theHomelessJedi

I've been shopping around on Amazon and eBay. Found several carbon wheelsets for around the $400-500 range, most with 11 speed hubs. I currently ride a 2015 Specialized Allez Sport. It has the stock Aluminum wheels and 9 Speed Shimano Sora drive train. Two questions...

1. Has anyone ever tried anything similar to these?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0757GR132...3ZR1F8UR&psc=0

2.What needs to be done to have my 9 speed drive train work on these 11 speed hubs?

cthenn

I've never seen a 18/21 front/rear spoke count before. 1635g seems a bit heavy. The hub is unbranded. No reviews. Pass.

theHomelessJedi

I don’t know anything about carbon wheels. What do I need to look for as far as weight?

VinceB

Most wheels will come with a spacer to fit 8/9/10 speed cassettes.

For a little more, you can get a (slightly) better name behind the wheels, and 1550g:
Prime RP-50 Carbon Clincher Wheelset | Chain Reaction Cycles

Getting over a grand, you'll get into the 1450g range (for 50mm depth) and even better names (Boyd, Zipp, etc...)

thehammerdog

[QUOTE=VinceB;20172317]Most wheels will come with a spacer to fit 8/9/10 speed cassettes.

For a little more, you can get a (slightly) better name behind the wheels, and 1550g:
Prime RP-50 Carbon Clincher Wheelset | Chain Reaction Cycles

Bike Nashbar is having a wheel sale $300 for 1600gm set not carbon but light with good reviews.

theHomelessJedi

Thanks for that! I'm wanting to keep it under $1k because I'm planning on buying a MTB sometime soon. That and I would rather look at a new road bike than put $1k wheels on a bike I only paid $600 for initially. I've just heard that upgrading your wheels is where you'll see the most noticeable improvement.

Bomb Komodo

I got 1500 gram chinese carbon wheels for $600 shipped from China. They are working great for me. Zero issues, and they do make a big difference, especially if you get deeper ones (if you ride a lot of flats).

theHomelessJedi

May I inquire where you ordered them from? I live in Arkansas, so there is a good mix of all sorts of terrain within a short distance of my home. Steep hills, rolling hills, long flats, river trails, etc. Does it effect your climbing in any way?

robbyville

I tried my hand at some Chinese Carbon wheels, was a little worried about QC so went with a brand that had some good reviews Yoeleo out of China. Their 38mm carbon wheels are under 1500g with generic hubs for about $550. They have their own website which you can google and explore

I upgraded to the CX Ray spokes and their "pro" hubset (ceramic bearings) for $775. They took about 3 weeks total to my door, packed beautifully with pads, skewers and spacers for your 9spd. I also went tubeless so that all my wheels are now set up that way. Straight and true out of the box, in great shape, have about 400 miles on them so far and holding firm. The rear hub's bearings were a little stiff I need to take it off the bike and see if it loosened up with use which I'm sure they have. Farsports is also a known and well reviewed Chinese sourced wheel company. If I were doing it again, I would probably try Farsports since you can get completely blank wheels. I went with ghost graphics since the "no decal" option would have taken an extra three weeks, but as you can see, there are two sets of decals, the ghost "Yoeleo" and the white decals both of which are under clearcoat.

Supralative

Got these off of ebay
True straight and so far so good...minimal time though
These were a second set
First set I went with aluminum brake surface

Danny01

as robbyville mentioned, Far Sports and Yoeleo are probably your best bet. They cost a bit more than the others but it is worth it for the peace of mind. I'm not a fan of the cheaper hubs (novatec and bitex), but they do offer quality budget hubs (DT350) for a bit more $.

scott967

A bought a set of Yoeleo T38s (tubulars) have about 4k miles on them. They are the "SAT" model (their higher-end product) came with DTSwiss 240 hubs and CX Rays (but I don't think they spec those hubs any more). They took a while to get (claim was the "ghost" graphics needed to be built but could get blue or red immediately).

I don't think it made my appreciably faster, just felt like getting some tubs and going chinese crabon seemed an obvious way to get into it without laying out big bucks.

scott s.
.

TrojanHorse

I'd steer clear of any cheap-but-expensive stuff on Amazon... just read too many stories about scams and as noted above, there are plenty of manufacturers in China who will give you a good deal. How weird is that, I'd prefer a chinese company over Amazon. Go figure.

I got some reynold's 48mm carbons from Performance for about $800 a year or two ago if buying overseas makes you uncomfortable.

robbyville

Farsports is also offering some better hubs including Chris Kings surprisingly

Danny01

Yeah you can get pretty much any hub from them. They even have Powertap, which are a bargain if you can get the discontinued DT240 based GS hub.

ridingfool

Try a site called my bike shop they deal with new and used wheelsets bought a set of hed Ardennes last year from them. And 6000 mi later still as true as day one . They also offer a 30 day money back guarantee. If ur looking for 9 or 10 speed carbon they have some really good deals can get a set of hers or Reynolds for about 600 to 700 bucks

Bomb Komodo

onlycarbonwheels on Ebay.

I don't ciimb much here in the south, but they have been an overall positive for me. No downsides.

rpenmanparker 

21 spokes in the rear is quite popular. It is the pattern used by Campagnolo in many of their models. It is a 2:1 lacing design, 7 on the NDS, 14 on the DS. Because there are only 1/2 as many spokes on the NDS and bracing angle is about twice that of the DS, the tensions on the two sides come out very close.

Patterns like this with 8:16 are also very popular. You can group the spokes the way Campy does or just evenly distribute them around the rim which makes finding a suitably drilled rim much easier. Bike Hub Store specializes in offering the 8:16 drilled hubs.

rpenmanparker 

I agree about onlycarbonwheel. I have a pair of their low profile carbon tubulars and love them. 999 g wheels for under $500 and that is self-built with hubs and spokes of my own choosing. If you get the pre-built wheels from onlycarbonwheel, they are actually cheaper.

theHomelessJedi

I searched for that on eBay, is that the sellers name??

theHomelessJedi

Nvm found it. Thanks for the input everyone.

WhyFi

Farsports with DT Swiss hubs and CX Rays for $600 is pretty tempting.

yamsyamsyams

Light bicycles is also a very reputable Chinese brand but slightly pricier than the normal Chinese rims. They also have a North American (Canadian) warehouse and website. Extremely good CS.

Esthetic

I think the $325-360 Superteams that are readily available on Amazon is as much as i'd spend on a Chinese set of wheels. Above that i rather a used set of brand name wheels.