Wspsux

Hi again,
I'm going to start a Gunnar Roadie build. Likely with Campagnolo Potenza to keep costs down so I can splurge a little more on the wheels. Total Build budget is about $5,000 and this will be a rim brake build.
What I've looked at so far around the $1500 price point:
Reynolds Assault
Zipp 302
Mavic Cosmic Pro
Mavic Ksryium Pro UST and Exalith
Mavic Ksyrium Elite.


I have to admit most of the guidance in my search has been based on price. I'm not married to either carbon or aluminum - Any help ya' got I'd appreciate!

chaadster

I know I sound like a broken record on these wheel threads, but I’m as convinced today as I was four years ago that there is no better aluminum wheelset than the American Classic Argent.

Starting with 30mm deep and 19.4mm inner width tubeless rims, every component is trick, from the nipple design, to the wide aero spokes, to the feature-rich hubs. They can handle my 225lbs hammering them up climbs and cranking them over hard in turns, yet only weigh 1392gm.

They’ve done all-day rain rides, been in a pile-up crash and taken out from the side at 30mph, both without needing repair, and carried me confidently to 60mph.

They’re light and reactive enough to keep my aforementioned mass on the wheels of the fast kids when the group surges, but also seem to help me go just a bit faster when I need to make that solo bridge (usually after getting dropped on a climb).

I love ‘em, and just doubled down on a second set after seriously considering a 35mm deep carbon set from FSE, which at 1305gm and $1.1k for an 18mm bsw, tubeless full carbon rim rated for up to 250lbs rider weight, was seriously, seriously tempting, and it was only AC’s 30% off Black Friday deal, which cut the $900 Argents to $685 delivered, which gave AC the decisive victory. Otherwise, yeah, I was willing to risk ky life in the rain to save 87gm and get that bomb FSE weave!

raria

The best advice given to me was to lie back and think of England. Bike shops in England that is.

I've bought loads of wheel sets from Ribble, Merlin, Wiggle etc and they all come within a week, no shipping and no duty. I've found that Campy have a great lineup of wheels and maybe due to being European the price in the England stores is cheap.

For $750 a very pretty 1500 gram wheelset https://www.merlincycles.com/campagn...set-76081.html

For $900 a nice CF aero set https://www.merlincycles.com/campagn...air-78576.html

I even inherited a pair of bottom of the line Campy Khashim wheels and they are truly astounding for the price ($150).

TakingMyTime

In the Hot Deal thread there's a link to Boyd Cycling. They're Black Friday deal is buy a set of Carbon Clinchers and get an alloy set for free. You might want to check that out tomorrow.

Last year I believe they gave a really nice hub upgrade deal. Their deals are legit and great.

Spiduhman

Pick the parts, shop carefully, build properly.
Else, pick the parts, shop carefully, and have trusted local build them for you - properly.


For the $ spent, better wheels, easily serviceable (with standard and available parts), e.g. I've two sets White T11 hubs, Hed C2 rims, cxray front and NDS, race DS, < $600 pair; what not to like?

Danny01

Since you have a Campy group, its only right that the wheels are Campy. You can get Bora One's for around 1400-1500.

chaadster

Wow, <$600 is an amazing price for that wheelset; do you have a link for that? Wheelbuilder.com is $990 on that build, BikeHubStore.com is $759 on just the kit, and GloryCycles.com is offering a sale at $903 for that spec.

But to the question "what's not to like?", I don't like that the C2 is not tubeless compatible for starters, and then that it's shallower, narrower (internal), heavier, and more expensive (with CXRays and T11s) than some other aluminum wheelsets already mentioned upthread.

If indeed they can be had for less than $600, that would, perhaps, substantially change the assessment, but you still have to accept shallower, narrower, heavier, and non-tubeless.

Spiduhman

"Wow, <$600 is an amazing price for that wheelset; do you have a link for that?"

Shop carefully, build properly - it's been 16 months, perhaps < $600 would be difficult now? idk, dc
...and WI don't come with skewers, don' fergit

I'm hearin' you!
That said, I run tubes, the C2 is wide enough for me, the finished weight doesn't bother me, and it's windy af here - often a side one, so the height is also ok by me, an' it say "HED" on thar.

The T11s should last - other hubs, perhaps not.
Worth the $? Probably, I ride lots.

I still say pick, shop, build - and by "proper" me mean do it myself.

chaadster

Horses for courses, as they say.

realyfishy

If you want to save money on Reynold's Assaults, look at Performance Reynolds "R Four" carbon wheels. They're rebadged Assaults & the serial number stickers say it. They can usually be had at less than $900 the pair when they run one of their numerous sales. I've got 7,000+ miles on mine & fantastic for the money.

chaadster

To be clear, the Reynolds R4 are rebadged 2013 spec Assaults, not the current, wider, slightly shorter, SLG rim intro’d for ‘14.

