Recommended Wheels?

notsoblue

So my Model B's are finally on the way out, after 7 months of taking them on the commute they're starting to show lots of wear. In the last month or so, it was a constant battle to keep the rims true and prevent them from creaking. But after hitting a pothole this afternoon theres now a crack by one of the spokes and a nasty dent in the rear rim. So I'm looking to get them replaced this week.

Can anyone recommend me a good set of training/commuting wheels? Looking to spend about ~£200, am realistic about what is available at that price point. Just looking for something that is reasonably light and will stay true (on London roads) for at least 6 months. Will buy weekend bling separately. This is going on a PX SL Pro, SRAM cassette.

In the running so far:

Mavic Aksium
Fulcrum Racing 5/7
Easton EA50

Would be interested to know how the above compare to Model B's.

Cheers!

desweller

I know it's well below your price point but I reckon my Shimano R500s outperform my Model Bs - they've done more miles, on tougher (London) roads, with greater loads on them (panniered hybrid) and are still true, whereas my Model Bs have both needed retruing a couple of times.

cjcp

Can't remember what I paid for mine, but have you considered handbuilt CXP33s (32h)?

EDIT: I used mine for both commuting and the very cyclo-cross race.

iPete

My Model Cs must have done close to 8,000 miles, do Planet X have a wear line on their wheels? :shock:

A little over budget but I've been recommended Pro-lite Braccianos as strong and very light, lighter than the Bs I think.

notsoblue

DesWeller wrote:

I know it's well below your price point but I reckon my Shimano R500s outperform my Model Bs - they've done more miles, on tougher (London) roads, with greater loads on them (panniered hybrid) and are still true, whereas my Model Bs have both needed retruing a couple of times.

Yep, decent wheels. Got them on my hybrid too. They've lasted me a couple years. But then I'm more tolerant of wheel performance on that bike. Its more noticeable on the roadie!

cjcp wrote:

Can't remember what I paid for mine, but have you considered handbuilt CXP33s (32h)?

EDIT: I used mine for both commuting and the very cyclo-cross race.

Haven't considered those, but from a quick Google they look compelling. Where did you get yours made?

cjcp

notsoblue wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Can't remember what I paid for mine, but have you considered handbuilt CXP33s (32h)?

EDIT: I used mine for both commuting and the very cyclo-cross race.

Haven't considered those, but from a quick Google they look compelling. Where did you get yours made?

A club mate who's also a wheelbuilder.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Seven months to knacker a whee set is a blink of an eye. I've been running my Euruses for six years, and as the workhorse wheel set of my two sets for at least the last three years.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Campag factory wheels are bulletproof, IME. I've never need to true any of the sets I've had, and I've certainly never babied them. I've been able to sell a well worked set of Sciroccos and Zondas for decent money.

I think you can get them with a Shimano freehub, but you have to hunt around. The Fulcrums should be a good alternative.

UndercoverElephant

Personally, I'd get the hand-built ones. Spa cycles have a very good name for wheel building, and will do you a set of Rigida Chrina rims on Ultegra hubs using good-quality double-butted spokes (Sapim Race) for £206.

I made my own with the same components (except using Tiagra hubs, because I'm cheap), and they really are superb commuting wheels. It's amazing how much quicker you can go on some wheels you know are tough as old boots.

itboffin

FWIW I have model planet-x B & C, both good wheels and pretty light for the money, I also have handbuilt open pros both very nice a lightning quick to accelerate, I have mavic askiums on the trek which make a cool whooshing noise thanks to the bladed spokes, campag ventos on the ribble and these fulcrum 7s on the steel, which are only £105 at the moment, yes they're heavier than the planet-x but like Greg66 said pretty bullet proof and look the business.

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPF ... her-wheels

actually the mavics are a good price too http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPM ... 1-wheelset

Several people on here have had problems recently with planet-x wheels, might be a duf batch, dunno! mine have/are fine but be warned CHECK your rims :shock:

iPete

itboffin wrote:

Several people on here have had problems recently with planet-x wheels, might be a duf batch, dunno! mine have/are fine but be warned CHECK your rims :shock:

Aye, can someone confirm whether or not these wheels came with a wear line on the braking surface?

jzed

itboffin wrote:

Several people on here have had problems recently with planet-x wheels, might be a duf batch, dunno! mine have/are fine but be warned CHECK your rims :shock:

I've gone through 2 sets of B's The first, I suspect the LBS overtightened the spokes as the rims cracked at virtually every spoke, the second I took a bit of an impact down the DSC and whilst true, couldn't keep any spoke tension since.

