Road wheels…..again…

Planning quite a lot of racing this year and want to be able to contribute some wheels to the support van, therefore, I’m using it as an excuse to get something new.

I’ve come up with a budget of ~£400 (pretty much plucked from thin air).

First two on my list are more mainstream factory builds;
Fulcrum Racing 3 (1555g) -I’ve got 5’s that came on the bike and have been very happy with them- and Kyserium Elites (1550g).
Then the Planet X offerings; 52mm carbon Clinchers (1796g)or 50mm carbon tubs (1421g)

My racing is in Scotland which is why I’m veering towards an ally braking surface and the cost of tub tyres is why i’m thinking clinchers.

I don’t expect the carbon rims to have a huge aero advantage, I just like the idea intimidating folk in crits with the noise 😈 which may backfire and end with me getting may ass handed to me on a plate 😆

So; anything else I should consider, any of those I should avoid, am i right to think carbon braking and scottish weather aren’t a great combo, should I go for tubs, should i go handbuilt???????

I’ll hopefully get a nosey at Al’s Stans and Planet-x carbon tubs in the next week or two which may or may not help…

Shimano RS80s and pocket £100? Put some ti skewers on to get them lighter still.

A set of handbuilts?

talk to strada, i ended up with some really nice volocity a23’s

Novatechs on Alphas would get my vote. £300 and c1200g.

Andy after more research I’ve binned the carbon rim/tub concept, weight is not all, ride seems as good with tubeless (some say better), and tubs may still remain a faff.

Here’s my 1500gm/£250 build: Alpha 340 24/32 ebay front, 105 rear, 26p ACI 17g spokes from sdeals.

Can go to 1415gm 24/24 & revs or even 1265gm with ebay 200gm rear hub for similar money, £400 would get you 1265gm with an AM rr hub with established reliability, go for alloy nipples (I wouldn’t) and you are 1200gm range*

I think tubeless is the main perceiveable (comfort) benefit.

*I’ve been supposed to be writing an essay recently so made time for lots of lightweight wheel research.

What is this AM rr hub you talk of?

I’ve been eyeing up those dati hubs (194g front 64g rear)

Do you not think 50mm aero is an advantage? (so i keep being told). I’m in the same boat. Would love a set of lightweight wheels for RR, crits and TT’s. Also tempted by some 50mm carbon tubs

I’m unconvinced about the 24 spokes thing; it will be interesting to see if they prove reliable enough to make them worth while.

American Classic, £200, 205gm, jra.

Aero may well be an advantage, I don’t race (tho I play in chain gangs now and again), so things I can feel matter more, like tubeless.

My 80gm ebay front hub was £20.

Of course the carbon rims would take 190gm of those builds for similar money, blimey, 1,000gm for <£300!

can you strech to these? light as you like 🙂
http://road.cc/content/review/48341-soul-s20-wheelset

ebay 200gm hubs. Campag record are 321 for the rear and dura-ace is a similar weight. Are those ebay weights accurate. Also be aware to adding up manufactures claims some of them are not entirley true.

Those Alpha look like interesting rims. Might have to try some.

can you strech to these? light as you like

You mean heavier than many of the other suggestions, whilst costing significantly more? 😕

Shimano RS80s

Not keen on Shimano factory road wheels after one of DGOABs spokes snapped and threw the wheel so far out of shape it wouldn’t even clear the frame.

Andy after more research I’ve binned the carbon rim/tub concept, weight is not all, ride seems as good with tubeless (some say better), and tubs may still remain a faff.

this was what I was thinking so I’m pretty much decided on that one.

I’ll happily spend less than my budget (I need wheels and a fork for my 29er too) and I’m pretty sure I won’t be at the sharp end so not too obsesed by weight.

Will look into the Stans, although I am still tempted by the planet X carbon clinchers (I think its a fairing on an ally rim)…

Of course the carbon rims would take 190gm of those builds for similar money

you mean the ones you have?

*brain dribbles out ears*

I’ve been supposed to be writing an essay recently so made time for lots of lightweight wheel research

😆

mustard – Member
one of DGOABs spokes snapped and threw the wheel so far out of shape it wouldn’t even clear the frame.

Any low spoke count wheel will do this.

And yes – 340s weigh 350gm, px 20mm carbons weigh 270gm so that’s 160gm, 4 less spokes = 20gm so OK more like 180gm.

As I say, tubeless seems to make the biggest difference. If you’re nice you can have a shot of mine. I’d probably be fine on ebay hubs and 24/24, but I realised my last wheels had 5 years on them without issue, and thought I should play it safe.

Think I’ll give the Stans a shot, will do some hub homework tonight. Do you need tubeless ready tyres or any and a splash of gunk?

I should have added that it also took ages to get hold of the Shimano spoke and spoke sleeve (? not sure if that bit was bikeshop waffle or not).

I’ve only used the Hutchison Fusions, there’s been a few threads on here re std tyres (and there’ll be a lot more info on weight weenies).

Yup some spares are tough to get…shimano are by no means the worst culprit AFAIK…another reason to use std spokes…

Fulcrum 3 excellent wheels but,six weeks to get a new spoke.

6 weeks for a spoke – did they have to make it specially?! – I think 1 set of fulcrums will be enough for me then.

Stans, standard J bend spokes and … hubs.

I think… 🙄

Thinking about those Dati hubs, can’t see anything negative about them (haven’t looked all that hard).

Almost ordered the stans alphas but procrastinated too long last night and have started thinking about deep section carbon again…

Njee – are the Novatecs these ones from SDeals? Bloody cheap!

Njee – are the Novatecs these ones from SDeals? Bloody cheap!

