I’m looking for road wheels to run as a second set on my gravel bike. In an ideal world I’d be after a set of Zipp 303s but don’t have the spare cash for those currently. I’ve been looking at DT Swiss ER 1600 SPLINE 32mm which seem a nice mix of weight, price (at Merlin) and features (plus I have a 36t ratchet to swap in). I don’t know a huge amount about road wheels so am wondering if what similar alternatives are worth a look?

Tyres will be 28mm Schwable One Pros and I’m after something at least 20mm internal with some aero (hence 32mm not the lighter 23mm version).

I guess it depends what you want from the wheels. My Gradient has Hunt Carbon Grave Wides, and those have a recommended minimum tyre of 34mm. In winter road bike mode I put 36mm GK Semi-slicks on and it’s plenty fast enough on the road. So I’ve abandoned my initial plan to buy another set of wheels.

After something faster and lighter than the novatec/WTB set that are on it now (2kg ish). Will be used year round and would be nice if they were tough enough for cx (though I could use the current set for that). I think carbon is out of budget (unless SH, but SH carbon…). I’d like some aero benefits, I think 32mm deep is on the edge of getting this.

My Tempest came with Fulcrum 900s and 43mm tyres. I bought Fulcrum 500s from Merlin and stuck road tyres on, between 25mm & 35mm, depending on route. Having the identical make of hub and centrelock disc means the wheels swap without requiring any mech or brake adjustment.

Having the identical make of hub and centrelock disc means the wheels swap without requiring any mech or brake adjustment.

This every time.

I used to run two sets, but eventually found it more hassle than it was worth. I had one alloy set dt swiss / hope combo with some 45c tyres and one carbon with tune hubs with 28c. However other than not having to swap tyres out regularly I didn’t really find the benefits of the alloy gravel set & ended up keeping the carbon one on all the time with a tyre that could do both road and off road dutie and had some 38c tyres.

That is what I did previously using G-One allround tyres. That’s fine for recreational riding but when I’m doing (road bike only) TTs and the club road segment hunting several times a month the alround tyres are not so good. I’d end up swapping tyres 4-6 times per month which I cannot face. I’d love an n+1 but cannot justify that (while wheels I can).

Having the identical make of hub and centrelock disc means the wheels swap without requiring any mech or brake adjustment.

Very good point.

Vel from Sigma are still on sale.

The VEL 50 RLs aren’t as cheap as they were last October when I bought my set (still part way through setting them up) at £525, but for aero, paying the extra £50 at the mo for 85 RLs sounds a good deal right now.

https://www.sigmasports.com/wheels/road?manufacturer_name%5B%5D=vel&sort=price_low_high&p=1

budget?

Budget not fixed but if became much more I’d wait and save for the 303s. The DTs are £329 currently and I have Merlin loyalty vouchers that reduce that a little more.

The DTs are good wheels at that price, I have the CR1600 as my gravel wheels and a pair of PR1400 (240s hubs) as my road ones.

MY Crs originally had the 18t ratchets, but I’ve swapped them with the 1400s, I wanted the quieten down the road wheels and wasn’t too worried about the slower engagement.

They mount up tubeless easily and have stayed straight even with me the wrong side of 100kg bashing them around.

Wife has Vels cheaper gravel carbon wheels and is very happy with them.

I’ve got Hope Pro 5 with DT GR531 rims and cx-ray spokes. Very happy with them also.

The vels do look interesting (though I can’t stop looking at the 240 hubbed version).

I have Prime carbon wheels (28 Black Edition IIRC) on my road bike and they are superb.

Worth a look on CRC/Wiggle for nice discounts (I paid £500), though the RRP isn’t outrageous.

Those dt’s look nice for the price tbh – although I can’t find a weight for them.

Hunt road wheels have been ok for me – got the v1 4 seasons road wheels. Supposed to weigh 1550g which seemed the lightest wheels for the price when I picked them up in 2018. Hubs haven’t caused any issues and they’ve been ridden through several winters commuting in all weathers. Make a nice clicky noise too for warning pedestrians on shared paths that you’re coming.

HUNT 4 Season Disc Wheelset

Looks like they’re £299 at the moment.

Had the same conundrum a couple of years back – ended up picking up some Hunt Aero Wide 34s in their nearby new/renew sale thing. 19mm internal, run well with 32s, aero for alloy and are light enough at 1550ish grams.

Been really happy with them. Though the gravel wheels are also Hunts so a bit less swap over faff helps. On offer at the mo too:

HUNT 34 Aero Wide Disc SL Wheelset

https://scribecycling.co.uk/
I have three sets now, all been faultless.
Carbon 3850’s, alloy pace (rim) and 365D.