Any advice on wheels?

smaidment

Hi

Having ridden well over 6000 miles on my front wheel and >3000miles on the rear wheel, I think it's about time to treat my bike to a new set!

I generally use my bike (trek 1200) for fast road riding and some racing. I'm 55 kg but often carry panniers on the back of the bike, which can be pretty heavy ?30-40kg at times.

Any ideas for a strong but fast set of wheels - preferably under the £150 mark?

Thanks,
Sarah

sub55

£150 no hope

smaidment

Ok - they don't have to be uber-fast/ uber-light or uber-top-of-the-range!

I was looking at the Shimano RS10 Wheelset: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... t-09-34040 - around £120 from Ribble.

Any thoughts? Would they be strong enough?

Sarah

APIII

Hi, why not keep the wheels you've got when you need to use your panniers and get something like Mavic Aksiums for everything else. They've got a decent rep, and I've had a set of Mavics for years and they've not let me down.

ugo.santalucia

You mean tyres... after 3000 miles you change the tyres not the wheels... 10,000 is the very minimum lifetime you should expect, in case you use them in winter, otherwise more!

smaidment

Sounds like a good idea. Would the Mavic Askiums survive a bit of light touring?

smaidment

Fair enough... the front wheel is the original - it's done over 6000 miles.

The original back wheel died on a trip from Land's End to John O' Groats. In desperation, it was replaced at a tiny cycle shop somewhere north of Inverness. The replacement is a pretty cheapo wheel (for which I was probably over-charged) and has (according to my local bike shop) a cheap Chinese hub, which seems to work itself loose.

My bike needs a bit of TLC - probably a new cassette and chain at least and I was thinking of replacing the dodgy back wheel at the same time.

Is this reasonable?!

APIII

I've seen Aksiums specced on a couple of audax bikes eg. Tifosi CK7, so probably would be okay for light touring.

ugo.santalucia

smaidment wrote:

Fair enough... the front wheel is the original - it's done over 6000 miles.

The original back wheel died on a trip from Land's End to John O' Groats. In desperation, it was replaced at a tiny cycle shop somewhere north of Inverness. The replacement is a pretty cheapo wheel (for which I was probably over-charged) and has (according to my local bike shop) a cheap Chinese hub, which seems to work itself loose.

My bike needs a bit of TLC - probably a new cassette and chain at least and I was thinking of replacing the dodgy back wheel at the same time.

Is this reasonable?!

It probably is... Aksium are good wheels, I'm on my second pair now...

Harry182

It's a prejudice but I've got a thing about Askiums and other budget/cheap factory wheels. To me they seem heavy, uninspiring and uninspired. I'm riding a set myself and looking to replace soon.

My advice? - give Harry Rowland ( http://www.rstocker.freeserve.co.uk/harry.htm ) a call. Read him your original post and see what he comes up with.

Budget factory wheels - it's like buying off-the-rack when you can have bespoke for the same money.

edit - I should have noted earlier that Harry Rowland is one if not the best reputed custom wheel builders in the UK. For £150, defo custom hand-mades over factory builds.

FOAD

Fulcrum 7's

whydoesitalwaysrainonme

these ones
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/9852/Hand-Built-Mavic-Open-Pro-Front-Wheel.html
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/9853/Hand-Built-Mavic-Open-Pro-Rear-Wheel.html
they come in at about £146 with Mavic open pro rims/shimano tiagra hubs and 36 DT swiss DB spokes.
Truse me these are easily the strongest wheels in that price range. pretty much the best training/touring wheels you can get and very durable.

Anonymous

whydoesitalwaysrainonme wrote:

these ones
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/9852/Hand-Built-Mavic-Open-Pro-Front-Wheel.html
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/9853/Hand-Built-Mavic-Open-Pro-Rear-Wheel.html
they come in at about £146 with Mavic open pro rims/shimano tiagra hubs and 36 DT swiss DB spokes.
Truse me these are easily the strongest wheels in that price range. pretty much the best training/touring wheels you can get and very durable.

+1
looks mighty fine to me!

Cranks

Why not speak to a wheel builder to see what they can come up with?
I use RoadAce to build mine.