I’ve got a Kinesis R1 which I’ve had for 2 years now. I like it.

I’m thinking of treating it to new wheels… because everyone says nicer wheels are the first best upgrade. (I’m already running Conti GP5Ks.) It’s not that there’s anything actually wrong with the current ones!

The wheels on there have tidy-seeming hubs (no trouble at all so far) and Alex Draw 1.9p rims. The only wheelset I can find built with those is at Merlin , they are cheap but get good feedback and look like a reasonable weight.

So I’m really not sure what/why/cost to feel a noticeable improvement.

Confounding factors are:
I’m not particularly fast, I can hold 20mph on the flat for a while but I’m very slow uphills because…
… I’m 97kgs, and…
… I ride around rural Wales, so not only are there very many climbs for me to be slow up, but the roads are pretty banged up too.

All of which trends against super light wheels; they’ll have to be able to cope with big lumps both on top and underneath 🙂

Could I see an improvement at £££ and not ££££?
Will I really notice it at all, or just get purchase justification, if the wheels are strong enough?
Should I just ride the wheels I’ve got until they break and worry about it then? (I think this may be the real answer…)

That rim appears to be 450g in weight so I would say whatever you change too will make very little difference unless you are going more aero and would be starting at around £400 I would guess but probably nearer £800 if you actually want to notice a difference.

What’s your budget?

There’s a pair of Sonder alpha Aeros in the classifieds 😉

I’m pretty happy with the Hunt wheels I’ve had.

as a slow unfit overweight rider I have noticed that deep section wheels did feel liked the helped especially in head winds. Even if they don’t they look cool. I had lightish shallow rims before 1580g 28mm deep now have 56mm deep 1620g wheels.

like above what is your budget.

As above, those rims are about as light as you can get.
You might save some weight in the spokes – depends on what’s there at the moment.

I recently switched from carbon 40mm rims to alu 28mm rims, and I can tell no difference whatsoever.

However, carbon rims unquestionably look more awesome, this is a scientific fact.

Budget could be several hundred pounds… Merlin have a good few wheelsets nicely reduced, which is what set me off wondering… but the whole bike was only £1500, so I don’t want to go silly.

how much do your current wheels actually weigh?

my bike was £1200

I’d get a pair of hand built wheels and tell the builder what you want. They’ll build accordingly. They’ll be stiffer than what your riding now and you’ll notice that. You won’t notice any aero gains. And you’re already running the best tyres.

I have a set of dura ace and mavic cxp33s that everyone says ride better than most carbon wheels. They were our team spares for a couple of seasons too so saw a lot of action on Surrey lanes/potholes. The front one won a race after a carbon rim cracked mid race. I was riding with him at the time (my wheel won a race!!!)

how much do your current wheels actually weigh?

Dunno, to be honest. Doesn’t seem like anyone who’s reviewed it have weighed them, either. I’d assumed they would be relatively heavy, but it seems like these rims build into reasonably light wheels.

I’m definitely getting the feeling that “wait til they break” is likely the best option – I don’t think I spend enough time on the flat to make aero worthwhile (less than a quarter of today’s ride, according to Elevate; less than 9% if you say within +/- 0.5% grade) and sounds like adding lightness won’t be cheap.

I recently bought some Cero AR24 Eco wheel which are a very good price for the weight.

They cost £199 and weight 1460 grams (without skewers) which is very light but they are rim brake wheels.
They also already have tubeless rim tape and came with valves. They ride very well but I only weight 67kg so not giving them a hard time.

The Cero AR30 disc is even lighter at 1400 grams but is £399.

I don’t think I spend enough time on the flat to make aero worthwhile

remember than you have to take into account the head wind as well. Aero wheels will make a difference.

See what your current wheels weigh then decide what to do.

Unless you are racing the gains from either lighter and/or more aero wheels are not going to give you a noticeable improvement – unless you can notice a 30 second save in an hour.

Just get the wheels you think look nicest/appeal to you 🙂

The rims are 450g according to the Alex rims website. Not sure how many spokes as weirdly the website doesn’t give this information.

Are the hubs completely devoid of any identification – the Kinesis website doesn’t claim a brand for them. It might be they’re really cheap heavy hubs, 28 spoke count and cheap spokes.

If that’s the case then a fancier wheelset might make a bit of a difference.

Looking at Hunt rim weights their alloy rims are ballpark similar to your current one. An ‘aero light’ disc rim is claimed at 430g and is 20 spoke front / 24 spoke rear. Their wheels sets mostly use triple butted pillar spokes which I believe are pretty light.

