aliasfox

Quick update: ordered the Ksyrium S from all4cycling. Got an email confirming that it's en-route this morning. Of course, it was after I clicked confirm on the all4cycling website, while I was closing my research tabs, that I noticed I could've gotten the wheels for cheaper from Lordgun. Oh well - at least it was only $4. I guess I'll have to skip an outside coffee to make up for it


I'll give impressions once I get the new wheels. May have to put in an order for a 9-spd spacer and a fresh 25mm tire, as it was unclear whether or not the wheels came with one. And at 19mm wide, I have my doubts that my fresh 28mm spare will fit under the brakes (one of my current 25mm tires has a couple of pretty deep gashes, so it'll be retired once the new wheels go on the bike).


As a side note, the Bianchi may be 20 years old, and her Ultegra might not shift quite as seamlessly as she used to, but she's still trading PRs with my Lynskey (just set one going up a 490ft climb yesterday!). So while I'm still considering switching her to over to Campagnolo Chorus, a lot of me is thinking to keep her as close to original as possible. Unfortunately, while I'm sure I can find fresh chains and cables, it seems very difficult to find a matching Shimano 12x27 9-spd Ultegra cassette. I guess I'll be swinging by the LBS (all of them) to see if they happen to have any 20yr old NOS cassettes gathering dust in the back...

SoSmellyAir

I have heard that Lordgun order fulfillment is slow, so for only a $4 difference, I would order from All4Cycling.

13ollocks

Late to this party - I think your luggage scale may not be up to the task. My Zondas come in at 1560g/pr on a decent digital scale. I've had them for ~3.5 years/20,000 miles as my primary wheels, and they've been flawless. I'm 180 lb. I finally regreased the bearings after 3 years because they were so smooth out of the factory that I didn't want to mess with them, but it was a pretty straightforward job - easy to set/adjust the bearings while clamped into the frame. I got them for ~$350 from Chain Reaction or some other UK supplier, including 4-day DHL shipping. Absolute bargain, IMO.

aliasfox

Quite possibly. It’s a $15 Amazon-scrabble branded device I got on a whim. On the bright side, that must mean my Lynskey is lighter than the 19.4lbs it claims, and my Bianchi must be less than 21.2 lbs! Got any recommendations for something more accurate?

13ollocks

I'll post a pic once I crack the "10 posts" barrier

SoSmellyAir

Well?

There is one here but more expensive than 11-speed Ultegra cassettes.

Shimano Ultegra 9-Speed Cassette - Ron's Bicycle Shop (ronsbikeshop.com)

aliasfox

Giving my stomach a few more minutes to settle before I change and head out to tackle a 3mi, 8% climb (as part of a 9mi, 3.9% overall ascent), so sure, I can provide a quick update!

The new wheels arrived on Thursday - had to duck out of a meeting to sign for them. Sure, slightly more annoying, but I guess that ensures I get my wheels, right? Gave the old wheels one last ride that afternoon, and went about switching up the wheels/tires/tubes/cassette on Friday.

First, a couple of shots of the old front wheel show that stripped of tire and tube, but with the rim strip, it comes in at 860g on my luggage scale. The narrow rim width ensures that there's decent clearance all around the crown and brake calipers.



Next, breaking out the new front wheel. Straight away, 700g is about 1/3 lbs lighter than the old wheel. When comparing widths, the old rim's outside width can just about fit within the inside width of the new wheels.






Getting the tire on was a little annoying, as I hadn't yet discovered that the central groove is actually quite deep on these rims (made tire install on the rear much easier tho). I tried using the Mavic supplied tire levers, and... well, they stink. In fact, on one effort, they started shaving a little rubber off the edge of the tire. Switched to my trusty old Pedros levers after that. With the tire installed, there's still a good amount of room to the brake caliper and crown, but you can tell from the angle of the calipers that they had to be opened up quite a bit to accommodate the wider rim. We'll see how that impacts braking performance and feel. And yes, I took the opportunity to wipe down the headtube and fork crown while the wheel was off.




Moving on to the rear wheel. The new wheel shaves 90g off of the old one, which is nice, but still suggests that my scale might be sandbagging a bit - IIRC, it registered my Zondas (1540g claimed) as 1700g, and it now shows my Ksyrium S as 1635g (claimed 1570g). At least the variance here is much lower. In total, the bike dropped from 21.2lbs to 20.7lbs when I switched the scale to imperial. The wheels came with a 9-speed spacer, which is nice. No issue installing my old cassette - which surprisingly, is a SRAM component (at least based on the lockring). The rest of the bike (shifters, brakes, drivetrain, even chain) is all Shimano, why would Bianchi switch to SRAM for just this one piece?




