Pro-Lite Braccianos - advice

gabriel959

Has anyone here got them? Any first hand / second hand experiences? They are the winners of this month C+ Wheel test and they look like a serious bargain for £300.

Main things that worry me is weight limit – as I am 15st (can’t really go much lighter due to my height too 6’ 6”!) and warranty.

They are fully handbuilt as well (like the Eastons) but are cheaper than them by quite a margin.

Oska

Why not ask the importers, Polaris. Contact Barry on 01246 240218.

gabriel959

Well, had a few emails in and out and Barry, who seems a very nice chap, has said that he won't cover the warranty in the UK for me due to my size/height (I am 95kg and 6' 6").

Oh well, I will have to look at the Eastons!

gabriel959

Amazing

In the space of one day I had two answers – one from Steve Fenton, the CEO of Pro-Lite and Barry, from Polaris (UK Distributor) and they are both giving conflicting answers.

Extract from Steve’s email:

95kg is really no problem for these wheels.

Extract from Barry’s email:

However I am 6foot and 11-11 stone so put 3 stone on top of that with pot holes in the road and I’m just not sure, you are a big strong rider with weight and power and they are a 1450gram wheel set.
As we deal with warranty in the UK on Pro-Lite, or I do, my years in the trade tell me that you may be a risk, you can buy them but if they come back to our warranty dept in 6months with a collapsed rear wheel I won’t warrant them.
What are the forum views about this?
Thanks

wpdoolan

Dont buy plenty of other options on the market

sheffsimon

gabriel959 wrote:

Well, had a few emails in and out and Barry, who seems a very nice chap, has said that he won't cover the warranty in the UK for me due to my size/height (I am 95kg and 6' 6").

Oh well, I will have to look at the Eastons!

That is p*** poor IMHO. A wheel should be able to take 95kg, or are they designed so close to the bone that they are on the edge just below that?

Admittedly he is backing the warranty, but on what basis is he making his assessment. I daresay he has "years in the trade" but that doesnt make him knowledgeable on the wheel design and engineering.

I'd take me money elsewhere.

zaphyr

I have Pro-Lite Braccianos on my Be-One Pearl. I'm 13 and a half stones. They feel quite flimsy and the freehub is very noisy, so I thought it might be defective and need changing. However, when I asked Steve Fenton (apparently the CEO of Pro-Lite) how to change the freehub body, as the instructions on the Pro-Lite website seem to be incomplete, here was his reply (verbatim):

"Sorry I forget to reply next time I am in UK let me come over and kiss your arse, by the way Boots have some good books on plain English. Not sure how difficult it is to understand that if you don’t understand our instructions then send it to Polaris for service, hardly rocket science"

Needless to say I would never buy Pro-Lite wheels again and am changing to Mavic Ksyrium Elites.

Pat Murray

Well I've had a very positive experince with Pro-lite / Polaris.

I have had a set of Gavias for more tahn three years, I'm 85 - 90kg depening on time of year. Last year after a couple of spokes snapped, Steve kindly posted some more spokes and very speciifc instructions as to how they should be replaced involving a tensionmeter. Unfortunatly no shop up my way uses a tensionmeter and after a couple of spokes snapped again, Barry and Steve put me in contact with AD Cycles in Shorham who basically rebuild the wheel, done 2000 miles this year on some dubious road surfaces and still straight and true.

Excellent service!

gabriel959

Got some Fulcrum Racing 3s now but thanks for the feedback.

What did you write to him on the first place Zaphyr?

zaphyr

Hi Gabriel, I wrote to him asking how to remove the old freehub body, so I could replace it with a new one which I had purchased from Wiggle. The instructions on Pro-Lite's website didn't seem to be complete. I asked Wiggle the same question and they advised a special tool was required (which wasn't mentioned on Pro-Lite's website). Good luck with the Fulcrum Racing 3s - a good choice. I have the same wheels on another bike.

disgruntledgoat

zaphyr wrote:

I have Pro-Lite Braccianos on my Be-One Pearl. I'm 13 and a half stones. They feel quite flimsy and the freehub is very noisy, so I thought it might be defective and need changing. However, when I asked Steve Fenton (apparently the CEO of Pro-Lite) how to change the freehub body, as the instructions on the Pro-Lite website seem to be incomplete, here was his reply (verbatim):

"Sorry I forget to reply next time I am in UK let me come over and kiss your ars*, by the way Boots have some good books on plain English. Not sure how difficult it is to understand that if you don’t understand our instructions then send it to Polaris for service, hardly rocket science"

Needless to say I would never buy Pro-Lite wheels again and am changing to Mavic Ksyrium Elites.

I think that may just be Steve's sense of humour... A guy i ride with got a few Pr0-Lite items to test on a sort of endorsement deal (i think he paid cost). He had big issues with the spokes on his Gavias. In the end Steve came to his house and re-built them.

proliteboss

zaphyr wrote:

I have Pro-Lite Braccianos on my Be-One Pearl. I'm 13 and a half stones. They feel quite flimsy and the freehub is very noisy, so I thought it might be defective and need changing. However, when I asked Steve Fenton (apparently the CEO of Pro-Lite) how to change the freehub body, as the instructions on the Pro-Lite website seem to be incomplete, here was his reply (verbatim):

"Sorry I forget to reply next time I am in UK let me come over and kiss your ars*, by the way Boots have some good books on plain English. Not sure how difficult it is to understand that if you don’t understand our instructions then send it to Polaris for service, hardly rocket science"

Needless to say I would never buy Pro-Lite wheels again and am changing to Mavic Ksyrium Elites.

Please note that tihs tosser has not included the down right obnoxious emails he sent to warrant such a reply. We are the biggest hand built wheel company in the world and have a reputation for taking care of people when they have problems.When you build as many wheels by hand as we do we know the problems of ensuring quality. I have never found a warranty problem worth arguing about. I would also note how many bad mouth posts have been made about us since this happened by a poster who never has more than a few posts to his name yet the posters name is always different yet it is the same old song.Come on if you do this do you think we just got off the last bannana boat.

Every email sent to Pro-Lite gets sent to me. I persoanly reply to 98% of them as I want to be in touch with our customers, thats you guys who write on here. Also I have to mention I went apeshit with Barry for his reply regarding weight, there are no weight restrictions on our wheels

sturmey

Anyone know if the Prolite Comos are the same wheel as the Como wheelset from Questbikes?

giant_man

Hopefully they're lighter, which I think is the case, cos the Comos are no lightweights!