Commuting Wheels

asprilla

This has probably been asked a hundred times, but I juse thought I'd ask it again:

What 700c wheels do people use for commuting?

My bike has Mavic Aksium wheels on at the moment, but they are only 20i/24 spoke I'm think that I'll have to get something heavier if Im going to punish them on Surrey and London roads every few days (or daily if I can).

I've been looking at the M:Wheel Shimano Deore / Mavic A319 and the M:Wheel Shimano 105 / Mavic Open Pro wheelsets and I was wondering if anyone had any comments or other eceommendations?

Cheers.

gtvlusso

Personally - whetever is on the bike when I got it - OEM fit. If I had to buy a new set, I would go for cheap and cheerful (secondhand) - they get knackered quickly in winter. Save my money for a great racing set for the TT and Tri season.

biondino

My 21/16 spoke Fuclrums seem to be fine on the commute (though I did have to re-true the back wheel again - found a spoke almost loose yesterday).

Christophe3967

Of course its about your weight and the terrain you'll be riding on. I've recently used Mavics - A316s and Open Pros as well as Bonty Race Lite and Fulcrum Racing 3s. The Racing 3s are very good for big blokes and will take a lot of punishment. I haven't had much luck with the open pros or the Bontys, but the A316s were OK. My vote would be for Racing 3s however.

scoobers

I bought Shimano R500, they were cheap and do the job. I thought it was pointless spending too much because of the state of London roads (my last pair of wheels cracked).

jonginge

I've got Aksiums and they've stood up fine to the london roads. I'm not that heavy, though, so I don't punish my wheels as much as some. The constant stop-start of commute riding does wear out the braking surfaces reasonably quickly, though. As I found out to my cost when a Mavic Cosmos rimwall collapsed:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... start=9090

mudcovered

My bike has Mavic Aksium wheels on at the moment, but they are only 20i/24 spoke I'm think that I'll have to get something heavier if Im going to punish them on Surrey and London roads every few days (or daily if I can).

Should be fine
I've got these on my Kona Jake the Snake CX bike and have stood up fine to my part on road part off road commute which is way worse than any road I've ever seen. I am using 700x35 tyres mind.

I did have to true them once about 6 months after I got the bike but since then they haven't needed any attention at all.

Mike

Bassjunkieuk

I'm also a recent Aksium convert after finding that some fellow SCRer's also used them.
I'm by no means a big rider (just over 10st) and ride into and out of London each day with them. I've hit a few rather nasty pot holes with them since the ice and snow disappeared and left us with road surfaces resembling the moon!
Nothing has gone out of true yet and I think they are miles better then the Alex DA22s that come with my bike as standard!

cjcp

As said above, much depends on weight and riding style. I'm 13st and have been told by my wheelbuilder that I'm hard going on my rims (because there are an awful lot of stopping points on my commute - ped crossings, lights etc - and I tend to brake quite hard). I've therefore had a rear blow on me like JG. I've also bent an Open Sport rear beyond repair and put an irreparable dent in a Mavic CXP33 rear rim (there's a theme developing here; may be need to lose weight :-)). Ideally, therefore, I'd go for ceramic rims, but I'm too worried about denting it on the London roads in one of the potholes, so binned that idea.

I've not had the best of luck with Mavic rims, but am persisting with them for the moment, but I personally won't be going back to Open Pros in a hurry, although they work brilliantly for others.

Aksiums, I think, have a wear indicator (BJUK will correct me if I'm wrong), which is very useful.

But you need to clean your rims and brake blocks regularly and after every ride in the rain otherwise the guff that collects will wear the rims out.

As for brake blocks, it's worth splashing out only a couple of quid more and opting for Koolstoppers.

cjcp

EDIT: see how you go with the Aksiums, see how they wear, hold up etc and go from there.

Rich158

I've used Bonty Race X lites all winter. last years ones with the flangeless hubs, and they've been fantastic all through the winter. I've had one broken spoke, and they've stayed true and round even though the roads are abysmal, and I've had more pot hole strikes than I care to mention, including one that destroyed the bottom race in my headset. My only criticism would be that the nice shiny finish on the hubs is now starting to flake off, although that's hardly surprising given the winter we've just had.

