New lightweight disc road wheels £400 max – Thoughts please

Just picked up a Giant TCR Advanced disc as an insurance replacement for my sunday best road bike. Unfortunately as seems to be standard anytime I buy a Giant bike I want to replace the 2100g Giant PR2 wheelset with something a little less portly. 12×100 Front, 12×142 Rear and 6-bolt required. Not particularly fussed about aero/deep profile, my preferred riding is lots of hills NW of Leeds and into the dales so priority is lightweight over aero.

So far my leading contender are a set of CRC’s Prime wheels CRC @ £269 (with BC discount). I haven’t heard much about these, I assume they are similar to the now deceased Cosine wheels? Seem great value at 1460g with tubeless valves, tape and hub axle converters.

Or Kinesis Crosslight Disc V4 Merlin @ £315 for 1650g. I am fairly certain these will be bulletproof.

Getting more pricey again Mason Hunt 4 seasons Mason @ £369 for 1585g. I know these are highly regarded but are they worth the extra £100 over the primes or £55 over the Kinesis?

Finally some Chinese carbonzzzz ICAN @ £330 for 1520g. I have heard good things about ICAN, I assume I will get stung for some sort of import tax or otherwise.

Any other suggestions or thoughts on the above?

If these DT Swiss R23 Spline Discs[/url] ever come back into stock at that price, they’d probably be worth considering.

Thanks Mowgli, on the list, I’m sure they can be sourced elsewhere too.

I have the same wheels on my Defy and keep looking at the wheels you’ve listed and keep wondering if those very light Prime wheels will really be any faster given they are likely to be less aerodynamic than the PR2’s. And even if they are will I notice after the first ride. I guess what I really need to do is break the PR2’s to justify a new set of wheels but at 55KG I think I’ll have my work cut out to break them 🙂

Can’t compare with the others but had a set of the Hunts for a couple of months now and they are excellent; well-built, light, great hubs and great service from Hunt. Look great as well. Running then tubeless and have not died yet

Even better if you don’t have to wait six weeks for them to come into stock..

@avdave2 – saving half a kilo on your wheels will make an astonishing difference in my experience

@avdave2 – I agree with badddad, saving that much weight will be night and day

Been running these for 3-4months road and gravel was a bit put off when found made in Raleigh factory as in turned out by the thousand but have run superbly
Hub a bit noisy when freewheel useful on shared paths for me

[Url]https://www.merlincycles.com/pro-build-chosen-hub-alex-draw-19-road-cx-disc-wheel-700c-98436.html[/url]

Pricing might be in au $ couldn’t get to change but should be in budget
If think need qr convertors then do have to pay extra

If I was you I’d go for the prime wheels, based on having 2 sets of the Cosines. Primes have the anti-bite insert on the hubs the cosines lacked, rims look the same shape. The cosines were pretty close to the claimed weight and those primes are a bit lighter still if memory serves. And they are the cheapest!

Antigee – Thanks for that suggestion, they look good and great price too. I’ll add them to the list.

Vintagewino – I admit I am finding it hard to look past the primes and I knew that the Cosine wheels were highly regarded before they were replaced by the Prime brand.

got the Kinesis crosslights, very pleased with them despite me being (previously) 90kg plus and having used them both on and off road they haven’t missed a beat

I did the same with my Private Jake, opted for the DT Swiss R23, I like them, came with all the adapters, taped for tubeless with spare tape, valves, etc. They look real nice. Been abused on local trails & 3 Peaks and no problems so far.

I have made this decision (all be it non disc) recently.

I also looked at Just riding along on the back of a superb set of CX wheels I bought from them many years ago. Spokesman on ebay and DCR wheels. Superstar components as well.

I went with Prime from CRC. They were nearly half the price of the others. They come with spare spokes, nipples and a few othereful bits. On digging I found they are likely very similar to the other options just in a less flash/hyped marketing package. Weights are very good for alloy wheels. Not going to get much better withough going super pricey or carbon.

They look nice, I’ve not actually done much riding on them as they were for my nice bike.

Got some Kinesis wheels on my new CX bike, they are solid having done a good number of races now.

Thanks Jonba for the good feedback, I do like the look of them, plus all the extras that are in the package. Seems very customer friendly to me.

snownrock – I bought a set of the Prime Pro Disk road wheels a month ago for my CX bike.

