I need some lightweight wheels for road dutues on my ‘cross bike, I’m fedd up of swapping between road and ‘cross tyres.

A friend has offered to sell the wheels from his brand new Trek Madone 4.5, they are Bontrager Race hubs and rims. He want £100, is this a fair price?

Also, is it safe to assume that rim width wil be the same between both sets of wheels, I don’t want to have to adjust my brakes every time I swap.

Ta

no idea on price but the madone is a high end bike is it not?

You can’t assume the rims will match perfectly and should try before you buy.

the only way to ensure the rims are the same width/profile is to run the same make and model rim on both wheels (eg. Open Pros) but they won’t be a million miles away so they could be fine. A quick tweak of the barrel adjuster may be enough.

£100 for brand new wheels sounds pretty good.

It’s an ~£150 wheelset. As for width – what the others up ^^^ said.

The wheels are £135 new if that makes any difference.

http://www.fredbakercycles.co.uk/609/BONTRAGER-Race-wheels.html?referrer=froogle&utm_source=google&utm_medium=froogle&utm_campaign=pid609

Personally I don’t like my Bontrager road wheels at all, they are silly wheels with a wacky spoke pattern and not enough spokes that means they are a right hassle to true, and harder to keep true. They came well under-tensioned too, so make sure you true them well before you use them. They aren’t very lightweight either. On the plus side they are pretty cheap and do the job as long as you’re careful about truing your wheels / checking them every so often.

Joe

As joe said, they are heavy and come out of true very easily I’d spend my money elsewhere.

As joe said, they are heavy and come out of true very easily I’d spend my money elsewhere.

Maybe it’s you that is heavy!! Bontrager (albeit race x-lites) are a crossers favorite, and Lance has won a few tours on them, as far as I know none of the above have won a major tour.

My mate has some ‘Race’ wheels and they have been great according to him (rides for Cardiff Ajax and would rip my legs off any day!)

I’ll sell you some DT Swiss R1900 wheels for £150 if you want, but only if you’re in London as I’m not posting anything.

Thanks for the advice, £100 seems fair.

Maybe it’s you that is heavy!! Bontrager (albeit race lites) are a crossers favorite, and Lance has won a few tours on them, as far as I know none of the above have won a major tour.

Race lites are a worlds apart from Race.

I run Mavic Open Pro on Ultegra at the moment, handbuilts that haven’t missed a beat, unlike the Bonty Races that I owned. That said the rear is still doing duties as a turbo trainer wheel.

I’m running Race X lite for sportives and they are smooth and even tough enough for cyc.X.

Oh and your mate might not know but he is ripping you off big time.

You probably could get cheap wheels like bonti select for £80-ish a set but at £135 for the Race’ you’re going to get decent bearings and rims that won’t break the bank.

Oh and your mate might not know but he is ripping you off big time.

You probably could get cheap wheels like bonti select for £80-ish a set but at £135 for the Race’ you’re going to get decent bearings and rims that won’t break the bank.

Sorry but I’m really confused, you said they he would be ripping me off but then said they have decent bearing and rims (for £100, not £135 as you said)

So is it a rip off or quality wheels?

I quite like wacky spoke patterns, at least my teath are still intact after crossing cobblestones.

FWIW I hated handbuilts, not indestructable (bent my front in a low speed slip on oily concreet), harsh (32 spokes will always be harsh compared to 16), heavy (even top end handbuilts struggle against factory wheels in this respect).

I got some shimano R-550 wheels for £35 off the classififdes. Quick half turn on each rear spoke to up the stiffness and they’ve been faultless. And being shimano most of the weight is in the hub so feels like a much lighter wheel than they are.

IMO and IME Factory built wheels are fine until you have a problem with them such as freewheel issues, broken spoke etc. Effectively with many factory wheels if such a problem arises you can be looking at a new wheel.

Mind you Mavic service in the UK is top notch 😉

I’ve been using Campagnolo factory wheels since 98 and only ever had one problem. One phone call to Monty Young, a trip into town to drop the wheel off, pop back in a couple of days later – sorted.
Freewheel – Record
Spokes – see Monty
Rims – 30,000 miles+

FWIW I hated handbuilts, not indestructable (bent my front in a low speed slip on oily concreet), harsh (32 spokes will always be harsh compared to 16), heavy (even top end handbuilts struggle against factory wheels in this respect).

Depends how well they were built yours were not built well by the sound of it, as for weight, my Ultegra/Open pro build comes in 200g lighter than the equivalently priced Mavic Aksiums and spares are a darn sight easier to get hold of.