Planet X 60mm Carbon Clincher Wheelset Review
bus_ter
Posts: 337
As these are fairly new I didn't find any feedback from actual users before I bought them, but now that I've put about 600-800 miles on them I thought I would leave my impressions for the benefit of others.
First of all I will say these are my first aero wheels. Before these I've run various low/medium range wheelsets including Fulcrum Racing 7s, Cole C24s, and my current favourites Shimano RS80s C24.
Also when I ordered these they were £100 off from their current £500 price making them a very attractive deal. Even so they are cheap for deep section aero wheels. The only other way you will get carbon deep section wheels at this price is by going Chinese, either through eBay or their web fronts. I've heard good things about those wheels, but personally I would much rather go through a respected UK company like Planet-X for the backup if I have any problems.
The wheels came well packaged and included rim tape fitted and a pair of very lightweight Planet-X skewers (which I can't find for sale on their own). I bought a new Ultegra 6700 cassette and that fitted without any issues. After installing the wheels I realised the rim is quite narrow. I had to significantly wind in the brake calipers after taking off the RS80 wheels. I didn't need to readjust the brake block position or reindex the gears, but a slight adjustment to the tension was required to centre the indexing exactly. The hubs themselves aren't smooth like most wheels but slightly serrated. The braking on these are excellent, and one of these reasons I bought them was because I didn't want to go down the road of carbon braking surfaces.
In fact these aren't really carbon wheels in a sense. They're actually just regular wheels with a carbon fairing 'stuck(?)' to the inside of the rim. The carbon section has little slots cut in for the spokes to pass through to the hub. I don't think the carbon is a structurally essential part of the wheel.
The wheels once installed spin incredibly freely. You can give them a spin and come back 5 minutes later and find them still spinning. This is cool but kind of irrelevant. How they spin when the bearings are loaded up with weight is more important (and harder to test), and again if they spin freely for 10 minutes or 1 minute doesn't really matter as the tiniest fraction of a watt is going to be required to overcome the extra friction. Anyway it's still nice to see free running smooth bearings.
Worth noting the freehub is very loud. You could even call it a safety feature as other riders can hear you coming! Not a problem at all for me, but quite obvious when swapping from my other wheelsets.
The wheels are also perfectly straight and true. The spoke tension is high, and they have obviously been built to a high standard. After 800 miles of hard riding and plenty of potholes at speed they remain perfectly true. I'm very happy with them in this regard. Perhaps the carbon fairing helps keep them true?
As for negatives I have a couple of issues. First of all the slots cut in the carbon for the spokes to pass through appear to be a weak point. One of them now has a crack leading out from the hole. I'm not sure how it got there, maybe something got caught or knocked there? It's only happened on one hole but it's a concern. I used some superglue to seal it up, and it doesn't seem to have progressed. I don't think the carbon is structurally important to the wheel so I'm not concerned about it being a safety issue.
Second issue, when on a hill and you stand up to put some power down the wheels make a sort of grinding noise. I'm not sure if this is wheel flex and rubbing on the brakes or a noise from the bearings or something else?
Also worth noting I found a small drilled hole on just one of the wheels. Apparently this is a drainage hole, and when I removed the decals I found the other one hidden underneath. I suppose the spoke holes will not drain built up water because of centrifugal force and the side holes allow for water to be forced out.
Overall I'm happy with these wheels. They look awesome with their carbon weave finish, I haven't noticed any problems with side winds (but I take them off on windy days..) and they have remained true despite a lot of use on rough roads. They're also very light for their budget price point. At £500 they are still cheap for deep section carbon wheels, however I'm not sure about the value if you consider they are essentially Planet-X alloy wheels with a carbon fairing. Currently Planet-X have the deep section 50mm Shimano carbon RS-80s reduced from £850 to £520, and I know which I would rather buy for an extra £20. However if/when the planet-x wheels are reduced in price again they will be a good buy IMHO.
If anyone has any questions about these wheels I'll be happy to answer.
First of all I will say these are my first aero wheels. Before these I've run various low/medium range wheelsets including Fulcrum Racing 7s, Cole C24s, and my current favourites Shimano RS80s C24.
Also when I ordered these they were £100 off from their current £500 price making them a very attractive deal. Even so they are cheap for deep section aero wheels. The only other way you will get carbon deep section wheels at this price is by going Chinese, either through eBay or their web fronts. I've heard good things about those wheels, but personally I would much rather go through a respected UK company like Planet-X for the backup if I have any problems.
