VegasJen

[UPDATED BELOW]

I was in Vegas today and I always love shopping at Goodwill (I'm a girl. Sue me.) Anyway, I'll occasionally find a decent used bike helmet for a couple dollars and pick those up as back up for riding, but I also use those when I skate, so couple dollars is a good investment.

But this was a first for me today. Stumbled across a pair of Xero XR-1 wheels with Kenda 700x28c tires. I went over the wheels with a fine tooth comb and could not find anything besides a minor scuff here and there. Still looked like probably 50% or better tread on the tires too. At $45 for wheels and tires, I thought it was just too good to pass up. Need to get a cassette though.

Did I do good?



Is this a pretty standard hub? I haven't really messed with wheels much before but I don't think having a spare pair is a bad idea. All my bikes here are 3x9 so I need to pick up a 9-speed cassette. I assume this hub fits Shimano?

Koyote

I think that's a Campagnolo freehub, which will not work with a Shimano cassette.

Aside from that, those are some very flexy wheels. Rather cheap when new. Might be fine if you are relatively light and don't put out much power. But if they don't fit your bike, that's all academic.

Kontact 

Good score! That's a Campagnolo freehub body. Campagnolo 9 speed is spaced a bit differently than Shimano and SRAM, so you'll want to replace the freehub body with a Xero Shimano freehub body. It's not uncommon to do so. This might be the right one, but the price seems a tad high. Look around a bit:

https://247cycleshop.com/8-/-9-/-10-...e-bearing.html

Otherwise, you could buy an inexpensive 9 speed Miche brand Campy compatible cassette and play around with spacers until it is narrower - like a Shimano. Be warned, there are two Campy spline profiles, and your wheels have the later one.

VegasJen

Thanks for the info! Right now, I don't have any wheel issues, but like I said, it's never a bad idea to have spares. My Trek Lexa was down for months after I broke the hub on the drive wheel. Mainly because I had other bikes to ride and was too lazy/cheap to replace it.

But also, I like the idea of having a couple compatible wheels with different size tires to swap around based on riding conditions. That's kind of the plan once I get these sorted. One set of 23s for smooth, fast road riding and a set of 28s for some of the rougher roads around here. Just a thought anyway.

jaxgtr

if you can't find the correct hub body, you could also pick up a slightly used Shimano hub that will work and have the Campy hub replaced. Should be able to get that done fairly low cost.

Koyote

You might want to look into the freehub availability, since Kontact 's link shows "out of stock."

If you can't get the Shimano freehub, you might as well return the wheels.

MarcusT

The wheels look fine, I'm just concerned that you shop for used helmets.

tomato coupe

With the wrong freehub, those wheels may not be the bargain you think they are.

Mackers

Formula freehub body, you can probably pick one up new for $20.

VegasJen

Ya, I have two good ones I use regularly. But I also have a couple spares just in case I damage one. Plus, I also use them when I skate. Even used, so long as they're not obviously compromised, they work well for skating.
That would work! Any suggestions for where?

VegasJen

After giving it some thought, I opted to roll the dice and just install a 9-speed Campy cassette. I picked one up from Amazon for just under $50 and popped it on. I decided to try these wheels on my Spec Roubiax and have since ridden about 50 miles over a couple different rides. Surprisingly, I made no adjustment to the shifting and it shifts like butter. All nine gears, in and out, just like it was meant to be that way.

And I don't know what the difference is, but the bike feels more compliant. It's a lot more comfortable to ride. I guess some people say the Xero wheels have a lot of flex to them, and maybe that's what it is. I don't know, but I don't feel as much harshness riding this bike as I remember. They don't feel at all unstable or wobbly, just more compliant. Regardless, I'm liking this swap so far. Even though my original plan was for these just to be a back-up wheel set, the way the bike rides now, I will probably leave them on and keep the ALX 298 wheel set as my back up.

Because of the way the bike rode previously, I have been favoring my K2 instead. But after the last couple rides now, I'm really starting to like this Specialized all over again.

veganbikes

I get we are in America and our motto is "if you don't sue shame on you" but why would we sue you? I am baffled by that one but even more baffled by buying used helmets from a goodwill? At that point I probably would just go sans-helmet and I wouldn't do that. There are plenty of low cost helmets that are decent or splurge and get a nice helmet and don't look back and your head will thank you.

Thrift stores are great, love them have bought many a good thing from them but certain things are best left alone: Underwear, helmets, hard to clean items, and any other safety items. There are places to save good money regardless of gender but there are also places to buy new stuff you can trust. Knowing my helmets I would not want a used one and I try to take some decent care of my stuff but I don't know if that helmet from someone else was crashed or dropped or damaged in other ways and due to someone else's gross nasty yucky disgusting sweat I may not even be able to see when it was manufactured to know if it was within 5 years.

VegasJen

Wow. People still hung up on the helmet thing.

OK. I have a good Oakley helmet I wear on rides. Once again, I have a couple of cheap helmets for when I skate. Can we please let the helmet thing go?

