Road rim replacement options.

Need to replace my Stans Alpha rims as I can no longer see the wear indicator, would have just swapped with more Alpha’s but Stans don’t seem to make road rims anymore.

A few things I’m looking for:
– Alloy
– Rim brake
– 32 holes
– Pinned
– Tubeless compatible
– Wide-ish rims
– Fairly light
– Fairly strong
– Aero? Don’t even know if that’s a thing on standard road alloy rims

Looked at a few options but can’t decide on which ones, DT Swiss R460 seem like the obvious replacement but is it worth spending a few quid more on the 511’s?

Open to suggestions.

Love my Pacenti Forzas but they are a fair bit spendier than R460s for probably not much additional benefit (e.g. they might be 15g lighter per rim, possibly 0.5mm wider, I preferred the stickers 😉 )

If I had to replace them I would possibly be looking at Kinlin XR26T (asymmetrical rear) or XR26TS (symmetrical front) which are virtually identical to the Forzas/R460s.

I thought the 511s were just a more aero version of the R460s, the weight put me off but that’s a personal choice between aero and weight I guess.

Or go all in and get some HED Begium+ Wide, shallow, light, pimp, £150/rim…

How heavy are you?

The RR 511 is a bit hefty (like any semi-deep section alloy rim) but has a reputation for being tough as old boots and a great ‘big lads’ option.

The RR 411 is the shallower lightweight version, comes with DT’s PHR nipples and washers so tends to build into a stiffer wheel but whether it’s worth the extra £ over the R 460 depends on your priorities I guess.

I’m just shy of 77kg first thing in the morning just before jumping into the shower.

I’d like an aero (ish) option if possible but not convinced that they actually work. Would love to maximise my minimal power output.

The 411’s look like the ones so far, can get them from Germany for not much more than £50 each. Asymmetrical for the rear and regular for the front.

HED look nice but can’t bring myself to spend £300 on rims.

Pacenti Forza look decent but a bit dearer than the DT Swiss options.

Kinlin XR26T look decent at a decent price and are in the running just not that familiar with the brand.

Kinlin XR26T look decent at a decent price and are in the running just not that familiar with the brand.

Kinlin get a lot of plaudits, I think they make rims for a lot of other brands (Hunt etc?). If you check e.g. cycleclinic.co.uk (he seems a quite knowledgeable wheel builder) he really rates them.

Of course, my biggest problem with Kinlin is no stickers, I like rims with stickers… 🙁

I’ll check out cycleclinic.co.uk for the Kinlins, I find stickers just look tatty after awhile so I tend to peel them off.

There is a part of that is tempted just to buy a <£100 set of Shimano wheels as I’m not sure I could tell any difference from my old cheap Shimano RS100’s and my current (not as cheap) Hope RS Mono/Stans Alpha wheelset’s.

Kinlin XR31T again for me next, current ones have been used year round for a couple of years…should get another winter out of them before swapping the rims over.

Not bad at £50 odd a pop.

Looked at the rims on cycleclinic.co.uk and was confused by the choice so I think I’m going with the 411’s

I’m running dt Swiss 411s and they’ve been great, can’t complain.

Bought the 411’s, normal for the front and asymmetrical for the rear. After checking my chains I noticed that my cross and road bike chains are pretty worn so also bought a couple of KMC X11 EL 11-speed chains in gold. Blingy!

Thanks for everyone’s responses.

Have a chat with Ryan Builds Wheels; he does an own brand to that spec. I’ve had them for a few months with no problems.

No love for Open pros?

There is a part of that is tempted just to buy a <£100 set of Shimano wheels as I’m not sure I could tell any difference from my old cheap Shimano RS100’s and my current (not as cheap) Hope RS Mono/Stans Alpha wheelset’s.

You absolutely would/will notice, there is a significant weight difference and a good deal of that at the rim

I found a pair of Shimano RS100’s in my garage last night (I forgot I had them 😬).

They’re only 10 speed though so that’ll be why they’ve not been used in a while.

Looking forward to an evening sipping rum and swapping my rims over, perfect activity for this time of year.

Also started building a turbo bike out of spare parts, it’s one ugly bigger but it’ll do.

From what I’ve read, the open pros (UST type) are not very strong.

I really wanted to build some Open Pros but couldn’t get over the slightly old school dimensions.

I’m not a slavish convert to wider-is-better on rims, but I do think it helps to prevent pinch flats so for gravel and CX particularly I go wider.

If I was looking at Shimano Wheels I’d look for a deal on the Ultegra spec/RS500 TL wheels at least, the hubs have the ‘digital click’ adjust system which I think is a piece of beautiful engineering, all the benefits of cup and cone with super easy maintenance and adjustment.

Ultegra were one of my option when I bought my current Hope/Stans wheels but decided that I’d prefer to have a wheelset that I can get spares for.

I’m a bit of a Shimano fanboy but tend to only buy their wheels/brakes at the lower end of the market (slx/105 or lower) because of the whole spares thing (or lack of).
I have had a fair bit of xt in the past but can’t justify it anymore.