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best bang for buck cx gravel wheel set up

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best bang for buck cx gravel wheel set up

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Old 09-30-20, 02:35 PM
  #1  
Toespeas
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best bang for buck cx gravel wheel set up

trying to stay under 300 USD !

EdIT : sorry , tubeless , rim brake under 300 with tires !

Last edited by Toespeas; 10-22-20 at 01:17 AM.
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Old 09-30-20, 02:41 PM
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disc or rim?
tubeless?
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Old 09-30-20, 03:06 PM
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a year or so ago I bought a set of Mercury G3 27.5 inch wheels for I think $300 from backcountry.

Better yet I dropped a hit with my daughter so my wife bought them as a Christmas present.

Excellent wheels. Set them up with a set of Panaracer Gravel King SK 53c tires, running tubeless. Think they have White Industry hubs.

Could not be happier.
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Old 10-01-20, 08:30 AM
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I have some Bontrager Race rims which came on my GT Zaskar LE fitted with X King tires, (Continental) I am 225LB, and i found these rims to be insanely strong. Other than doing huge jumps, nothing will bend them. The tires strike a good balance between pavement/gravel and hard pack trail use. Not so good in very loose or muddy conditions.

I've recently acquired a set of Sun rims CR18 with Shimano Deore hubs and put some Chaoyang Kestrel urban tires onto this set for pavement use. For mass produced Chinese tires, they are overall excellent performers. I'm very happy with my current setup. But these Sun rims bend much more easily than my other set. After tensioning the rear wheel, seems like it is strong enough. I still ended up getting a Suntour Suspension seatpost as a precaution.
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Old 10-01-20, 08:40 AM
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I like the CR-18 rim and a deore hub. They are both somewhat out of style now, particularly with the vast array of tubeless set-ups.

Have used both of these with good longevity on road & gravel. My weight ranging from 225-250.
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Old 10-01-20, 08:52 AM
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Originally Posted by stevel610
I like the CR-18 rim and a deore hub. They are both somewhat out of style now, particularly with the vast array of tubeless set-ups.

Have used both of these with good longevity on road & gravel. My weight ranging from 225-250.
Did you ever tension the spokes? What sort of tires did you have fitted? and what sort of bike?
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Old 10-01-20, 01:26 PM
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Shimano GRX wheelset. It is a great mix of weight, strength, easy service, and cost.
Prowheelbuilder.com wheelset. HplusSon Hydra rim, bitex ra12 hubs, double butted sapim spokes in the count you want, brass nipples. Another great mix of weight, strength, and cost. Hand tensioned and reliable.

Both will be around $425, so over what you want to spend. For under $300, I would look at Euro sites and velomine.com to see what is even in stock for built wheels at that pricepoint that are modern design.
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Old 10-01-20, 02:05 PM
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https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catal...oss/CX-DISC-v5

You could likely find them near $330 U.S. if you search around. PG
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Old 10-01-20, 03:19 PM
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For $300 I'd probably look at some of the cheap/generic carbon wheels that are listed on Ebay/Amazon. I bought a set of "Superteam" wheels last year for around $325 and they've been pretty solid. They're probably 1600g and they look pretty cool.

For a bit more, you can get the GRX wheelset, which seems tough to beat from a value point of view. Not the lightest wheels around (1700g), but straight pull bladed spokes, 21.6mm internal width, tubeless ready and cup/cone bearing hubs that are super user friendly. $419

Otherwise I'd second the idea of doing a Prowheelbuilder.com build. I've played around with a few different options on there, but you can do Stans Grail with Bitex hubs and have a 1500g wheelset for around $500. There's a DT Swiss R470 rim on there that's only $51 that has 20mm internal width. I'm sure you could build that up with some Bitex hubs for $400.
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Old 10-06-20, 03:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Moisture
Did you ever tension the spokes? What sort of tires did you have fitted? and what sort of bike?
Yes, I tension the spokes, but did touch up the truing occasionally. Nothing big. If you have them built with 2.0/1.8/2.0 spokes you should be good.

Tires ranged from 700x32 to 700x50. IIRC they had 35c Vittoria Randonneur Cross, 35c Road Randonneurs, 50c Schwalbe Dureme's, 32c Conti Gatorskins. I ride older steel bikes, like 80's/90's/00's, so they rode on them. 80's steel tourers are basically todays gravel bikes. The Duremes were on a Novara Safari.
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Old 10-06-20, 04:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Toespeas
trying to stay under 300 USD !
100/130 QR?
$215 for these Vittoria's. This is the non-disc, but there's a disc version too. I found them easy to set up tubeless with 25mm tubeless tape.

https://www.vittoria.com/us/tactic-a...om_store=us_en
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Old 10-06-20, 05:52 PM
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I bought this wheelset and set it up tubeless for my son's CX bike. Inexpensive, bombproof. Works great. https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-WH...-700c-Wheelset
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Old 10-22-20, 01:16 AM
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the Vittoria wheels where 180 with a discount code and the tires where Vittoria something wet 60 on sale
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Old 10-22-20, 01:17 AM
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Originally Posted by caloso
I bought this wheelset and set it up tubeless for my son's CX bike. Inexpensive, bombproof. Works great. https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-WH...-700c-Wheelset
aaah good price but not tubeless ready
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Old 10-22-20, 09:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Toespeas
aaah good price but not tubeless ready
I used a wrap of Stan's tape to make it airtight, and a wrap of Gorilla Tape to build up the bed, sealant, and a good quality tubeless tire (Clement MXP). Works perfectly, never burped.
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