Bassjunkieuk

The Aksiums do have a wear indicator, which I think will be quite helpful to avoid any wheel collapses and as an excuse to get a new set :-)

itboffin

cjcp wrote:

As said above, much depends on weight and riding style. I'm 13st and have been told by my wheelbuilder that I'm hard going on my rims (because there are an awful lot of stopping points on my commute - ped crossings, lights etc - and I tend to brake quite hard). I've therefore had a rear blow on me like JG. I've also bent an Open Sport rear beyond repair and put an irreparable dent in a Mavic CXP33 rear rim (there's a theme developing here; may be need to lose weight :-)). Ideally, therefore, I'd go for ceramic rims, but I'm too worried about denting it on the London roads in one of the potholes, so binned that idea.

I've not had the best of luck with Mavic rims, but am persisting with them for the moment, but I personally won't be going back to Open Pros in a hurry, although they work brilliantly for others.

Aksiums, I think, have a wear indicator (BJUK will correct me if I'm wrong), which is very useful.

But you need to clean your rims and brake blocks regularly and after every ride in the rain otherwise the guff that collects will wear the rims out.

As for brake blocks, it's worth splashing out only a couple of quid more and opting for Koolstoppers.

Sounds to me like you need disc brakes

Bassjunkieuk

+1 For the Koolstops, those plough tips make a huge difference in the wet for keeping the wheels clean. You can really see how much sh1t it removes from the rims as you can literally scrap it off the rear end of the brake block :-)

[Tim]

Asprilla wrote:

What 700c wheels do people use for commuting?

My bike has Mavic Aksium wheels on at the moment, but they are only 20i/24 spoke I'm think that I'll have to get something heavier if Im going to punish them on Surrey and London roads every few days (or daily if I can).

I've got Aksiums on my 'good' bike which gets used on my commute every so often ant they are still true after 1000+ miles over country and town roads in winter. They made hold up better than you imagine; plus they aren't mega pricey.

ride_whenever

I've got cpx22 on tiagra hubs (32 spokes each end) with a single speed conversion at the moment.

I'm planning on moving to cpx33 on some decent singlespeed hubs with 28 cx-ray spokes a wheel as these are knackered, and my funding arrives (and clearly leaves) tomorrow!

Bassjunkieuk

I also forgot another key feature of the Aksiums........a lovely freewheel noise!
There's nothing quite like claiming a scalp and them hearing your freewheel, meaning not only are you going faster then them your also bl00dy coasting :-D
It's the proverbial salt and vinegar smeared into a gaping wound.........

gtvlusso

Ritchey WCS on the Road bike - never had an issue all winter.

Xero XSD 30mm deep rims on Formula hibs on the fixie - no issues as yet.

Sun Mach 4 on XT hubs on the mtb - dog put a stick through spokes as I rode by in the woods....bye bye front wheel.

Other than that, I have never had an issue - "bunny hopping" is the saviour of my soul!

Sea_Green_Incorruptible

Aksiums for me. I'm 15 stone and mine have never dropped out of true in 2 years and probably close to 5k of commuting miles....

itboffin

As an Aksiums owner one thing I did notice when fitting my 10 speed cassette was the supplied spacer was very thin and allowed a lot of movement when fitted, eventually I swapped it for the spacer that came with the cassette and things ie noise improved but there was still some rattling at speed, today I fitted both spacer totalling 3mm a not only is shifting better but all noise has gone.

A quick google and it would seem this is quiet normal for Mavic wheels + 10 speed.

Still good wheels

will3

Shimano r500s. Cheap cheerful and robust in my experience.

The way some of you describe the roads you are riding on makes me wonder why you don't go for full suss mtb if it is as bad as you claim.

asprilla

You should try driving in Surry, the amount of minor suspension work I have done on my car is shocking. I'll have to stop, I feel a letter to my MP coming on.......

Anyway, I'm about 11 stone and from what I've read here I'll be sticking with the Aksiums and seeing how it goes.

Cheers.