racing wheels for £400

tim_wand

I ve got a Planet X carbon pro road sl. I ve built it up from a frame with full ultegra 10 speed and FSA carbon finishing kit.
The weak link is the wheels a shimano 105 (whr550) Wheelset.
I intend to use these for training and replace with something better for race days (Sprint Triathlons and 10 & 25 tt's)
I m 85 kg and give wheels a lot of hammer! got about £400 which way do I go ?

Chip \'oyler

Have a look at the Gigantex 50mm carbon wheels here

http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/wheelprices.htm

pastey_boy

shimano rs80,s from ribble £314 superb lightweight servicable carbon finished wheels

tim_wand

Thanks for the advice so far. Unfortunatley cant open the link to the first recommendation which are unknown to me so will goggle and have a look.
Condisered the RS 80's did not realise I could get them that cheap. Are Ribble back on form now? heard bad things about their delivery times but think this was more to do with their framesets being so popular.
Any one got any comments on Fulcrum 3s . Eastons and the new tubeless ultegras ?

Chip \'oyler

The RS80s aren't going to give you much aero aid if you're doing Sprint Tri's and TTs.

You need to be looking at a deeper section rim. The Gigantex rims are the same ones Planet X use for their 50mm wheelsets.

Cranks

Talk to Steve at www.roadacecomponents.co.uk, top tester and road racer from the 80s, he'll build you a top set of wheels.

tim_wand

Thanks. Their IRD Aero's with royce hubs look an extremely good wheel. Any one out there riding them. I had a royce ti hub on a mountain bike wheel once it spun for ever and was indestructable.

TimoH

tim wand wrote:

I ve got a Planet X carbon pro road sl. I ve built it up from a frame with full ultegra 10 speed and FSA carbon finishing kit.
The weak link is the wheels a shimano 105 (whr550) Wheelset.
I intend to use these for training and replace with something better for race days (Sprint Triathlons and 10 & 25 tt's)
I m 85 kg and give wheels a lot of hammer! got about £400 which way do I go ?

I'm 90kg and have the same bike with PX model C wheels. Needless to say that the wheels are the first (and possibly also the last) thing to upgrade in this setup.

I just ordered a Fulcrum Racing 1 set from www.salden.nl . For 475 euros they seem like a pretty good deal.

tim_wand

Thanks TimoH cant believe the prices on there. Think i 'll go the same route thats a top price for Fulcrum Ones even with the euro exchange rate as crap as it is! Im probably going to have to wait until end of the month now for pay day. So if proceed with this and yours come before then, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks Tim

TimoH

tim wand wrote:

Thanks TimoH cant believe the prices on there. Think i 'll go the same route thats a top price for Fulcrum Ones even with the euro exchange rate as crap as it is! Im probably going to have to wait until end of the month now for pay day. So if proceed with this and yours come before then, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks Tim

My wheels have already been shipped. I assume I'll have them by early next week. Weather allowing, I will try to report some first impressions about the wheels. I really I hope I'll have a chance to try them out before the snow comes and ends the season. (I'm living in Finland.)

TimoH

tim wand wrote:

So if proceed with this and yours come before then, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks Tim

I got the wheels today, put Michelin Pro3 Race tires on them and rushed for a test ride.

Now Me Happy :-)

It is quite astonishing what's the difference between a mediocre wheelset (Planet X model C) and a Good Wheelset. I think Fulcrum Racing 1 is a Good Wheelset. They are stiff (yet comfortable under the PX pro carbon frame), they roll well, they excel when climbing and feel good when descending. The only thing I did not try on my test ride was tight cornering. The tarmac was too wet for that I assume that there won't be any nasty surprises in that area either.

For 475 euros, I think you'll get some seriously good set of wheels.

gsk82

are the fulcrum racing 1s tubeless? i ask because i've seen a couple of reviews that mention tubeless.

i've never bought wheels before, what will i have to do when they arrive to get them ready to put on my bike? obviously theres the cassette to put on but aything else? will the spokes need adjusting, is there anything to do with the hubs etc?

cheers
gary

Anonymous

Defo get the gigantex rimmed ones from http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk.

dave_oc

Timo - had a look at the salden.nl website - the prices are very good! Did you order from the normal site and just guess what the dutch meant or did you email them?! And did you get charged any import duty for getting the wheels shipped?

Cheers!

TimoH

dave_oc wrote:

Timo - had a look at the salden.nl website - the prices are very good! Did you order from the normal site and just guess what the dutch meant or did you email them?! And did you get charged any import duty for getting the wheels shipped?

The down side of that web site is its language. You need to guess what the dutch text means. For a person who knows german, that's not too difficult. Another one is the payment: they accept only advance bank payment or paypal.

No import duty needs to be paid within EU (because the dutch taxes have already been paid) and they charged only 10 euros for shipment to Finland. Not bad.

redddraggon

RAcing wheels for £400?

http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/


Surely there's no better for £400 than the 50mm gigantex?

gsk82

TimoH, how long did you have to wait for an email following your order? i ordered some last night but have't had an email yet

TimoH

gsk82 wrote:

TimoH, how long did you have to wait for an email following your order? i ordered some last night but have't had an email yet

I received the invoice for advance bank payment immediately after placing the order. A confirmation about receiving the payment and about processing the order came a few days after the payment. An international bank transfer takes a couple of days to get through.

gsk82

just ordered the fulcrum racing 1s from math salden. i paid an extra 3% (15euro) to pay by paypal so i could use my credit card, its a lot of money to risk losing, although i don't expect to lose anything.

anyway for that cash they best transform me into a top ametuer rider within the next year or i will not be pleased.

gsk82

TimoH
Timo, how long did delivery take on you wheels? cheers, gary

Cranks

AND this is why this country is in a recession.

