wheels upgrade

Weakendrider

I've got between £400 and £450 to spend on a pair of new wheels, my existing Fulcrum 7s just don't cut the mustard and will end up on eBay soon. Thoughts on a pair would be great ... I'm torn between Mavic Ksyrium Elites, Gipiemme Tecno 1.55s or perhaps even some Kinetic One K2s

thanks

Julian

Anonymous

Don't cut the mustard for what?... :?

unixnerd

Mavic Ksyrium Elites

That's what I'd buy. Light and very well made.

Weakendrider

yep, I know that the Mavic's are goodbut I suspect that I'm paying for a Brand and the other two are lighter and around £100 a pair cheaper. Both are lighter than the Fulcrum 7s

unixnerd

I have Pro-Lite Braccianos which are half the price of the Mavics and roughly the same weight. They're great wheels but you can see the difference in build quality with the Mavics. I'd have no hesitation in buy a set if my cycling budget were a bit larger.

I suspect the same is true of the Planet-X Model B's (which are a real bargain at 125).

Weakendrider

thanks unix, when you say the build quality is not as good as the Mavic, does this put you off ... what's not as good? thx

unixnerd

I bought a used set of Mavic Ksyrium Elites on ebay. Despite checking in advance they were Campagnolo fitment, not Shimano. In addition it turned out they were an older model that was 200g heavier, so I returned them and bought the Braccianos.

The rims were about equal on both sets. The hubs on the Mavics were clearly superior and a bit smoother, I'd also say they'd last longer. Generally they were engineered to a higher level (I'm an engineer so I know what I'm looking at). The spokes on the Mavics were made from much higher quality steel and generally the whole thing was a work of art.

If I could use a car analogy it was the difference between a BMW and a Mondeo. The Mondeo is a good car and nothing wrong with it, but once you start fiddling with it you can see the differences. My old '89 318iS did over 215,000 miles (still with bits of the original exhaust after 20 years) before I sold it, an '89 Escort won't.

I'm happy with the cheaper wheels because they're half the price and when I'm on the bike I doubt I'd notice the difference. Also my road bike doesn't rack up more than an average of 30-40 miles a week because it only comes out on nice days and it snows here half the year, for wet weather I use the mtb or my tourer. If I were to use the Pro-Lites for 200-400 miles a week every week for serious training I doubt they'd hold up as well as the Mavics.