nablack

I bought a 2010 Trek 1.5 at the beginning of August and used it to train for and complete my first Century this past fall. I am looking into upgrading the wheelset, but have come to a bit of a hitch called "Bontrager Approved Alloy Rims".

I have spent hours both here and on the general Internet and can't for the life of me find any information on these things. All I know is that they are series 6000 Aluminium alloy. I don't want to buy a new wheelset only to find out the hard way that it is only slightly better than the unknown Bontrager set I have now.

If anyone has any information on them, please let me know. I would also be interested in any recommendations that you might have for a good match for this bike.

I weight about 155 lbs and plan to put in at least 200 miles a week. I also plan to do lots of centuries, but probably won't go over 125 miles in a ride.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

rooftest

Why not take a look at other brands of wheels? Some people love Bontragers - I hate them.

MajorMantra

"Bontrager Approved Alloy Rims" are what the bike currently has, is that what you're saying?

They will be big standard entry level wheels, probably over 1900g, quite possibly over 2kg. For $300 to $800 you could probably knock off 400-700g and possibly get something slightly more aero as well. There are many, many choices.

tortugaflats

why upgrade the wheel to train for a century ride? for that the stock wheels should be enough

CCrew

Not really that much to research. The "Bontrager Approved" part just means they're third party rims that they had nothing to do with the manufacturing process on. They just sourced them and slapped them on, so they're "approved"

Just about any aftermarket rim is an upgrade, but if they're working use them to train on.

R900

Lots of great 1500+ gram wheels to choose from. Set your budget and see what you can find. Bontrager RaceXLites are nice and often on ebay, Williams makes nice wheels and depending on what you want to spend, there are a couple wheel builders on the forum.

nixternal

The 'Bontrager Approved' rims I believe are Alex R450 rims with some really crappy hubs. I had them on my 1.2 and upgraded my wheels to another set of Alex rims with Ultegra hubs. After those 2nd set of wheels I come to realize that Alex rims suck ass big time.

nablack

Now that I reread that, I see that it wasn't very clear. The bike currently has the "Bontrager Approved Alloy Rims".

Looigi

Wheels can be stronger, lighter, stiffer, more aero, tubeless or tubular. You can also get 23mm wide rims for 23mm tires that purportedly provide better ride, lower rolling resistance and better handling than the traditional 19mm wide rims. When you say you want to upgrade, what characteristics are you trying to improve upon? What do find the shortcoming to be with your current wheels?

There is nothing special about Bontrager wheels. That's just Trek's house brand.

nablack

There isn't anything too specific about the wheels that I don't like. I just feel like if I upgraded them, that it would really increase the potential of the bike. I don't race as of now, but I ride in a small group that is pretty competitive. I found out this summer that I am the hill climber in the group (Image that, because I HATED running hills when I was a runner). It would be great to find a nice climbing wheel, but I am also hoping that I can find a wheel that rolls a lot nicer so I can keep up with our speed demon. Not sure how he is so fast bombing down hills, but I just can't keep up.

I have been looking at Mavic wheels lately, but I have also heard good things about Psimet, and Zipp, and have also heard mention of Reynolds and Easton.

knobster

The wheels aren't going to help you keep up. Fitness will. They may help with climbing and things such as sprints when the group surges but if you're not racing, it doesn't matter.

If you really want to see if you like lighter wheels, why not ask to see if someone in your group will let you borrow their wheels for a quick spin? I went from 1800 gram stock wheels to 1400 gram high quality wheels and really only noticed a difference except when I wanted to accelerate. Not worth the money.

Looigi

For climbing the main thing is lightness. You can take a few hundred grams off your wheels but it won't make any more difference than taking a good dump before the ride. If fact, a good dump will probably be more helpful, and could be quite a bit more than a few hundred grams! Seriously though, the performance gains to be had are very small and won't matter unless you're in a highly competitive situation where very small differences do matter. The best reasons I know of to get new wheels is because the ones you got are broken, or because you simply want spiffy new ones. I'm not riding competitively so those are the only two reasons I buy any bicycle stuff.

crhilton

This ^^

You have a $300 wheelset. That's what entry level Treks come with. Spend twice that on a nice hand built wheelset that doesn't say Bontrager anywhere on it.


The wheels you have are fine for what you do, by the way. I would ride them a bit longer and in 6 months or so, when you know how they feel and what you want start looking for new wheels.