Shimano DA 7900 C24 wheels v RS80

bam49

Another wheel question for you guy's please..
Currently have a pair of DA wheels ; WH -7850 CL on my Felt F1, that are about 3 years old.. Still quite good nick but they are not going to last forever & I was thinking about a new wheelset as Ribble are doing some good offers and they are only going to go up in price..
I was wondering if I would lose that much in performance & ride quality by opting for a pair of RS80's instead of the current DA 7900 C24 version ? The difference in price is approx £ 300 - although Ribble are currently showing the DA 7900 C24's as out of stock..
I don't race, just club runs, long hilly rides and sportives..
thanks in advance

antooony

Never used the C24's but done many a mile on the RS80's. They're a great wheel and offer good value for the money. They have the same rim as the DA but use ultegra hubs which are great as they're easily serviceable. Never had a problem with mine, always stayed true and roll well and are a nice looking wheel.

Cheers.

porker33

I had this dilemma and bought the DA 7900's.......I found a good deal, which helped.

It occurred to me that if I bought the DA and liked them I would hardly wish I had the Rs80's and if I bought the Rs80's, I would always wonder how great the DA wheels were?

No regrets on the DA fantastic wheels that run fast and true!

For some items the additional price paid is soon forgotten when you are happy with the product and on that basis consider them to be good value.

James H-S

I went for rs80 C24's as they were half the price and identical apart from the hub being ultegra rather than dura ace and to be honest they have been fantastic

iPete

RS80 for me as my 'weekend race' wheels, if they really are half the price I fail to see how the durace ace could even be 1/10th better. Spend the savings on the best and lightest tyres, skewers and inner tubes available and still have plenty of change to spare.

maddog 2

AFAIK it's just the hubs that differ. And you can lighten the RS80 hubs by fitting ceramic balls, so the weight difference is reduced.

speshsteve

maddog 2 wrote:

AFAIK it's just the hubs that differ. And you can lighten the RS80 hubs by fitting ceramic balls, so the weight difference is reduced.

or just make sure you have a number 2 before you ride....a lot cheaper and just as effective

ugo.santalucia

maddog 2 wrote:

AFAIK it's just the hubs that differ. And you can lighten the RS80 hubs by fitting ceramic balls, so the weight difference is reduced.

By what? 10 grams?

porker33

The rims are not the same,,,there is an Rs80 transfer on the cheaper item!

Bozman

I've had them both and i can't tell the difference, i use the RS80s now as a spare pair to a set of Mavic SLs which are alot stiffer than the Shimano wheels.

ic.

AFAIK the major weight saving is the titanium axle in the dura ace hubs.
I've owned the dura ace and they were a very nice ride, but I'll admit they weren't nearly as stiff as a previous set of Ksyriums. There were lighter though, by roughly 150g I think. The carbon bonded rim thingymajig did offer a noticeably smoother ride than any other wheel I've ridden.

Now I've had to sell them, I wouldn't buy them again, I'd go with Ksyriums for the stiffness.

I think over the RS80 you're basically paying for a weight saving IMHO

smidsy

They are both just an aluminium clincher with a bit of fancy plastic stuck on them - move on :-)

bam49

thanks for all the replies chaps. I have had a set of Ksyriums as well on a previous bike. I agree they were maybe stiffer but I think I preferred the ride on the Shimano DA's -the previous version.. Think I might go for the RS80's then if the difference is so small ...

bobones

smidsy wrote:

They are both just an aluminium clincher with a bit of fancy plastic stuck on them - move on :-)

Incorrect. They're carbon rims with an aluminium brake track stuck on.

bam49

Just hit the button on a pair of the RS80's ( the Ribble deal runs out at 1pm today ), - for 344 quid as against the 640 quid DA's I thought it made sense... Thanks for all the replies...

Bozman

If you're going the RS80 way, they're £319 at Planet x

bam49

Wish I'd known that before - never used Planet X before so never thought to look for them there.. I always thought Ribble tend to have the best deals on wheelsets..
thanks Bozman - will have to remember to check Planet X the next time I need something

FransJacques

I own all of them, well several of the different flavour: the 7900 CL24s the RS80s and for comparison the 6700 tubeless.