Support UK businesses people!

Anonymous

Why pay more?

Market forces and a global market...

hammerite

Cranks wrote:

AND this is why this country is in a recession.

Support UK businesses people!

This country is not in a recession because people have been buying abroad, after all what of any value is produced in the UK. If you buy Fulcrum wheels in the UK you are only paying for them to have been imported, ditributed and retailed here - I'm guessing they would even have been built abroad.

The recession is a global one, and supporting just UK businesses wouldn't make the UK get out of a recession any sooner.

Cranks

Ok simple.

If you do not support the bike shops in this country, they will close down.

So.

Where will you get your bike fixed then?

Simple.

hammerite

Cranks wrote:

Ok simple.

If you do not support the bike shops in this country, they will close down.

So.

Where will you get your bike fixed then?

Simple.

I'm not saying don't support your local bike shop. I totally agree with that, between my two independent LB shops I've bought 5 bikes for various family members over the past 3 years. I buy many parts from them too.

If I can't get some parts from my LBS or the LBS isn't competitive or would take too long to provide then I'll have no hesitation in going elsewhere.

My point is that supporting your LBS would have made very little impact in the recession. In fact people are resorting to buying and using bikes more given rising petrol and public transport costs (see article in this months C+ about there being a recession, even though you can't tell with the amount of bikes being sold).

Anyway, these Gigantex wheels from Wheelsmith....... are they good then? What about a numpty like me who'd prefer clinchers?

TimoH

gsk82 wrote:

TimoH
Timo, how long did delivery take on you wheels? cheers, gary

Less than two weeks from order to delivery. The mail service they used is not particularly fast but I guess that's what you can expect from a mail service of 10 euros.

Cranks

hammerite wrote:

Cranks wrote:

Ok simple.

If you do not support the bike shops in this country, they will close down.

So.

Where will you get your bike fixed then?

Simple.

I'm not saying don't support your local bike shop. I totally agree with that, between my two independent LB shops I've bought 5 bikes for various family members over the past 3 years. I buy many parts from them too.

If I can't get some parts from my LBS or the LBS isn't competitive or would take too long to provide then I'll have no hesitation in going elsewhere.

My point is that supporting your LBS would have made very little impact in the recession. In fact people are resorting to buying and using bikes more given rising petrol and public transport costs (see article in this months C+ about there being a recession, even though you can't tell with the amount of bikes being sold).

Anyway, these Gigantex wheels from Wheelsmith....... are they good then? What about a numpty like me who'd prefer clinchers?

I know nothing about those wheels to comment. I would sugest you speak to Steve at www.roadacecomponent.co.uk, the IRD Cadence Aero (clinchers) on Royce is what he recommended for myself, stiff aero rims, the Royce hubs run so smoothly (british made can I add), Sapim spokes, have never looked back.
His he well known up here for his building and knowledge, just ask him.

With regards to recession and bike shops - every little sale helps my friend.

hammerite

Cranks wrote:

I know nothing about those wheels to comment. I would sugest you speak to Steve at www.roadacecomponent.co.uk, the IRD Cadence Aero (clinchers) on Royce is what he recommended for myself, stiff aero rims, the Royce hubs run so smoothly (british made can I add), Sapim spokes, have never looked back.
His he well known up here for his building and knowledge, just ask him.

With regards to recession and bike shops - every little sale helps my friend.

Thanks for the tip Cranks, are you able to give me a guide as to how much the wheels from Steve usually cost?

TimoH/gsk82 - Merlin Cycles often do a good deal on Fulcrum R1s. Worth looking at if you want to buy in the UK, delivery is usually pretty quick from them too - granted I've never bought anything as big as wheels online though!

Cranks

If you have a look at his website you'll get an idea of cost, mine did come out slightly cheaper because I was able to get away with less spokes.

markos1963

hammerite wrote:

Cranks wrote:

AND this is why this country is in a recession.

Support UK businesses people!

This country is not in a recession because people have been buying abroad, after all what of any value is produced in the UK. If you buy Fulcrum wheels in the UK you are only paying for them to have been imported, ditributed and retailed here - I'm guessing they would even have been built abroad.

The recession is a global one, and supporting just UK businesses wouldn't make the UK get out of a recession any sooner.

Strangly enough I found out today that we are still the 6th largest manufacturer in the world! So we must be making something of worth.

Chip \'oyler

markos1963 wrote:

hammerite wrote:

Cranks wrote:

AND this is why this country is in a recession.

Support UK businesses people!

This country is not in a recession because people have been buying abroad, after all what of any value is produced in the UK. If you buy Fulcrum wheels in the UK you are only paying for them to have been imported, ditributed and retailed here - I'm guessing they would even have been built abroad.

The recession is a global one, and supporting just UK businesses wouldn't make the UK get out of a recession any sooner.

Strangly enough I found out today that we are still the 6th largest manufacturer in the world! So we must be making something of worth.

Yes we are. We are making/breeding more idiots.