The wheels came well packaged and included rim tape fitted and a pair of very lightweight Planet-X skewers (which I can't find for sale on their own). I bought a new Ultegra 6700 cassette and that fitted without any issues. After installing the wheels I realised the rim is quite narrow. I had to significantly wind in the brake calipers after taking off the RS80 wheels. I didn't need to readjust the brake block position or reindex the gears, but a slight adjustment to the tension was required to centre the indexing exactly. The hubs themselves aren't smooth like most wheels but slightly serrated. The braking on these are excellent, and one of these reasons I bought them was because I didn't want to go down the road of carbon braking surfaces.
In fact these aren't really carbon wheels in a sense. They're actually just regular wheels with a carbon fairing 'stuck(?)' to the inside of the rim. The carbon section has little slots cut in for the spokes to pass through to the hub. I don't think the carbon is a structurally essential part of the wheel.
The wheels once installed spin incredibly freely. You can give them a spin and come back 5 minutes later and find them still spinning. This is cool but kind of irrelevant. How they spin when the bearings are loaded up with weight is more important (and harder to test), and again if they spin freely for 10 minutes or 1 minute doesn't really matter as the tiniest fraction of a watt is going to be required to overcome the extra friction. Anyway it's still nice to see free running smooth bearings.
Worth noting the freehub is very loud. You could even call it a safety feature as other riders can hear you coming! Not a problem at all for me, but quite obvious when swapping from my other wheelsets.
The wheels are also perfectly straight and true. The spoke tension is high, and they have obviously been built to a high standard. After 800 miles of hard riding and plenty of potholes at speed they remain perfectly true. I'm very happy with them in this regard. Perhaps the carbon fairing helps keep them true?
As for negatives I have a couple of issues. First of all the slots cut in the carbon for the spokes to pass through appear to be a weak point. One of them now has a crack leading out from the hole. I'm not sure how it got there, maybe something got caught or knocked there? It's only happened on one hole but it's a concern. I used some superglue to seal it up, and it doesn't seem to have progressed. I don't think the carbon is structurally important to the wheel so I'm not concerned about it being a safety issue.
Second issue, when on a hill and you stand up to put some power down the wheels make a sort of grinding noise. I'm not sure if this is wheel flex and rubbing on the brakes or a noise from the bearings or something else?
Also worth noting I found a small drilled hole on just one of the wheels. Apparently this is a drainage hole, and when I removed the decals I found the other one hidden underneath. I suppose the spoke holes will not drain built up water because of centrifugal force and the side holes allow for water to be forced out.
Overall I'm happy with these wheels. They look awesome with their carbon weave finish, I haven't noticed any problems with side winds (but I take them off on windy days..) and they have remained true despite a lot of use on rough roads. They're also very light for their budget price point. At £500 they are still cheap for deep section carbon wheels, however I'm not sure about the value if you consider they are essentially Planet-X alloy wheels with a carbon fairing. Currently Planet-X have the deep section 50mm Shimano carbon RS-80s reduced from £850 to £520, and I know which I would rather buy for an extra £20. However if/when the planet-x wheels are reduced in price again they will be a good buy IMHO.
If anyone has any questions about these wheels I'll be happy to answer.
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Comments
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bus_ter wrote:As for negatives I have a couple of issues. First of all the slots cut in the carbon for the spokes to pass through appear to be a weak point. One of them now has a crack leading out from the hole. I'm not sure how it got there, maybe something got caught or knocked there? It's only happened on one hole but it's a concern. I used some superglue to seal it up, and it doesn't seem to have progressed. I don't think the carbon is structurally important to the wheel so I'm not concerned about it being a safety issue.
Second issue, when on a hill and you stand up to put some power down the wheels make a sort of grinding noise. I'm not sure if this is wheel flex and rubbing on the brakes or a noise from the bearings or something else?
To be honest they sound awful!!!
I'd send them back if they have a crack and make a noise when climbing0 -
Unfortunately PX have discontinued your wheels (had an email stock request yesterday that had been logged in January) although the ones built by Paul Curran are still available.
Maybe they couldn't compete purely on price against the Chinese hand-built wheels but having them built by Paul gives them a USP that justifies the premium. I can't say as I haven't ridden both sets.0 -
To be honest they sound awful!!!
