CHEAP good wheels???

andyfromletchworth

hi,
i have a spesh allez, have decided to treat myself to some new wheels for the summer, am skint tho so are there any wheels worth having that dont cost a fortune?

Absolutely can not pay more than £200 the pair, and preferably less.

As a thought, do you think it is worth upgrading the wheels? (given that i cant spend £500 plus on a pair) They came with pretty basic (i am told) Alex wheels and the general advice seems to be that if you are going to upgrade go with the wheels first.

I thank you all in advance for your advice to this newish cyclist.

andy

PS fyi i am 15 stone and planning a couple of sportives this summer - if that helps.

mr-ed

Well I put Mavic Aksiums on mine £100. They are a pretty decent wheel a lot better than the ones it comes with. Fulcrum 7 are a similar price to the Mavic's but a little bit lighter. Getting more expensive there the Fulcrum racing 5s too at like £160. Personally I'd get the Aksiums or 7s and save the rest to keep the bike going.

meagain

Doubt that you'd do better than these on th'bay for <200 quids!

Xero Centauri XCR-1 Wheelset. Special Offer Price: £175

Ending today!

Usual disclaimers - not mine, no interest.

giant_man

For very cheap and extremely strong wheels you can get the quest como's for 60 quid. Heavier than some yes but value wise hard to beat. For shimano or campag.

http://questbikes.co.uk/acatalog/Wheels.html

Or for a bit more money you could go for the Shimano RS20s at £64.99/£79.99 (front/rear). Lighter too.

http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/catalog/cyc ... 184230383I have had Alex wheels and personally i feel they are good but very basic wheels. The ones i have mentioned are definitely an upgrade, even the Quest comos, don't look at the price.

meagain

But won't be an "upgrade", surely?

peanut

its very hard to beat the value of Campagnolo Khamsins available in black or gold rims. A little on the heavy side but great looking G3 spoking for £79.00 if you shop around
Vento is the slightly more expensive version which I believ offers a shimano freehub option
Fulcrum are a Campagnolo owned compay they bought so that they could offer Shimano compatable hubs. Racing 7 is roughly equivalent to Khamsins (same oversized hub, bearings, freehub etc) but is offered in Shimano freehub

those cosmos sure are cheap :shock: pity they have a huge logo on them that says CHEAPSKATE WHEELS :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

Simon Notley

Assuming your bike comes with very basic wheels (maybe Alex or Jalco or some such...), most wheels over £100 rrp will be an upgrade. Maybe give these a whirl:

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/productde ... HIMWHFR375

or these

these

Lagavulin

andyfromletchworth wrote:

As a thought, do you think it is worth upgrading the wheels? (given that i cant spend £500 plus on a pair)

Yes, while I went silly and bought a £400 set, I've since invested in a pair of Aksiums for the winter and they're a big improvment over the Alexrims that came with my Allez.

I gave up getting the supplied wheels trued and now just use the rear on the turbo.
In comparison the Aksiums have done an autumn and winter, have been out in worse conditions and have remained true.

The Shimano RS-20s look canny though.

piedwagtail91

i'd be wary of khamsins. 4 our our club have had freehubs fail this year, one has had two go.
this may of course be a bad batch but they have all been bought from different palces.

System_1

meagain wrote:

Doubt that you'd do better than these on th'bay for <200 quids!

Xero Centauri XCR-1 Wheelset. Special Offer Price: £175

Ending today!

Usual disclaimers - not mine, no interest.

I have a pair of these but they are now sitting in storage.

Good points: Very light for the money, look good and stay true.

Bad points: Very very flexy (scarily so), rims fall to pieces in the wet (far more bits of metal in my brake blocks than with any other rim I've used), very very flexy, and I only got approx 1000 miles out of mine before cracks appeared round every spoke on the rear. Oh did I mention they are very very flexy.

Personally I'd avoid.

Mettan

andyfromletchworth wrote:

As a thought, do you think it is worth upgrading the wheels? (given that i cant spend £500 plus on a pair) They came with pretty basic (i am told) Alex wheels and the general advice seems to be that if you are going to upgrade go with the wheels first..

Yes, if you've got the income and do the miles, it's worth it. Couple of Shimano hoops.

RS 20's (as mentioned) - or maybe,
WH 5600's (slightly older wheel - lightweight, well-made and reliable though)

http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/Shimano_105_W ... Wheels.htm

Have a look at some reviews if possible though, first.

Doobz

Not sure if someone has mentioned the Xero-Lite XR-1 Wheelset. 700C yet?

30mm deep section aero clincher rims with machined breaking surface Sealed cartridge bearing hubs 16 spoke front and 20 spoke rear DT Competition Round spokes Complete with skewers Shimano fit Freehub (8,9 &10sp) but also available with campag freehub 660g Front & 885g Rear Lighter than the bladed spoke version

Might be worth having a look to see if you can find any reviews

milese

I posted in this thread with a similar question, and details of weights, prices of the options.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... 71&start=0

I had decided on mavic open pro / shimano 105 handbuilds which will be a bit heavier than the factory built options, but should also be much stronger.

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/productde ... 5000000000

Then I noticed that I dont think I'll be able to get the 10% off as they're not available to order at the moment.

I may as well hijack another thread. I want wheels that:

Will be as reliable as possible.
Light as possible.
Can get tyres off and on without bursting a gonad.

Are the handbuilds the best compromise of all of these, or would the RS20's or 105's be better?

top_bhoy

Ribble constantly have 10% off sales, there will be another along very shortly if you wanted to wait - of course they may not have them either :P Did you check CRC?

synchronicity

Here in spain, an alternative to shimano wheels are these:

http://www.blackjack.pt

I'm sure that it's cheaper to get a local set though.

You can't really go wrong with shimano wheels or mavic aksiums.