TiHabanero

VegasJen, the Zero wheels are a decent OEM wheel. Using a 9 speed campy cassette with Shimano 9 speed is possible as you have just proven. Sometimes users are not able to adjust the shifting to hit each gear correctly, but you obviously do not have that issue. As for being flexible, I have not seen that as an issue at all. Happy you are enjoying the excellent score!

As for the helmet thing, I agree. For some it is a soapbox issue. Not sure why, but that is the way it is, just ignore the nonsense and continue doing what you're doing.

BBB_Adrift

were I to find some of Brittney Spears' underwear, I'd buy it. Would you not? ;-)

[dont answer if my tongue-in-cheek post offends]

Maelochs

So ... restating the obvious .... Great score on the wheels, and really good fortune with the cassette/drive train interface. Wheels and tires for less than the price of one new tire? yeah, that's a score ....

Re: helmets .... I hate debating other people's religion .... one guy on this site said the smartest thing I have heard about helmets, though---he wears one not to save his life but to save his ride.

Obviously people die wearing helmets. They aren't magic---basically a Dixie cup inside a Solo Cup on top of your head. This guy, however, figured that while he could still get a concussion or a skull fracture or a fatal head injury while wearing a helmet, he was a lot less likely to get a severe scalp cut.

Anyone who has gotten a scalp cut knows they can bleed Profusely .... even a very slight cut---and if you are many miles from home, it could be a real issue, a ride-ending, wave down passing cars for help (or call for help) injury. With a helmet, even with a concussion, one can ride home. He wore a helmet because if he Did hit his head (one in ten thousand to start with) he had a better chance of being able to finish the ride.

ANY helmet will work for that.

I know people are all up on the latest tech ... but over 15 mph, survival is a crap shoot anyway .... and most people go their entire riding lives with helmet never touching pavement, so all that tech (and cash) is moot. And how many in ten million would have died in a simple helmet with no special foam or twisty liner, but would have survived with special foam or a twisty liner? And what will the next "breakthrough" be and will it actually and practically save a life? No One Knows.

I assume, in time, materials science will produce something like a soft helmet which hardens on impact with an expanding airbag-like liner which inflates just at impact site .... but for now, there is zero real-world evidence that a $500 helmet will do more for you than a $50 helmet ... and as I say, most people never need a helmet.

Not against helmets, and I prefer to wear one when I ride off-road ..... I am just not part of the religion.

Caveat---it is true that if you hit year head hard enough to kill yourself, you will die .... and if the helmet is old and brittle, the foam has hardened, or it has taken a good shot once and maybe the foam is already compressed .... it will do less for you. Considering that mostly helmets just prevent cuts and abrasions, unless you hit your head really hard it makes no difference. If helmets were necessities, there would be no cycling, because helmets were a late addition (I am sure in 50 years people will turn pale when rim brakes are mentioned, or steel rims .... )

You have found what happens when people bring politics into BF threads ... now you see what happens when you touch on people's cycling religious beliefs.

Great score on the wheels, and enjoy riding and skating with whatever helmet .....

livedarklions

That's not how anything works. If you offend someone, why would they let you tell them not to respond?

​​​​​The more important question is whether you'd wear Britney Spears' used helmet.

livedarklions

TBH, I would be skeeved out too much by the thought of hidden cooties to want to try on a used helmet.

BBB_Adrift

Oh yes. But I would insist it were unwashed.

VegasJen

You're so right about the helmets. I took a spill a couple years back with a cheap helmet. It did it's job but broke on the initial impact. That first impact rattled my head pretty good, but I can only imagine how much worse it would have been without the helmet. I bumped my head once or twice more before it was all over, but that initial smack was the one that counted. Helmets are sacrificial safety devices.
Aside from the foam padding, they're pretty solid surface. I always wash them out before I wear it.

veganbikes

Doesn't offend, I mean I may have thrown up a little in my mouth but yeah no interest in BS undewear. Used underwear especially from someone like that just doesn't have appeal, not that she was ugly but she was never interesting to me. Most pop-stars don't appeal to me that much there are people maybe I would be more interested in but celebrities undies would only appeal to me if I could magically get some good money for a pair and use that money for bikes or accessories or other things in life OK.

Herzlos

Right up to the moment they do.

And a used helmet in good looking condition is probably fine though definitely better than nothing. It's normally impact or age that weaken them, and at least it's usually obvious if there's been impact damage.

Koyote

Bicycle helmets are empirically demonstrated to reduce injuries and save lives… I would hardly call that a “religious belief.“

https://academic.oup.com/ije/article...98?login=false

This is a meta-analysis… But I could post many other rigorous peer reviewed individual studies that reach the same conclusion.

BBB_Adrift

I only used BS as a readily-recognised name. Replace with Justin Beiber or Hilary Clinton according to personal taste. ;-)

livedarklions

Jeez, enough with the celebrity secretion collection already. Blleeeeeecch!