Many of the comments above are about price and materials and fail to mention the road feel. I've ridden them all with the same tyres, be they Ultremos, PR3s or Grifos/Limus, and the CL24s are by far the stiffest which is a function of their spoke tension. I don't have the Park gauge or anything other than grabbing pairs of spokes with my hands or listening when pinging them with a spoke key. Shimano took the CL24s (they're the oldest of the 3 paris @ 2010) up way higher and you can feel it when standing up on the bike. They also ride harsher.

The 6700s are super loose, especially 2 pesky spokes on the rear that a dab of loctite cured.

One problem with the RS80s is they're lost in the middle. The rear (a 2012) was super heavy at 939 grams (40-50 grams higher than listed) whereas the 6700 is 949 grams plus you save the weight of a rim tape. I'm not sure about the RS80 value proposition in relation to the £230 6700s....

smidsy

bobones wrote:

smidsy wrote:

They are both just an aluminium clincher with a bit of fancy plastic stuck on them - move on :-)

Incorrect. They're carbon rims with an aluminium brake track stuck on.

I suggest you look again. They are a totally alimunium rim with the carbon bonded on top.

i.e the only carbon is what you see between the spokes. There is no carbon where the tyre fits.

You are paying for an aluminium clincher rim with carbon stuck onto it FACT!!!

http://road.cc/content/review/1216-shim ... 0-wheelset

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/tech/com ... heels.html

nolight

I often wondered about the differences in these wheels too and whether anyone has done comparisons. So the RS80 is half the price of DA7900 but how about RS20/30 which are half again the price of RS80.

Is RS80 and RS20/30 comparable or this time there is a significant difference? Where is the point of diminishing returns?

FransJacques

There is NO comparison betwen the RS 20s/30s to the RS80s or 6700.

Completely different hubs, spokes, rims, weight, performance. I once had some R501s and they were bomb proof but they're not really "best" wheels if you're the sort of peson who likes multiple wheel sets.

There is a quantum leap between them, despite the fact they're 622 mm in diameter and 130mm wide, but that's about it.

majormantra

FransJacques wrote:

I've ridden them all with the same tyres, be they Ultremos, PR3s or Grifos/Limus, and the CL24s are by far the stiffest which is a function of their spoke tension. I don't have the Park gauge or anything other than grabbing pairs of spokes with my hands or listening when pinging them with a spoke key. Shimano took the CL24s (they're the oldest of the 3 paris @ 2010) up way higher and you can feel it when standing up on the bike.

No. No. No.

http://sheldonbrown.com/rinard/wheel/index.htm

naive

FransJacques wrote:

There is NO comparison betwen the RS 20s/30s to the RS80s or 6700.

Completely different hubs, spokes, rims, weight, performance. I once had some R501s and they were bomb proof but they're not really "best" wheels if you're the sort of peson who likes multiple wheel sets.

There is a quantum leap between them, despite the fact they're 622 mm in diameter and 130mm wide, but that's about it.

Are you sure? Shimano specs-sheet would strongly suggest that the rear hubs and freewheel are identical between the RS20, RS30 and RS80, the skewer (if you care much about that) and, most importantly, the rims are different, and spokes half the same and half different.
http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/WH/EV-WH-RS80-C24-CL-R-2894A_v1_m56577569830698522.pdf
The front hub also is nearly identical to the RS20, apart from the hub-cap, and I'd guess that that difference is mostly cosmetic.
http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/WH/EV-WH-RS80-C24-CL-F-2893A_v1_m56577569830698521.pdf

I think that the old ultegra hubs were quite a different design (rear at least), but the 6700s are more similar to the RS-80s.

Don't get me wrong, I've got RS-80s and love them. As a complete wheel, there may well be no comparison between them and the RS-20/30s, but that difference comes mostly from the rims, whether they're made by gluing carbon to aluminium or the other way around!
Cheers