Not sure on their hub weights – but their lightest alloy wheelset is claimed at 1443g for £429.

Their lightest carbon wheelset is 32mm profile (so not fully aero – but as I understand it once you get to 30mm the gains to 40 / 50mm profiles are pretty small) and weighs 1213g but costs a whopping £1249 and has carbon spokes etc.

I am 90kgs, I ride on road and off road on these. They are noticeably lighter and more sprightly than the wheels on mrs_oabs bikes and on my sons Boardman. They are three years old and I tweaked tension last week for the first time.

https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-rda-2-disc-clincher-road-wheelset-700c-245873.html

Don’t usually hear the words lighter and sprightly when talking about 2KG wheels, those wheels on the other bikes must be extremely heavy 🙂
Can’t really see how those wheels could be noticeably better than the OPs current wheels.

I replaced a set of 2KG wheels with the 1.5kg Cero’s mentioned above and while I could notice it when lifting up my bike I honestly can’t say I noticed it when riding.

I would say you might notice a fair difference, I had a spesh Roubaix with their own wheels, I got a pair of fulcrum racing 3s. It was like a different bike, the wheels being lighter felt more responsive and acceleration was snappier. I would also say the engagement was better because they simply had betters hubs. I think if you have a 2kg wheel set then dropping down to something approx 500g less is significant.

If your standard wheelset is close to 2kgs you will notice a difference dropping off half a kilo. Not hugely in your times on segments – more how the bike feels when you sprint or put down some more power.

On a previous bike just going from some standard (heavy) ritchey wheels to some bottom end mavic aksiums really
Made a different – hub was quicker reacting and the weight loss helped. The Hunts on my current bike feel really reactive and quick and they’re only 4seasons road wheels near the cheap end of their range. Hub makes a nice noise too.

Don’t usually hear the words lighter and sprightly when talking about 2KG wheels, those wheels on the other bikes must be extremely heavy

Have you picked up some OEM wheels?
Mrs_oab’s old Giant 700c wheels were 2.7kg. 😱
So yes, a (just) sub 2kg wheel is great.

I’d get a pair of hand built wheels and tell the builder what you want

This. A good builder will ask about your riding and make recommendations accordingly.

All I would say is that I went from various slightly better than stock wheelsets and splashed on some Zipp 303’s and the difference is night and day, they accelerate very quickly and do improve avg speed. Best buy though is that the wheels are still as true as the day I bought them.

Zipp 303’s will withstand a lot of abuse

303 or 303s funkydunc?

Have you picked up some OEM wheels?

No, I am not strong enough.

As with all these things though funny how some people claim losing 500g is a revelation yet when I lost 500g it made no noticeable difference as presumably a lot of the weight I saved was on hubs and spokes rather than rims so any steering feel is much of a muchness as unless going expensive carbon most alloy rims are around 450g.

Aero is another matter and changing to some 60mm rims will be a measurable amount quicker over an hour.

I have just got myself some prime 38mm deep carbon wheels and my bike is considerably faster whilst sat outside the cafe than it used to be. Fact.

faster whilst sat outside the cafe than it used to be. Fact.

Pah! When I ride by HED Jet 6/9′ F/R combo, I have to tie the bike down when parked, it’s just so fast – that 900 (count’em) mm rim on the rear is awesome (and a pain for valve stems). They are my fastest road wheels – not lightest, but definitely fastest. I reserved them for racing. They looked unbelievable (in the photos) and I bought them used for £400. Best of all they have an alloy braking surface.

For ride quality, however, the Magic CXP33’s on Dura Ace with Sapim spokes, handbuilt by Harry Rowland, are far nicer and about the same weight. You will notice a kilo off the wheels, but not half a kilo. Tyres make the most difference and you’re on GP5Ks already. Go handbuilt. Possibly modest section rims, nice hubs.

Argh, I’ve been having a similar dilemma on the ‘good’ road bike, is i.e. would I notice any improvement over a set of Fulcrum 3s?

1550g for the set, 24mm/30mm rims with no obvious nods to aero. Lovely smooth spinning hubs.

I could go ~100g lighter AND slightly more aero with some JRA Mahi-Mahi in 35mm but I doubt the hubs would be as smooth (generic cartridge vs. well adjusted cup and cone).

Main reason I wanted to upgrade was to increase the internal rim width as I have a new frame coming that can accommodate wider tyres, would you notice 17mm -> 19mm?

I went from similar wheels to aero ones. mine are Prime Primavera with 23 internal 30mm external and a 56mm deep rim. I’d go wider than 19mm unless you are using narrow 23mm tyres.

Hmm those primes have a DT star ratchet clone.