Try these ones. They’re all the same – generally made by Chin Huar branded as various things. A2Z and Rotaz are the same.

So are carbon tubs not worth the hassle for racing.TT’s?

still weighing up whether to go with planet x/cheap chinese carbon 50mm tubs or some alpha 340s which i can use for training as well

Try these ones. They’re all the same – generally made by Chin Huar branded as various things. A2Z and Rotaz are the same.

Bloody hell.. they are cheap

A friend has a couple of sets, not had problems. They’re road hubs after all, not a particularly strenuous life! At that price if they last a year and then you buy another pair to transplant everything into the old shells so be it!

still weighing up whether to go with planet x/cheap chinese carbon 50mm tubs or some alpha 340s which i can use for training as well

Yup I’m torn too.

I’ve emailed bigdugsbaws to see what he thinks. Googling stans alphas last night, I found he has replaced stans with deep section rims #stalker

I’m not convinced more opinions are actually going to help me though!

Maybe quiet rims are better tactically for road racing – people won’t hear your attack before they see it…

Another vote for American Classic. Grreat wheels, really light, really good value for money.
I’ve got a pair of Sprint 350’s on the road bike, the 420 aero pair on the track bike and I’ve used a pair of the disc 26 on the MTB.

They use normal spokes and bearings too so it’s easy to get spares if needed.

Arrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

This hurts! I need to be more decisive!

Not helped by the fact that Dougie was not keen on the Alphas at all. He’s curently running 30mm Kinlin 300s and very happy with them which are tempting at just £40 each for a 465g rim. Of course I could get the alphas for £73 at the moment with CRCs £12 off…

Also found some carbon/ally chinese rims on ebay but they are getting into the weighty category again.

Maybe I should MTFU and get some full carbon tubs and worry about slowing down later 🙂

You have tubeless v tub v clincher, and you have light weight v aero.

There’s evidence 50mm rims had a measurable aero advantage (but not whether that translates to group riding), and that weight saved, even at the rim, is not significant.

The hassle/expense of tubs ruled them out for me.

The ride quality of tubeless has been touted as better than tubs.

Plenty of folk are getting on OK with alphas, I doubt you’d have problems.

Not sure if that helps…

My mate lent me his dura ace c24 wheels at the weekend. Wow what a difference (compared to planet x model b). So light and so damn stiff considering the front is 16 spoke

Would love to know the rim weight. I read they are 1350g which is damn light for a set of clinchers

I’d love to go the tub route for racing but not sure i’m cut out for all the faff of glueing and such like.

any decisions mustard?

The American Classic Mag clincher 2012’s look interesting, 1108g and decent number of spokes but no details on rider weight limit yet (if it’s been increased from last year’s 180lb) and availability is pushed back to April 🙁
http://www.amclassic.com/en/products/roadwheels/magclincher.php

Hmmm…they claim magnesium is more durable than carbon fibre 😀

Woah, scary!

interested in this but struggling to follow the thread.

Alphas rims – simple enough – what spoke counts?
What hubs?
What spokes – CX rays?

Want a bargain set for road racing and criteriums. 74kg

Bargain? Get the eBay hubs I linked to above.

Alphas not being particularly aero I’d just get Revolutions, if you were getting deeps then I’d think about CX-Rays but they’re far more expensive for no other benefit.

It all seems a bit of a clart on – i might just get some of those pro-lite bracciano things at 1500 for £300 or maybe some RS80’s.

Alpha rims – £140
Ebay hubs – £70
Spokes – Revolution ?£
LBS Build ?£

any decisions mustard?

Yep! – well sort of 🙂

I’m going the cheapish option with a thought to maybe getting some 50mm planet x tub rims, if I feel i’m fast enough to warant it, later in the season.

So; Kinlin 300s 2x£40 on Njee’s ebay hubs (I tried an offer on the Dati hubs for a bit more than them but it was declined so again I’ll maybe consider them later) £70. Will decide on spokes when I’ve measured the rims.

I’ll be ordering some stuff from Germany and they seem to have pretty good prices on spokes so I’ll have to see if the builder minds cx-rays 😉 (only if they aren’t much more than revs as I doubt these rims are aero enough to be worth it, if any are, but that’s another longwinded debate 🙂 )

1218g ±a few + spokes for £150 + spokes + wine for the wheel builder

I got Revolutions from Action Sports in Germany – crazy cheap and they sent me spares in each size FOC.

mustard, does that lot build up into a set of race wheels that are effective and proven to be?

You won’t intimidate riders with loud wheels, they’ll thank you kindly for the advance notice.

Though £400 is a tough price break. Pretty sure I saw some SRAM S30AL toroidials for that?

personally I wouldn’t spend the money on cx rays, definitely not on a cheaper build.

ACI’s on sdeals all the way!

It will be Revs or the equivalent ACIs from Sdeals, although might need to order from else where, I need to check the sizes. I’ll be ordering hubs from Germany, Rose I think, for Claire’s wheels so I can get them all at the same time if Sdeals don’t have the ones we need.

OG – hub wise I’m taking advice from up there^ and I’m more than happy with that choice. The rims are the same as IRD cadence and I can’t find anything particularly negative about them. For the money I’m happy and I’ll use them before racing on them and if I’m concerned I’ll happily race on my Fulcrums.

The intimidating noise comment was a little tongue in cheek. I’m aware that unless there are plenty of others with loud wheels in the bunch it’s a great way of announcing your intentions.

The intimidating noise comment was a little tongue in cheek. I’m aware that unless there are plenty of others with loud wheels in the bunch it’s a great way of announcing your intentions

I know 😉