gbain

I everyone.
I'm looking to buy a good all-rounder carbon road wheel set, and would welcome the collective wisdom & experiences of the Bike Forums Community.


My priorities are:
- Stiff
- About 45mm deep (but a little deeper or shallower is ok)
- Light. I hope the set to come in around 1500g (or less)
- 'Best bang for the buck'
- Rim Break
- Preferably clinchers (but can consider alternatives).
- New, not used
- 700c
- Smooth rolling hubs


What experiences / guidance does everyone have?
Any amazing success stories where you found a great a great wheelset for an attractive price?

Eric F 

Check out Hunt Wheels. No personal experience, but I keep hearing good things about their quality at a reasonable price point.

caloso

I love my Williams. Unfortunately, they're out of business. They couldn't compete with the cheap Chinese wheels.

smashndash

If you want stiff, you should get the wheels built with stiff spokes like CX-Sprints. Maybe even get 28 spokes in the rear (trust me, you won't notice the drag from 4 extra spokes in the rear). People think that, just because carbon rims are super stiff, they don't need spokes, but that's not true.

Have a look at Light Bicycle if you're ok with a Chinese brand. Their lead+shipping time is super long, especially during covid, but their quality to price ratio is really high. If you email them, they can do pretty much anything you can imagine.

What's your budget?

BenBoozer

I have the Light Bicycle FALCON WHEELSET WR45 with DT Swiss 350 hubs and love them. Little over $800 with shipping. These are 25mm internal 32mm external wide rims and comfortable as heck to my 230lb frame. Not for skinny tire lovers. 24 spokes and very stiff.

Oops, just saw you want rim brakes. Check out some of their other models, good quality at a great price.

Troul 

450USd, but dont want rim braking. 6 bolt disc 11 spd hub.

NoWhammies

Check out Boyd. Quality wheels and any questions about the wheels get answered by the man himself!

rydabent

If you are going to spring for an expensive set of carbon rims, it would be far better to have disc brakes. Discs wont scab up your pretty carbon wheels. Further carbon rims for a bike with disc brakes can be lighter stronger and more aero.

aclinjury

if you're ok with buying from a Chinese make from China, then go with Winspace and check their Hyper series, come in 38mm, 50mm, 65mm depths
https://www.winspace.cc/wheels/road-...er-wheels.html

They use carbon spokes and are very light. They have low spoke counts but they are stiff. There are some good reviews on them by the likes of Hambini and others on youtube where they actually test these wheels for stiffness, and indeed these wheels are as they claim: light, stiff, and aero

The drawbacks for some people with these wheels will be:
-they use proprietary carbon spokes, so if you damage them it won't be easy to fix (though they do come with extra carbon spokes)
-they are shipped from China so lead time is often long, we're talking at least a month, maybe two, from the time of order to the time you receive them.
-though they have a 2-yr warranty, i'd imagine if a warranty is needed, you'd need to ship them to China at your own cost (which will not be cheap).

These wheels are for people with multiple wheelsets. I would not recommend these for pepole with only 1 wheelset.

Lastly, you can get a 10% discount on their listed pricing by using a discount code from available from various youtube reviewers of Winspace products.
I personally own a pair, and have 3 friends who own a pair. We all love them. They are the best bang for the bucks IMO. They are light, 50mm set comes in at 1350g, which is light for any 50mm wheelset.

Danhedonia

After looking hard at wheel upgrades, I can't understand the enthusiasm for lower-cost carbon; I wouldn't mind having it explained to me in a kind way.

By the way: I'm a huge fan of carbon frame bicycles, and am not at all one of those folks on the internet who is suspicious of the material.

Currently I feel that alloy are a smidge more durable, esp. when it comes to stuff like wear on breaking surfaces, etc. So I went to see just how much weight I'd save with carbon ... and it was negligible. (This, btw, is VERY price-related: $800-$1100 alloy wheels here, not $200 wheels).

And I thought a bunch about aerodynamics. I cruise around 19-20mph on flats ... I could stand some aero gains. So carbon winds when incremental speed gains are significant to me (perhaps 25% of my rides). Since it's easy to swap wheels out, I can have a nice set of Aelus 3's and pop them in for my more-aggressive rides.

I dunno - what am I missing here? I record (and look at) my data on most rides, and though I can't imagine racing at this point in life, I do prefer performing better rather than worse.

