Fulcrum 5 OK wheel choice?

Alibran

I'm getting a new bike from Ribble that allows me to specify my choice of wheels. The "default" wheels are Rodi Airline 4 (which I've never heard of) and the price to upgrade to Fulcrum 5 is £115.

I don't do any racing or anything else competitive, but ride 100-150 miles a week, and I'd like something better than the cheap Alex rims that came on my first road bike (they lasted about 8,000 miles, and would have gone on longer if the front one hadn't bent in a bad crash). Although I'd love light wheels, my main concern is that I can enjoy my rides without worrying about my wheels on the bad road surfaces and potholes.

Bearing in mind I can't afford to spend any more on my wheel upgrade, would they be a good choice?

jameses

Looks like it would be worthwhile - not sure about the Airlines, but Fulcrum seem to be reasonably well regarded around these parts and the 5s are a fair bit lighter than the Rodis (wheels being the one place where you really feel the difference when saving weight).

And you would eventually end up buying a better wheelset anyway, so this saves you the hassle of changing eveything over!

nochekmate

Yes Fulcrum 5s are decent wheels at the given budget IME but given that you can buy Fulcrum 5s for just over £150 new (Merlin but currently out of stock - or 170+ Euros from www.bike-discount.de) - I don't think that you are getting a startling deal to be honest. The Rodi wheels would surely fetch more than £35 in resale - they appear to be about £99 at Ribble. Given those figures your bike shop is pushing the boat to ask a differential of £115, particularly if you have bought the bike from them as well.

DavidJB

Ridden mine for 7,000 miles not needed them trued once or had one broken spoke...BOMB proof...can't recommend enough! Also have some fulcrum 1's also amazing.

rolf_f

nochekmate wrote:

Yes Fulcrum 5s are decent wheels at the given budget IME but given that you can buy Fulcrum 5s for just over £150 new (Merlin but currently out of stock - or 170+ Euros from http://www.bike-discount.de) - I don't think that you are getting a startling deal to be honest. The Rodi wheels would surely fetch more than £35 in resale - they appear to be about £99 at Ribble. Given those figures your bike shop is pushing the boat to ask a differential of £115, particularly if you have bought the bike from them as well.

Always worth a go but it's unlikely you'll get any joy bargaining at Ribble. The prices are madly cheap anyway and my own experience (trying to get either a better tyre than the Pro Race Nitros my bike was afflicted with or no tyres at all (!) came to nothing.....

To the OP - sounds like you are using the Bike Builder to spec your bike. You save a bit if you use the Special Edition section; generally seems to be about £45 like for like spec though it used to be much more. You get less choice but most of the time it doesn't matter. Also, there used to be a good value wheel upgrade that saved a good bit of weight for only about £35 extra but that isn't so clear cut anymore. I just got Campag Khamsins with mine and bought a spare set of slightly better heavily discounted wheels (only slightly better - Vento Reactions aren't much better than Khamsins ) with the money I'd saved going Special Edition.

Alibran

Thanks for that, guys. That's one decision made.

Yes, I know the price isn't the best deal, but it saves me changing the wheels once I get the bike and then selling the ones I've taken off (which isn't as easy as just sticking them on eBay here).

I'll have a look at the special edition bikes. I didn't realise they were effectively part of the bike builder as well.

styxd

I used to have some Fulcrums and didnt really rate the, they were ok but not amazing and the free hub bearings died quite quickly. If I were you, I'd save your money and just use the stock wheels. I'd then save up another couple of hundred quid and buy some Shimano RS80s for £300 (if you're after something light weight) or some nice custom builts if you want something bomb proof and comfy.