Issaquatch

Another vote for Psimet -- I'm quite happy with the powertap rear wheel he built for me and will be getting a matching front wheel from him soon.

If you are really set on factory wheels, you might look into the Shimano dura ace 7850 24mm carbon laminate clincher wheels, which are very light and can be had for $700 from various UK websites.

LarryMelman

I think all of you that are recommending custom-built wheels and multiple sets of wheels for this OP, are really missing the point.

He's coming from a hybrid. He may find that he really dislikes the road bike. And he says he'll be doing "social" riding.

The obvious answer is to pick up a set of super-cheap wheels. The shop that will do his fitting can probably give him a set of starter wheels that someone traded in, which have been tucked away in a corner gathering dust. Very low cost, or even free for nothing except a general promise of future business.

They'll fit on the bike, and they'll go round and round and round. That's all he needs to get started. Then down the road, he can decide if he wants to be someone who pretends to know whether one set of wheels is better than another.

Nobody on a group ride will ever care what wheels anyone has.

Carbon Unit

I am a fan of custom built wheels too. I was going back and forth between a local builder and Joe Young. Joe Young has a reputation of building a quality wheel. You could have a set built with Campy, white, Phill Wood hubs or DT Swiss hubs. DT Swiss makes great hubs but they are a little loud. I have a set of custom wheels with Record hubs that have been bullet proof. They will probably never break. I also have a set of Topolino wheels which are hand built and they are my favorite wheels but are more than $1,000.

Try Joe Young. He can build you a good solid wheel probably in the 1500 gram weight range for probably $700.00. Congrats on the new bike.

https://www.youngwheels.com/index.html

RMMJ

Under 190 on the 30, under 225 on the 30X. From Williams website.

Garfield Cat

If you're riding 100-140 miles a week, you are ready for a road bike. If you like riding 60-70 mile rides, you will be able to tell which wheels are really good. You won't need to race to tell the difference. And you will really enjoy the ride quality of a custom built wheelset. Rob Curtis (PSIMET) is an engineer.

sfrider 

Depends; if you have a carbon frame you will want a stiffer wheel - as stiff as possible - since the frame will absorb chatter. What you're left with is road feel. Part of the reason low-end CF bikes I've tested have felt so dead and lifeless IMO is that these bikes often are bundled with not-so-stiff entry level wheels. If I put my Ksyrium ES's on my steel bike the high-frequency chatter will make hands go numb (from neural overstimulation). The chatter also makes it ride slower on less than perfectly smooth pavement. So IMO it's important to match wheels to a particular frame. (I usually keep Open Pros on the steel bike for this reason even though I have two sets of ES's that I got back when PB was dumping them.)

af2nr

I've had a set of these as well and thought they were very good all around wheels, not too heavy or light, but pretty much bombproof. At least they were under my 175 lbs, plus the price is pretty good right now. With that said it appears you have gotten many good recommendations from other memebrs on here. GL

himespau 

still waiting on pics, you tease.

rm -rf

I like custom wheels. They have repairable hubs and standard spokes and rims. So they can be repaired pretty easily. And you can get just what you need.

But, it often takes weeks (and more weeks!) to get them. When I cracked my rear rim last winter, I picked up a Mavic Aksium rear on sale at Performance for $89. Then I took my time deciding on custom wheels, and got them a few months later. I'll use the old low-end front and the Aksium on my winter rides, so my good wheels won't get salty or hit those winter potholes. Cheap spare wheels are always useful.

For instance, Performance has their house brand Titan wheels on sale now for $150 for the pair. They are reasonably light at 1755 grams. They only have 16 & 20 spokes, so I wouldn't expect them to last forever. But they'd be a good spare set. You'll need rim tape and skewers, too.

Then, if you get some good wheels, you'll have something to compare to. If you get something like the Mavic Ksyrium, and you break a spoke or bend a rim, you can ride the spares while the LBS orders in the non-standard item from Mavic.

Psimet2001 

- I like wheels.

FWIW - I have been at interbike so email replies are really suffering right now. I also can't figure out how to do out of office notifications on Outlook 2010. They took out the out of office assistant.

Getting closer to being able to do this full time so response and build queue time should decrease dramatically.

OP - get the wheelset that is right for you. There are a lot of pre-builts out there. I have a lot of opinions about them but I am obviously biased. Keep one thing in mind - how does a company design a wheel that performs well under a 120# female racer as well as a 230# male enthusiast both...answer: they don't.

Customs - available from many quality builders - have the potential of delivering to you a much better performing wheelset at a similar if not lighter weight at a better price. Don't take my word for it though.... My $0.02

Kneecop

Holy moly thanks to everyone for the replies. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and I'm pretty sure I can now make a much more informed decision. Kind of knew I wasn't going to get a solid consensus about what to do, but I'm def. now going to look into custom wheels. Might be tough waiting for them to be made, winter is coming after all. Psimet - sent you an email. I may go the route of cheapo wheels for now and be patient for the right ones to be made. Bike is a Pinarello Paris for those who were wondering, and Spongedad nailed it w/ the Ksyriums. I know I'd be happy with them, though it sounds like for the price they might not be the end-all be-all.