And I can't for the life of me figure out why I should be putting (for example) a set of $500 chinese carbon wheels on my bike vs. Ksyrium Elites if I'm heading out for a 40 mile, 2-hr. route?

Help me figure this - and btw, yes, I am NOT (yet) a disc-brake person. My next new road bike will def. have them, so no need to discuss wear on braking surface.

HTupolev

They have similar performance to high-end carbon, but are cheap. That's all there is to it.

tomato coupe

They have similar performance appearance to high-end carbon, but are cheap. That's all there is to it.

Eric F 

This only makes sense if his bike already has disc brakes, and judging by the info provided, it doesn't.

Danhedonia

I really prefer a carbon frame to aluminum/steel/titanium frames. I can give my personal reasons for why if asked.

I'm asking if someone wants to list why they prefer carbon with the important qualifier of "outside of a competitive environment."

WhyFi

I guess that there are going to be degrees to "lower-cost carbon." To me, something that's sold by a specific vendor/manufacturer with a good track record can represent a great value while providing some reassurance with regard to quality and customer service. I'm talking about Light Bicycle and the like; it wouldn't be worth it to me to pop for something bargain basement with unknown provenance on Alibaba or ebay, though.

That said, LB and the like made more sense to me 12 months ago, before the new Zipps, Bontragers, Reynolds, and the like were released. With this new crop of excellent carbon wheels that are locally available*, covered by great manufacturer warranties, and hovering in $1.2k price points, it's less attractive to plop down $700-900 on wheels that are going to take months to arrive and be serviced *very* remotely.

Danhedonia

Be patient with me. I am saying: what makes carbon better? Weight savings?

I ride both types of wheels (Aoleus 3's are hardly boutique but they're not crummy) and truly don't have a preference for rim material. I do prefer nicer/better hubs, like any person probably would.

This is a sincere question - when I started riding carbon-framed bikes I noticed differences that were meaningful to me. When I started riding carbon wheels, I didn't really think they were preferable (I've ridden some friends' carbon wheels as well as the Bonty's). Nor worse. Just felt a wee bit less vibration and certainly appreciate the aero wells.

Do people like the feel more? Are 1500g alloy wheelsets too expensive for something un-trendy? Does carbon hold form better?

I'm just trying to understand their popularity.

HTupolev

I don't see why that disqualifies the answer I gave. People like using gear that performs well. I'm not sure why this would confuse you, since you said as much yourself:



Also, "outside of a competitive environment" is a fuzzy condition. Sanctioned races aren't the only places where cyclists are competitive with their peers, or with themselves.


If you're using the material as a fairing, yes. The main perk for carbon, at least as it pertains to the paved road use case, is that you can make a deep-section wheel without it being ridiculously heavy. To build a 50mm-deep aluminum rim with a weight close to a 50mm carbon rim, you'd need to use such thin walls that it would be prone to crumpling like a beer can.

Sure, aesthetics are always a consideration. But it's not like China is some sort of low-tech country where bladed spokes cannot be sourced and nobody has any knowledge of fluid dynamics.

Danhedonia

People prefer nicer things for less money.

Are carbon wheels generally better value now? If so, I'm out of touch (always a probability). OP asked "what are a nice set of carbon wheels?" I'm wondering why someone would ask for carbon, instead of just "what are a nice set of wheels?"

HTupolev

Sorry, I edited my post late with an explanation:

Danhedonia

Got it, so yeah, it's about the aero? That would make sense.

Troul 

Prefer the feel while riding.
Like the look.

Danhedonia

I'm pretty sure I have weird tastes (e.g., I love inflating my 23's to 135 PSI and yes, I like feeling every granule on the roadtop) - the feel of carbon to me was somehow ... more damped? Was that your experience?

The look is absolutely *****in'.

tomato coupe

There are certainly some very good carbon wheels being made in China. But, the cheap wheels are often poorly made, use inferior materials, or are based on bad designs. It's the same as anything else you buy -- cheap stuff is cheap for a reason.

Troul 

damp, might be a descriptive word to it, but I almost would say the experience is a "free" feeling. I'd like to try them with a flat bar bicycle [hybrid] but cost is a factor that keeps me from trying it.

HTupolev

What are we visualizing by "lower-cost carbon"? Since Danhedonia brought up Ksyrium Elites, I was figuring we were talking about stuff like Light Bicycle.