diverge & so would rather just have that one bike, I think…?

In fact, I do actually have a road bike I need to accept was a mistake & sell (something I conveniently forgot to mention at the start of this thread!) On paper it’s perfect for me, but I’ve just never got on with it, whereas the Diverge is ace, so I’d rather stick with that, even if it is a bit more faff.

The good news though is that its sale would increase my wheel budget and allow for the tires, disc brakes & cassette I hadn’t really originally factored in.

I think the Hunt 4 Seasons are catching my eye the most at the moment as I think lower weight will have more impact than aerodynamics given I’m pretty slow!  (Though happy to be told I’m wrong on that) And the more blingy carbon ones for just over ~£600 look lovely.

My wife, rather unkindly, has just suggested I could consider an e-bike. Rude! So yes, BadlyWiredDog, you’re not wrong that I should look at my fitness!

But in all seriousness, she is just way more powerful than me, so regardless of bike/wheels/tires, I won’t keep up on the flats (her power stats are a bit insane!). However, less rolling resistance & weight should help when it comes to climbing as I used to be able to almost match her on the ups when she was on her old bike & I can still match her on the downs simply because I’m less risk adverse. But I’m still objectively slow by roadie standards.

Also a big fan of GPS5000 30mm and latex tubes, running not too hard, I’m 95kg and run 80PSI.
Ebike would be useless on the flat

But in all seriousness, she is just way more powerful than me, so regardless of bike/wheels/tires, I won’t keep up on the flats (her power stats are a bit insane!).

You need to buy heavier wheels for her bike and fit draggy gravel tyres to them 🙂

Finally some genuinely helpful advice, thank you BadlyWiredDog!

Give her a set of marathon plus tyres and some extra cheap Halfords inner tubes. Also learn to ride in her draft half a wheel behind her. Not three bike lengths.

a more radical solution is to buy her an AIRhub https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/02/hands-airhub-resistance.html

But the obvious solution is a second hand tandem. Why not try one? “Wherever your relationship is going, you’ll get there faster on a tandem”.

Ha, excellent solutions TiRed!

We actually did do a few tandem rides when we went on holiday to the Isle of Skye & randomly found one in the shed of our Airbnb! It was mildly terrifying to begin with, but was brilliant fun once we got the hang of and she definitely did the lion’s share of the work, which was perfect! ?

For now though, I think I’ll look at investing in some wheels and tires recommended above, and maybe, just maybe working on my fitness a bit more as well… Though knowing how STW works, I’ll probably have bought a new road bike by the end of the week! ? (This is why I left this place years ago… I’m too easily led!)

But in all seriousness, this thread has inspired me to have a bit of clear out following my rather embarrassing acknowledgement that I actually do own a road bike already, but have ridden it so little I’d basically forgotten it existed! ?

I wonder what else is lurking in the shed…?!

You could always ask her to ride at your speed so that you actually ride together and you enjoy it as you’re not just trying to keep up. There are two sides to it!

6 bolt rotors can be fixed with spacers, centre lock less easy

centrelock are easy too. Shims are available from various places and can be doubled up etc… I have three sets of centrelock wheels and I have shimmed them all so no calliper realignment necessary when swapping wheels over.

I’d echo the point that tyres are the main thing, to the extent that it’s not worth getting too hung up on the wheels or trying to eek more out of your budget or chase carbon/aero gains, buy what you can afford.

A second wheelset, ideally able to do tubeless, with the best tyres you can manage is the way to go IMO, and that needs not cost a fortune.

If you can’t swing tubeless look for the quality tubed equivalents (generally cheaper still) and maybe try latex or TPU tubes (I’m a fan of TPU).

Use a tyre pressure calc to set pressures too, lots of people run too high a pressure.

There are noticeable rolling improvements to be had for us muggles with relatively simple/cheap tweaks.

Hunt gravel race on mine

I’ll probably have some 40mm deep Just Riding Along Mahi Mahi wheels for sale in the next few days – will be around your budget and will have HG/XD/XDR and Microspline free hubs coming with the set. Beautifully made and running – under 1500g (just check out the reviews and comments above). Drop me a line if interested #notsostealthad

I’ve these wheels and bought for exactly the same reason as the OP.

Run them with Schwalbe Pro One’s setup tubeless, 30mm front and 34mm rear.

I’ve cassettes & rotors installed on both sets of wheels, means it’s simple 5 min clean task to swap.

^^ That. EDIT – too slow at typing! What cookea said.

Also, 80 psi on a tubeless tyre is too high IMO. Too high for maximum performance/efficiency and too high to work effectively if you do get a puncture. 30mm tyres are the sweet spot as far as I am concerned and 30mm on a 19-21mm internal width rim will run very nicely at 60-65psi depending on bike/rider weight.

I’m currently running a 35mm GP5000AS tyre as a winter option and although it’s a (tiny) bit slower than the 30mm summer version it’s perfect for comfortable, reassuring winter riding.

I’ve got DT Swiss Gr 1600 wheels on my Diverge. Currently 300 quid at Merlin and a huge improvement on the stock wheelset.

Those GR1600s won’t fit the OPs bike as they are 148/110 boost and the OPs bike is 142/100 I think..

I have those wheels though for gravel duties and they are indeed excellent.

I bought a set of these and fitted 32mm Gravelking Slicks and they absolutely fly along. I think there was a better/extra sale on as I’m sure I paid closer £400 but maybe that’s just rose-tinted testacles:

HUNT 34 Aero Wide Disc SL Wheelset

They feel (and according to Strava are allegedly) faster than the ~50mm carbon Mavic Cosmics that were on it (albeit with tubed GP4000’s) and are noticeably less prone to side winds when passing gates/junctions etc.