Only done about 400km dry riding on them so far so can’t comment on reliability as they’re intended as my ‘budget’ Winter wheelset but am pretty impressed with how they ride. Stiffer than I thought they’d be (I’m about 79-80kg in bike gear), and a doddle to set up tubeless with some Gravel King SK 35mm tyres.

With the current discount + BC 10% they are really good value for money. It’s also nice that they come with the tubeless valves, all the required axle adaptors, 3 spare spokes, and 3 spare nipples.

In terms of the wheel components they’re rebranded Novatec hubs with Alex ATD01 tubeless rims.

Spokesman.co.uk 24 spoke builds on Novatech hubs with H Plus Son Archetype rims – never needed truing even with my fat arse on them, but easily rebuilt more or less anywhere if required. I’ve not weighed them but I think they were calculated around the 1600g mark. They look mint too which is all important 🙂

In terms of the wheel components they’re rebranded Novatec hubs with Alex ATD01 tubeless rims.

Thanks bennyboy1

What’s the freehub sound like on the Primes?

Another vote for Spokesman: Stans Grail rims, CX-ray spokes and Novatec hubs. Bang on 1600g. You could go lighter if you didn’t need a tubeless rim.

Go for the Prime’s mate.

Fantastic wheels and incredible value. Only difference between them and the bigger brands is, that you’re not paying middle men along the way which push the prices of wheels up, without adding any end value or performance. Good friend is riding the Prime Pro alloy set albeit in rim brake, and he’s a bigger fella. 6ft5 & 125kg without kit, and the wheels have clocked over 2000 trouble free miles.

Best bang for buck out there.

@avdave2 – I agree with badddad, saving that much weight will be night and day

Not sure I wanted to read that 🙂

I have a set of Kinesis cx discs for sale. If you are interested.

These…

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/novatec-cxd-clincher-disc-brake-wheelset-road/

300 quid (though that might be my Prime discount), nicely wide, sub 1500g (and they really are), come with tubeless valves, and a bunch of axle adapters.

Those Novatecs look good but without any discount they are £360.

With the positive feedback on the Prime wheelsets i’m just trying to decide between the Prime Race at £190 (including centrelock adaptors) or the Prime Pro at £270. £80 to save 180g, seems like a lot.

Less than 50p per gram, pretty good value really as far as weight saving goes.

I have the Kinesis Crosslight’s and the Hunts. They are both very good wheels. I have about 5k miles on the former and 2k on the latter with no issues. You should be able to pick up the Crosslight’s for ~£250 if you look around. I got mine BNIB pre loved for £180 which was a bit of a bargain.

If you can get Crosslight’s for £250, I would in a heartbeat.

Less than 50p per gram, pretty good value really as far as weight saving goes.

I suppose, its all in the rim too as they use the same hubs and spokes.

I got the CRC Primes; superb wheelset.
Also got the Kinesis racelight wheelset … not nearly as good.

Ah c’mon – is the freehub noisy or what?

What is the obsession with freehub noise? Does it matter?

What is the obsession with freehub noise? Does it matter?

I don’t like noisy freehubs when I’m riding on the road.

I don’t like noisy freehubs when I’m riding on the road.

Pedal more 🙂

I only like to hear the slight hum of tyres on tarmac and the wind whistling past my ears as I descend at approx 7000mph

I was just looking at those ICAN carbon wheels that snownrock linked to and the front is listed as radially spoked. Can’t be right for a disc-braked wheel Shirley?

A mate has a rim cracked between spoke holes on Kinesis Crosslight V4 HD. 2 yrs old max On Road use. No redress from Kinesis.

I’m using an older set of std V3 though. I replaced the crumbly alu nips with Brass and have had no issues.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I think its going to be the Prime wheels.

Pedal more

I leave that to the people I’m wheelsucking.

Tagged, will be buying some wheels in the next few weeks so will revisit 🙂

I built some DT RR 411DB rims on Novatec 411/412 hubs with Competition Race spokes, 1420g actual weight, and £300.

Unfortunately njee I would have to include the cost of a wheelbuilder or the purchase of tools to do it myself. That solution will still be more expensive than the Primes anyway.

Have you had a word with your LBS?

Mine built me a nice set of burly “gravel” wheels for £380 that are lighter than the stock set from my Arkose.