I'm a heavy rider, and not sure built for me and impacts.

Now on Mavic Kysrium Equipe (they were about £240) and so far so good

fatherted

for me ....

Mirage hubs and Mavic Open Sport for commuting and training.

Veloce hubs and Mavic Open Pros for racing.

jzed

iPete wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Several people on here have had problems recently with planet-x wheels, might be a duf batch, dunno! mine have/are fine but be warned CHECK your rims :shock:

Aye, can someone confirm whether or not these wheels came with a wear line on the braking surface?

Turns round to stockpile of Planet X B's behind desk - nope no wear line.

Fireblade96

I've been very pleased with the Ambrosio Evolution wheels on my Wilier. They only have a couple of thousand miles on them but have needed no tweaking in spite of riding over some very rough country roads.
http://www.ambrosio.co.uk/ambrosio_wheels.htm

kelsen

I've been meaning to upgrade my Model B's on the Nanolight.

Pro-Lite Bracciano's are a possibility. Any alternatives?

rjsterry

DesWeller wrote:

I know it's well below your price point but I reckon my Shimano R500s outperform my Model Bs - they've done more miles, on tougher (London) roads, with greater loads on them (panniered hybrid) and are still true, whereas my Model Bs have both needed retruing a couple of times.

+1

notsoblue

itboffin wrote:

FWIW I have model planet-x B & C, both good wheels and pretty light for the money, I also have handbuilt open pros both very nice a lightning quick to accelerate, I have mavic askiums on the trek which make a cool whooshing noise thanks to the bladed spokes, campag ventos on the ribble and these fulcrum 7s on the steel, which are only £105 at the moment, yes they're heavier than the planet-x but like Greg66 said pretty bullet proof and look the business.

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPF ... her-wheels

actually the mavics are a good price too http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPM ... 1-wheelset

Several people on here have had problems recently with planet-x wheels, might be a duf batch, dunno! mine have/are fine but be warned CHECK your rims :shock:

You had me at "cool wooshing noise"... Thats a great price for the Aksiums on the PX website. Wiggle has them for about £20 more (and thats with "platinum" customer discount, what ever that means). I'm going to look into a custom build at the local LBS and see what they come up with.

With regards to the Model B's, they're not bad at all to be honest, nice and light. But I'm a heavy rider and I've bashed them about a fair bit.

Duncanandthemachine

i'd agree with the recommendation for handbuilts, i've smashed two mavic aksium on potholes etc. Because the spokes are straight pull as soon a the cap retaining the spokes pops off (possibly following an impact...) you can loose spokes and the wheels loose a significant proportion of their strength.

notsoblue

Duncanandthemachine wrote:

i'd agree with the recommendation for handbuilts, i've smashed two mavic aksium on potholes etc. Because the spokes are straight pull as soon a the cap retaining the spokes pops off (possibly following an impact...) you can loose spokes and the wheels loose a significant proportion of their strength.

I've never had a wheel built up so I'm a little ignorant here, are you suggesting that handbuilts don't have straight pull spokes?

UndercoverElephant

Most spokes have a right angle bend at one end where they lace to the hub. Straight-pull spokes don't, the have the bend built into the hub body instead. There's no real benefit to this, though. If you get hand-builts, the most important thing is to get top-quality, double-butted spokes, that really makes a difference.

rolf_f

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Personally, I'd get the hand-built ones. Spa cycles have a very good name for wheel building, and will do you a set of Rigida Chrina rims on Ultegra hubs using good-quality double-butted spokes (Sapim Race) for £206.

I made my own with the same components (except using Tiagra hubs, because I'm cheap), and they really are superb commuting wheels. It's amazing how much quicker you can go on some wheels you know are tough as old boots.