Bah Humbug

They also lack the Industry9 hubs of the current models. Just like the Hed Jet 5+ at Performance use round, straight-gauge spokes to hit their price point. The Heds are at least cheap enough to use as training wheels to keep used to handling deep rims for race day; a grand is steep for me for that.

Wspsux

I looked at the r4 and found the branding too much anyway. Any opinions on the RP series from Chain reaction's Prime brand?

Mr IGH

I'd look very closely at the new DT Swiss and Shimano offerings. $1700 for a WI based hubset and unspecified weight when there's DT and Shimano for the same price is an easy choice for me. And I can't imagine spending $1500 on anything Mavic (my 2011 Aksiums have held up very well, it's just that Mavic is so far behind). OTOH, my new road bike cost me $1500 with a lower end DT wheelset and I don't have any first hand knowledge of such an expensive wheelset.

In that price range I go with some ~32mm deep CF rims. There's little weigh advantage for ~23mm deep CF vs aluminum so why blow $1500 on an aluminum wheelset? There is a weigh advantage for deeper rims and 32mm seems to be all I want, anything more wouldn't be useful to me. I just ride club and solo, those >45mm deep rims aren't something I want to ride.

chaadster

In what sense are you thinking? It seems to me they have everything going, from wide rims with “new standard” 17mm bsw, to Exalith ceramic brake track treatments, quick engaging and robust InstantDrive hubs, and of course industry leading Road UST tubeless tech. They offer a variety of rim depths in carbon, aluminum and hybrid constructions, spoke in alloy, CF and steel with proprietary widths, have propietary and standard nipples, have disc specific rims and wheelsets, thru-axle hubs, and competitive weights in their categories.

They don’t seem behind at all to me.

fietsbob

hand built , hub+ Spokes + rim ..

Bike distributors build wheels with parts at their cost, then ship to bike shops ,

so can cost less than retail for the component parts.




.....

Bob Ross

^^^This. /thread

Call up a well-respected wheelbuilder -- Joe Young, Pete Chisholm, Peter White, Eric @ Ergott Wheels, Rob @ PSIMET, etc. -- and tell him A) how much you weigh, what your riding style is, and what you're hoping to achieve by getting a new set of wheels; and B) that you have $1500 to spend.

Wait three weeks and be amazed at what shows up in the mail.

fietsbob

My LBS Hand tests wheels they get from those suppliers that make repairing an old bike with trashed wheels worthwhile.


My custom hand builder is Me.

Wheever

Check out November bicycles. https://novemberbicycles.com/ their wheels look awesome.

Bah Humbug

They're awesome guys, too. I miss my Rails - never should have sold the things.

MauiKai

I'm building my bike with Campagnolo as well, and decided on the Campagnolo Zonda. I dont have many hills to descend but I chose them because carbon Campagnolo brake pads are not only expensive here in Japan they are difficult to find, price (Wiggle), weight, maintenance, and because of the type of bearings. For me, those were the tipping point considering how quickly price escalates with performance at my level. They arrive in a week and I cant wait to get them spinning on my new bike.

Check out Campagnolo rims on their website and Wiggle for pricing, and you'll see that you can get a helluva set at that price range.

Wspsux

These look interesting but i cant find wheelset weights posted

Wheever

Oh wow, you're right. They used to, but they've changed the site. They might discuss it in the blogs, but the weights used to be listed with each wheel. Hmm. In the past, most of the weights were in the 1500 range +/- for disc, 1400 for rim brakes.

EDIT: their Mavic open pro rim wheels are 1475g, and well under your $1500. The blogs discuss each build in detail.

November Dave

The problem with that is that we have over 4000 SKUs listed in product pages, and an infinite number of custom configurations available.

Each rim's product page has the specs listed, including weight. We try to always give a reasonable weight for each rim, not a hopeful "we once got one that weighed close to this" weight. Rims are the item in a build that varies. Hubs and spokes really don't vary from their published specs, so it's simple addition to get to any build weight you might want to know. The total weight is neither greater nor less than the sum of the parts, despite what "claimed weight" shenanigans may try to lead people to believe.

If there's any doubt about the weight of any particular build, we do answer phone calls and emails.

I don't think it's even possible to spend $1500 on a build that we do. Closest I could get was $1405 but that has a Powertap hub in it.

Thanks

WhyFi

Competitive has a sale on wheels right now as a part of their 12 Days. Mercury M5 clinchers for $899 looks purty nice.