Lastly, my Continental GP5000 25mm tires measured 25mm on the old rims, and 27mm on the dot with the new ones. I think there's room to fit a 28mm, but not sure - will want to test with the current spare before stocking up on that size.

After getting everything in place, I adjusted the pads for the new rims, and inflated to 95psi. She'll be sitting in the garage for the next couple of days to settle in - if everything looks good on the other side of the weekend, I'll take her out for a break-in ride!

jadmt

I have that scale and so does my son in-law and both match weights and match with another accurate scale so unless yours is messed up it is probably pretty accurate.

13ollocks

Finally sufficiently legit so I can post pics - my balance is also an Amazon special (IIRC) - the difference is that it's only 10 kg capacity, so I'm assuming better accuracy in the wheel set weight range than a higher-capacity luggage scale. Anyway, here it is and my jury-rigged bike-weighing setup (8.3 kg).

aliasfox

Wow, Bike Forums really doesn’t want me to post my impressions of my new wheels - twice, I’ve written versions of this post, and twice, Bike Forums loses the post when I submit and re-login. Maybe third time’s the charm.


First with the excuses for why I didn’t go out as much as I wanted on the new wheels:
- It threatened to rain for a week in the Bay Area. And it actually did rain during the day… once. All the other times, it waited until after sunset.
- There was some national holiday where family came into town and the socially acceptable thing is to show family around and eat too much.
- The Bianchi is still running the tire with a gash in it, so avoiding taking her on fast descents or anywhere that I don’t have cell service. Probably more cautious than I need, but you never know.

Anyway, all that said, I have managed to log 116 miles on the Ksyrium S wheels, and wanted to report back initial impressions.
- First off, even though I own a pair of Zonda C17 2Way Fit wheels, they’re on a Cannondale on the east coast, and I haven’t seen/ridden that bike in six months at this point. So if you’re hoping for an in-depth comparison, sorry - that wouldn’t be fair.
- As expected, the new freehub solved the ghost-shifting issue while backpedaling.
- Having a machined braking track back is fantastic. I’m sure the old Equipes had a grooved brake track, but these days, those rims are smooth and slightly concave. I was able to lock up the rear wheel (first time in a long time) on my first hard stop coming to a stop sign after a 30mph descent. Definitely not a bad thing to have to rebalance how I brake on this bike.
- I understand why people like wide rims now. Going directly from 15mm Equipes to 19mm Ksyrium S, holding frame, tires, tubes constant, is a revelation. The bike no longer feels squirrely below 90psi, and simply feels more planted. On the old rims, I was most comfortable between 90-95psi. I took the bike out last Friday with 88-90psi in the tires, and it felt good. I plan to lower pressures just a bit more next ride.
- The ID.360 freehub is quiet. Not quite as quiet as the Zondas, but much quieter than every other freehub I own (including the old Equipes, DT240s, and Vision Team 30s). Between the two bikes I have here, the Bianchi is now the pick for easier, chatting in the saddle kind of rides.
- The wheel has some weird spoke nipples. Mavic apparently knows this, and includes tire levers with spoke wrenches built in - but the levers themselves are trash. I tried using them for a few minutes before putting them away and going back to my Pedros.
- On the bike, the graphics are different than the 20-yr old Mavic Ksyrium Equipes, but definitely less jarring than if I had put Zondas with the G3 lacing on there.
- Lastly, the bike is somehow faster. Going out on my standard 29mi route, I was able to beat my previous PR by over 1km/h. That particular run benefitted from me (magically) making a lot of green lights, but even my subsequent runs (where I hit my standard quota of reds) are all clustered in the faster-than-typical range, and faster than I generally do on my lighter and (probably) more aero Lynskey with carbon wheels.

Tl:dr: Quiet hubs, better braking rims than old wheels. More comfortable due to wider rim, possibly faster. Would pick over Zondas due to wider rim, but be aware of weird spoke nipples.

ArgoMan

One more here for the Superteam wheels. Just did about 8 fast miles on a set this morning. Light and stiff. Hubs are actually really nice, roll as well as the hubs on my Campy Zondas. Whether the hubs are built as well is something I'll find out with time. Brake well with rim calipers. Faster than my Zondas on the flats with 700x28 tires. Zondas are better climbers, for me at least. The Zondas also feel "meatier" without feeling heavy. The reality is that you can do anything on the Zondas; train, leisure, race. Fairly stiff, good feel on the road. Really good looking set. If I had to choose a single set, I'd choose the Zondas over the Superteams. Can't compare them to the DT 1600's, but you can't go wrong with the Zondas. You can get a set of 2-ways for tubeless and can get them used for fairly good price.