Oh, and I'm around 165-170lbs. Definitely ready for a proper road bike and have been for a few years. I also know I'm going to like it - what I meant by "socially" was simply that it gets tough getting motivated to go on a 60 mile ride by yourself. I have a couple of guys I ride with but they aren't reliable - especially when its rainy, windy, too hot, too cold. My wife got sick of me *****ing about it so she took matters into her own hands. Obviously I tend to overthink things...

Kneecop

One more thing - definitely don't care what other people think about what wheels I have. Not even a consideration. But I know that some people do get caught up in that kind of thing. When it comes to this, I want what's best for my own riding experience. Should have gone with a road bike vs. a hybrid years ago but I didn't know any better - just trying to avoid a costly mistake if I can.

tagaproject6

Pics or it didn't happen

Psyclism

I just got a pair of those. That price was waaay too good to pass up.

urbanknight

I am a wheel builder myself, and I rode el cheapo Forte Titans for 2 years while I was saving up to build my ultimate climbing set.

For you, I think you'd be very happy with a set of DT hubs and Aerolite or CX-Ray spokes with XR-300 rims. The deep rim section would look nice on a Prince, and 20 spokes up front radial laced and 24 in the back laced 2 cross should hold up just fine with your weight.

If you decide that custom just isn't for you, Fulcrum makes decent wheels that just beg to be paired with Campy Record equipped bikes.

nhluhr

If you want a more compliant-feeling Ksyrium, they do make them with steel spokes too. The Ksyrium Elite is still a pretty light wheel but with the compliance and strength of steel spokes. https://www.mavic.com/en/product/whee.../Ksyrium-Elite and it's a good bit cheaper than the Ksyrium SLs. Custom-built wheels are a fine thing to have, but if you need something quick and available that you can also rely on, these might be worth a look.

TriEngineer

williams cycling....ROL wheels
both offer Campy compatible freehubs
depends on what rides you are doing, mountain wheels or aero wheels

max5480

I think you should get some cheap and light wheels. Especially if you like riding canyons. If you only ride on flat, maybe you should get aero wheels. I don't ride much flat stuff (except on the way to canyons), and can say that weight is the most important part for me. Just get some C-4 wheels. They are light, inexpensive, made in USA, and use Phil Wood bearings, which are the smoothest, fastest, and most durable bearing ever made.

Even if you do mostly ride flat, a light wheelset is more important than a heavy aero set. I'd much rather ride a 1400g wheel on flatland than a 2000g aero wheel. (That's almost 1.5 pounds, OMG!!!)

urbanknight

Thinking of the quote "Cheap, strong, light. Pick two.", I'd only recommend cheap and light for those 120 lb beanpoles.


So in the OP's case, that's a savings of about 0.8%

Lonewolf48

Psimet +1!
I have a bunch of nice wheel sets, Easton EA90s, Easton EA90SLXs, HED Ardennes- all great wheels. I also have a set of Psimet-built wheels w/ Kinlin rims,
White Industry hubs and DT spokes that cost about one-third to one-half less than the others. The Psimets are great wheels at a great price made by a builder who will help you learn what it is you should want as you increase your riding. It is worth the wait. In the interim you could ride some Mavic Aksiums that can be had for a song and then be used as a back up wheel set.

ZippyThePinhead

Is that really true right now? I emailed him for a quote back in July and have yet to receive a reply.

Psimet2001 

Yes - 6 weeks is the longest I have/will go. I have had 2-3 sets take that long in the last year. Most are about 4-5 weeks in all honesty. My real goal is 3-4 weeks with 2 weeks being my stretch.

Email replies to initial inquiries.....right now that has been the biggest pain. I traditionally have always sought quick responses, but I will admit that for a lot of this summer I have sacrificed reply time for build time on existing orders. Unfortunately that has translated into submitting your quote request at the right time leading to great response/turn-around. Not?/....well....then there is a wait involved. My apologies. Small business....growing, etc. I wish it were different but there truly are only so many hours in the day and the quoting process is not something that can be done without my direct interaction.

cappuccino911

Same here, however I'm well aware of his backlog and he never tries to hide it or run from it. I also know that my initial request had a bunch of questions and things and I've taken it upon myself to get more education. I will resubmit with knowledge of EXACTLY what I want in order to get an exact cost and get the ball rolling. I need to do it before he smartens up and hires someone else to help and starts raising his prices!!!!

CyciumX

I'd get two different versions of Souls. Nothing take the piss out of a day when you get a wheel out of true and can't go riding... always have a back up.

CyciumX

...since you are new to the sport/type of bike I'm not going to suggest you learn every damn thing on the first wheels you get.