Cheap touring wheels (700c)

bike-a-swan

I'm looking to do some touring in France next summer, and I'm looking to use my slightly old and knackered 'ride to work' hybrid for it (i've done some short, light tourish rides on a roadie and it gets old very quickly in my opinion).
Most bits and pieces are or can be made ready for this, but I'm looking for some advice on wheels, given that the current set consist of a rusty front of indeterminate age that is long overdue for the scrap heap and a £20 l.b.s. special rear.
So, does anyone know of any reasonably cheap (£100 for the pair absolute max, too much money spent on other bikes already!) 700c wheels that I can rely on. Weight is less of an issue than reliability. Am I shooting for the moon here?

Cheers in advance!

andymiller

Am I shooting for the moon here?

Yep, I think you probably are - although maybe you might find some secondhand wheels that you could service. I'd budget twice that and get some quality wheels that won't let you down. I know that's a lot relative to the value of the bike, but you can always transfer the wheels to other bikes - and bear in mind how much grief a problem with a wheel on tour could give you.

If you want some really tough wheels go to Spa Cycles for some Rigida Sputniks.

amaferanga

Byer Cycles have some Rigida Chrina on Tiagra hubs for £114. Or if you could stretch to £150 then you could get some Mavic A719 rims on Tiagra hubs. I know that's over your absolute maximum, but I don't think you'll find good wheels for less unless you go for some used ones.

I actually have a very lightly used Mavic A719 on a Tiagra rear hub built with DT double butted spokes that I'd sell you for £50 if could collect from Sheffield.

ralex

£100 for a pair is a pretty tight target but try and find out who your local good wheelbuilder is and ask them if they can come up with something for you.
Failing that if you can squeeze a few more quid onto your budget these from Spa Cycles are good wheels : http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... b0s178p377
Or maybe these from SJSC : http://tinyurl.com/yb4jfpl doesn't say if they are handbuilt though so may be machine built, best to check with them.
Also check your rear dropout spacing whether its 130 or 135 mm, the above wheels from Spa with Sora hubs will be 130 whereas the wheels from SJSC have Deore hubs at 135mm.

bike-a-swan

cheers guys, I'll have a look

andymiller

ralex wrote:

Also check your rear dropout spacing whether its 130 or 135 mm, the above wheels from Spa with Sora hubs will be 130 whereas the wheels from SJSC have Deore hubs at 135mm.

...though the Spa cycles guys will happily build you wheels with Deore hubs if you prefer (and if you have a steel frame you can swing both ways).

nicktheluddite

I can't remember exact price, but I think I paid about £100-125 pounds for a pair of wheels. Front was deore hub mavic A319 rim ,factory built, off the shelf in local bike shop. Rear was deore LX hub/deore LX rear cassette/slightly better mavic rim built up by local bike shop (Bike Workshop in Bristol). They are pretty similar to the SJS cycles link Ralex posted. I've not had any problems with them in 3 years - commuting daily and fully laden touring in NW Scotland/France.

Gotte

I've got some Rigidas which have lasted for four years and four 250 mile tours. they were about £35 each. They're pinned rims (though that is not necessarily a bad thing), and 36 hole. I inspect them every few months, and they look okay still. I read somewhere to expect about 2000 miles out of them, which is okay for me - probably means about another 4 years.
There are some Decathlon wheels which I was looking at priced about the same, and probably last as long.

tim_f

Cheapest touring wheels can be had at on line German bike shops.

quality less predictable than from the likes of Spa Cycles.

see http://www.poison-bikes.com/

where one can configure the cheapest wheels at 66 euro plus postage

or

http://www.roseversand.de

jay_clock

I would call Spa and have a chat - very good quality in my view and very strong

bike-a-swan

cheers all, thats a lot to think about!