Best current all-round carbon clinchers? bontrager zipp

showbiz
showbiz Posts: 23
edited February 2013 in Road buying advice
hey guys,

I'm in the market for some new carbon clinchers.

I do majority climbing but am after the best all-round/purpose wheel available.

I'm fairly light on the bike and don't want anything too deep dish as to avoid getting blown around.

Looking to spend around $1500-$1750 second-hand.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Smart ENVE 3.4
Zipp 303 Firecrest
Bontrager Aeolus 5 D3
Bontrager Aeolus 3 D3
Reynolds FORTY SIX
Fulcrum Racing Zero (ALU)
Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR (alloy)


Bontrager Race XXX Lite


Please add-on, and let me know if I've missed anything.

Which would you choose?

Cheers!

Comments

  • Froomes Edgar
    Froomes Edgar Posts: 359
    Whichever ones you choose you'l be convinced you made the right choice, so buy the ones that look best with your bike
  • thegreatdivide
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,807
    If you want to go carbon rim and save weight then you need to bite the bullet and go tubs. The weight saving between carbon clincher and alu clincher is tiny.

    Racing Zero's are excellent clinchers though - stiff as hell. I've got those and and 303 FC tubs.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,321
    Its a difficult call... they are expensive wheels and I doubt you will find anybody who has ridden most of them extensively and can give you an opinion (unless you know some high end racer)... magazine reviews are biased... I guess you really want the Zipp 303 and probably they are as good as it gets, if you are into these kind of things. Make sure the chunky rims fit your frame
    left the forum March 2023
  • showbiz
    showbiz Posts: 23
    yeh a friend of mine has the 303's. they get really good/consistent reviews and a few of the pro teams use them.
    the enve seem a top contender as well.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,321
    showbiz wrote:
    yeh a friend of mine has the 303's. they get really good/consistent reviews and a few of the pro teams use them.
    the enve seem a top contender as well.

    PRO teams use what they are sponsored to ride, so don't take that as a sign of them being better. The days of Eddy Merckx choosing his own components are long gone.
    You can have ENVE rims custom built up, but at 6-700 GBP for a spare rim, it's hardly worth the bother to go hand built...
    left the forum March 2023
  • ShutUpLegs
    ShutUpLegs Posts: 3,522
    I've spotted these for sale in the classifieds:

    viewtopic.php?f=40091&t=12904546
  • thegreatdivide
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,807
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    showbiz wrote:
    yeh a friend of mine has the 303's. they get really good/consistent reviews and a few of the pro teams use them.
    the enve seem a top contender as well.

    PRO teams use what they are sponsored to ride, so don't take that as a sign of them being better. The days of Eddy Merckx choosing his own components are long gone.
    You can have ENVE rims custom built up, but at 6-700 GBP for a spare rim, it's hardly worth the bother to go hand built...

    Tell that to Cavendish.
  • showbiz
    showbiz Posts: 23
    ShutUpLegs wrote:
    I've spotted these for sale in the classifieds:

    viewtopic.php?f=40091&t=12904546

    I'd be all over those lightweights if they weren't $2k over my budget! :lol:
  • bigpikle
    bigpikle Posts: 1,690
    my only experience of the Lightweights was turning up at the hotel to ride the Maratona last year and one of the guys found is virtually new rear wheel to have cracked right through the hub after virtually no use. He then spent a lot of time, effort and money trying to get a replacement wheelset 24 hours before the event... He was confident he'd get it replaced under warranty but it did worry me about how lightweight you want components to get....
    Your Past is Not Your Potential...
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,321
    Bigpikle wrote:
    my only experience of the Lightweights was turning up at the hotel to ride the Maratona last year and one of the guys found is virtually new rear wheel to have cracked right through the hub after virtually no use. He then spent a lot of time, effort and money trying to get a replacement wheelset 24 hours before the event... He was confident he'd get it replaced under warranty but it did worry me about how lightweight you want components to get....

    What baffles me instead is how many of these wheel sets are sold as new unridden or virtually new. People spend thousands and then ride them twice down the road or not at all. I can't think of a worst investment than a set of wheels you're then worried to ride.
    Re. the Lightweight... a mate, quite a big guy, has a set of Obermeyer, which he likes a lot, except downhill, where they are dreadful
    left the forum March 2023
  • ShutUpLegs
    ShutUpLegs Posts: 3,522
    showbiz wrote:
    ShutUpLegs wrote:
    I've spotted these for sale in the classifieds:

    viewtopic.php?f=40091&t=12904546

    I'd be all over those lightweights if they weren't $2k over my budget! :lol:

    My bad, they are tubs anyway

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