Spa tend to recommend Tiagra anyway. I have basically the above on my tourer except the hubs are the equivalent Deore LX as the bike has wider droput spacing than road bikes. Cost about £160 and they seem very good.

rjsterry

notsoblue wrote:

Duncanandthemachine wrote:

i'd agree with the recommendation for handbuilts, i've smashed two mavic aksium on potholes etc. Because the spokes are straight pull as soon a the cap retaining the spokes pops off (possibly following an impact...) you can loose spokes and the wheels loose a significant proportion of their strength.

I've never had a wheel built up so I'm a little ignorant here, are you suggesting that handbuilts don't have straight pull spokes?

I think it's possible, but pretty unusual to have straight pull on hand-built wheels. I'm not sure I agree with Duncanandthemachine though: every time I've broken a spoke (it's been all bar one with 'J' type spokes) the head has popped off at the hub the spoke falls out of the hub straight away - the little bend doesn't hold the spoke in place..

Wrath Rob

+1 for the Mavic's.

I've been commuting on my Mavic Aksium's for the last 18 months and they've been very solid, even when I hit a pot-hole so hard that it deflated the rear immediately they stayed true. The rear needs re-truing now, but I figure that's acceptable on a London cummuter bike after 18 months.

okgo

I use aksiums, 15 stone, potholed roads, I even jumped down a 4 set of steps on the river by hammersmith as I didn't see it till too late...

Still true!!

tgotb

-1 for the Aksiums. My rear used to flop around all over the place, especially when I got out of the saddle uphill. That was before it disintegrated completely (after maybe 6 months). Got it replaced on warranty and then put them straight on Ebay. That said, I am nearly 100kg, so I probably give my wheels a fairly hard time.

My current commuting pair are home-built, using Planet X Ultralight hubs (because they were almost giving them away at the time), Open Pro rims and plain gauge DT Swiss spokes. Probably cost me £130, plus a couple of evenings putting them together using my turbo trainer as a makeshift wheel building jig. Wheel building is surprisingly easy if you're patient and vaguely mechanically-minded.

I put them on the bike with a ~1mm wiggle in the rear, expecting them to bed in and need retruing. 8 months and about 5000 miles later that wiggle is still there, and apart from that they're still perfectly true. When they eventually die, I'll just get another set of Open Pro rims and reuse the rest.

Why not get some decent rims and spokes, and reuse your existing hubs?

kelsen

TGOTB wrote:

My rear used to flop around all over the place, especially when I got out of the saddle uphill. That was before it disintegrated completely (after maybe 6 months). Got it replaced on warranty and then put them straight on Ebay. That said, I am nearly 100kg, so I probably give my wheels a fairly hard time.

So...many...responses...

...must...resist!

MrBlond

Um, forgive me if this is tooo obvious, but planet X model Cs?

They have a slightly more reasonable number of spokes (IMHO) for commuting, and are only 90g heavier than the model Bs - still lighter than Aksiums

Just a thought

EKE_38BPM

I've been using an Aksium front wheel for many, many thousands of miles and it is still true. I can confirm the whooshing sound, but I can also confirm that the bladed spokes can make cross-winds a bit, erm, interesting.

They have been faultless, the wear indicator says they are nowhere near wearing out and, other than the strange ticking sound which I've mentioned on another thread, they have been faultless.

I would buy them again.

fossyant

cjcp wrote:

Can't remember what I paid for mine, but have you considered handbuilt CXP33s (32h)?

EDIT: I used mine for both commuting and the very cyclo-cross race.

+1's

This is what I run on two bikes. Best bike has 28 spokes on DA hubs (it's a classic) and the Fixed commuter runs 32h. Had a rear rim replaced due to wear/pot hole damage.

Rims are about £40 each.

notsoblue

Went for the quick option and bought a pair of Mavic Aksiums. They arrived this afternoon and not a moment too soon as one of my rear spokes finally pulled a chunk out of my rim and started flapping all over the place as I was scaling Putney Bridge.

Fitted them this evening and went out for a quick spin. First impressions are that they're similar to the Model B's, will see how they hold up in the next couple of months

okgo

Where is the wear indicator on them out of interest?