I'd send them back if they have a crack and make a noise when climbing
It wasn't meant to be a bad review, I'm generally happy with the wheels. The noise isn't that bad, but it's definately there when I get out the saddle and power up hills. Non of my other wheelsets make a different noise when climbing and I would be interested to know if any other owners of these wheels have experienced the same? The crack is only small and minor, but I do think the holes are a weak point and I hope it doesn't spread.BillyMansell wrote:Unfortunately PX have discontinued your wheels (had an email stock request yesterday that had been logged in January) although the ones built by Paul Curran are still available.
Maybe they couldn't compete purely on price against the Chinese hand-built wheels but having them built by Paul gives them a USP that justifies the premium. I can't say as I haven't ridden both sets.
The Paul Curran thing is a little strange. At the end of last year the wheels were £400, and as soon as his name was mentioned they became £500. At the moment you can buy the 52mm version handbuilt for £450, or the apparently identical handbuilt by Paul Curran for £500. Are we to infer that the cheaper version is built to a lower standard by builders who aren't particularly great at building wheels (which would also mean all the other handbuilt px wheels) OR that they are both built correctly to a high standard and because Paul Curren touched them he has imprinted some racing magic into the wheels which is worth £50 extra?0 -
To me a crack = broken and they need replacing under warranty.
You've made the decision that the carbon does not contribute to the construction of the wheel, this may or may not be the case but I'd want them replaced. The noise under power may be the crack getting worse or new cracks forming.
£400 is a lot of money to pay for a sub standard product, you pay the extra to Planet x rather than an ebay seller so that you get a warranty from a UK supplier.0 -
PeteMadoc wrote:To me a crack = broken and they need replacing under warranty.
You've made the decision that the carbon does not contribute to the construction of the wheel, this may or may not be the case but I'd want them replaced. The noise under power may be the crack getting worse or new cracks forming.
£400 is a lot of money to pay for a sub standard product, you pay the extra to Planet x rather than an ebay seller so that you get a warranty from a UK supplier.
Very valid points Pete. The crack is 'only' 2-3mm long and appears to have sealed up fine with a spot of super glue. I'm going to monitor the wheels carefully and if more cracks form, or this one gets worse I will contact PX. I've had these wheels for a couple of months now and put hundreds of miles on them from general riding. If others are keeping these for 'race days' then it's possible I've put more mileage on them than anyone else so far.
The noise under power on climbs has been there from day 1. It hasn't changed over time and I consider it a 'characteristic' of the wheel. I would love any other owners reading this to comment if theirs make a noise or not?0 -
Hi bus_ter,
As an RS80 C24 owner it would be great to know how you think these compare, in the real world is there a discernible difference?
The RS80 50mm clinchers are currently £520, somewhat tempting!0 -
iPete wrote:Hi bus_ter,
As an RS80 C24 owner it would be great to know how you think these compare, in the real world is there a discernible difference?
The RS80 50mm clinchers are currently £520, somewhat tempting!
I swap between these two sets of wheels depending on the weather. If it's particularly windy or very wet I put the RS80's on. Though I have been caught out in the wind with the PX wheels and they're not as bad as I expected. I don't know if it's because these are particularly good in the wind compared to other aero wheels, or aero wheels just arn't as bad as everyone makes out!
Both my RS80's are now slightly out of true, and I haven't been able to get them completely straight again. The PX wheels are still absolutely perfectly true despite ever increasing miles and being used on all types of road surfaces.
As for performance, the RS80's are lighter and feel a little easier going up hill. The PX wheels should be faster on the flats but I can't measure a difference. I have a 17 mile loop I do every so often when I want a fast quick run which takes me just under an hour. Whatever wheelset I use it takes about the same. I've heard it said aero wheels can save you a second a mile.. well then they should save me 17 seconds, which is of complete irrelevance. If the wind is against me, or there's more traffic than normal, or I just feel sluggish on a particular day then I take 5 minutes or so more to do the loop. As average Joe riding my bike around at sub 20mph speeds for most of the ride there is no performance increase whatsoever IMHO with these aero wheels.
However the main reason I bought them is because they look cool! Deep section aero wheels look great, and even if there is no tangible speed increase I don't mind!0 -
I have the carbon 52s. When out the saddle the make a noise that seems to be more a whooshing sound. I remember getting overtaken in a tt by a guy on a disc wheel, they made the same noise just louder I think carbon wheels do seem to sound different . My impressions are pretty good tbh. The wheels are stiff and true. I had one spoke come loose but the wheel stayed tru even then. My lbs sorted that no problem. I have had an issue with free hub bearings failing but again the lbs sorted that too. I have had these since March, not sure how many miles logged but 2.5k to 3k miles would be about right as I have another wheel set I use on windy days.You just gotta peddle0
