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Race23 Wheelset

GabboGabbo Posts: 864
edited March 2013 in Road buying advice
The Race23 wheels as some will know, are hand built by wheelsmith but unfortunately won't be available until the 11th of March due to them being inundated with orders and whatnot.

These are the specifications:

23mm wide alloy
20, 24, 28, 32h
Wheelsmith 295 g hub
Sapim CX Rays
Weighs 1450 g or thereabout

All this for £450. Now, my only doubt seems to be the hub. On the website the only other hub option seems to be Chris King R45 which will shoot the price up by another £410 !!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

He does use other hubs though, such as Dura Ace 7900, Royce, Novatec Superlite, and Ambrosio

If these can be made as options, what would be the wisest choice and why? Hopefully anyone with decent wheel knowledge can fill in the gaps until Ugo arrives :mrgreen:

Posts

  • jordan_217jordan_217 Posts: 2,580
    Have you actually asked Wheelsmith this? Surely the builder himself would be able to offer the best advice and justification on their recommendations?
    “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
  • markos1963markos1963 Posts: 3,724
    jordan_217 wrote:
    Have you actually asked Wheelsmith this? Surely the builder himself would be able to offer the best advice and justification on their recommendations?

    I don't think they are taking enquiries as well atm as they are so busy
    Norfolk, who nicked all the hills?

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  • GabboGabbo Posts: 864
    jordan_217 wrote:
    Have you actually asked Wheelsmith this? Surely the builder himself would be able to offer the best advice and justification on their recommendations?

    Yup, but seeing that he's incredibly busy with orders and whatnot, he's not going to be the most responsive. Just wanted to see what others thought about it.
  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 28,029
    Gabbo wrote:
    The Race23 wheels as some will know, are hand built by wheelsmith but unfortunately won't be available until the 11th of March due to them being inundated with orders and whatnot.

    These are the specifications:

    23mm wide alloy
    20, 24, 28, 32h
    Wheelsmith 295 g hub
    Sapim CX Rays
    Weighs 1450 g or thereabout

    All this for £450. Now, my only doubt seems to be the hub. On the website the only other hub option seems to be Chris King R45 which will shoot the price up by another £410 !!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

    He does use other hubs though, such as Dura Ace 7900, Royce, Novatec Superlite, and Ambrosio

    If these can be made as options, what would be the wisest choice and why? Hopefully anyone with decent wheel knowledge can fill in the gaps until Ugo arrives :mrgreen:

    If you want to offer all the hole combinations, not all hubs are available. Also, some hubs build better than others, in the case of 26 mm V rims there is not much difference... I have used many different hubs and all give satisfactory builds.
    The standard taiwanese hubs he offers are a spin-off of Bitex, where the shell is CNC machined by a small independent workshop (he says) based on the Bitex design. The freehub mechanism is Bitex by his own words.
    I have had a guy on this forum contacting me about one of these rear hubs showing a bit of play, I obviously told him it was best to contact Wheelsmith and not me.
    My experience with Bitex is dreadful, but these hubs come in various legit and dodgy channels and admittedly mine were Ebay stuff, so they might have been faulty stuff that didn't pass QC. The fragile design of the front shells put me off the product completely though. Life is too short for censored hubs. The story goes that I was contacted by Bitex offering me 40 sets of their hubs for 45 USD a pair, I mulled over it, tried a few off Ebay and decided best not.

    There is another thread on these, if you look, where Derek actually contributed, so best to read that one too
    left the forum March 2023
  • giant_mangiant_man Posts: 6,878
    Gabbo wrote:
    The Race23 wheels as some will know, are hand built by wheelsmith but unfortunately won't be available until the 11th of March due to them being inundated with orders and whatnot.

    These are the specifications:

    23mm wide alloy
    20, 24, 28, 32h
    Wheelsmith 295 g hub
    Sapim CX Rays
    Weighs 1450 g or thereabout

    All this for £450. Now, my only doubt seems to be the hub. On the website the only other hub option seems to be Chris King R45 which will shoot the price up by another £410 !!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

    He does use other hubs though, such as Dura Ace 7900, Royce, Novatec Superlite, and Ambrosio

    If these can be made as options, what would be the wisest choice and why? Hopefully anyone with decent wheel knowledge can fill in the gaps until Ugo arrives :mrgreen:
    Why are you doubtful about the hub? Cos it's wheelsmith's own and largely untested?
    Perhaps you should be asking Derek himself, he is the one building the wheel, no?
  • GabboGabbo Posts: 864
    Thanks for your response Ugo.

    Admittedly I did see a previous post a little while back where you showed no support to their function and design which did make me wonder whether these hubs were a good idea. Also from reading your blog, I was amazed to find just how important hubs are and how they contribute a lot towards the integrity of the wheel.

    The Dura Ace 7900 hubs only come in 28 and 32 hole
    The Royce come in 20, 24, 28, and 32
    Chris King and Novatec Superlite alike

    Just an article I found: http://thewashingmachinepost.net/wheelsmith/ride/

    These are the wheelsmith hubs
    IMG_0384.JPG
  • GabboGabbo Posts: 864
    giant man wrote:
    Gabbo wrote:
    The Race23 wheels as some will know, are hand built by wheelsmith but unfortunately won't be available until the 11th of March due to them being inundated with orders and whatnot.

    These are the specifications:

    23mm wide alloy
    20, 24, 28, 32h
    Wheelsmith 295 g hub
    Sapim CX Rays
    Weighs 1450 g or thereabout

    All this for £450. Now, my only doubt seems to be the hub. On the website the only other hub option seems to be Chris King R45 which will shoot the price up by another £410 !!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

    He does use other hubs though, such as Dura Ace 7900, Royce, Novatec Superlite, and Ambrosio

    If these can be made as options, what would be the wisest choice and why? Hopefully anyone with decent wheel knowledge can fill in the gaps until Ugo arrives :mrgreen:
    Why are you doubtful about the hub? Cos it's wheelsmith's own and largely untested?
    Perhaps you should be asking Derek himself, he is the one building the wheel, no?

    Again, like someone mentioned, they are not taking any enquiries until 11th of March.
  • GabboGabbo Posts: 864
    Hmm, wonder if I'd be wasting my money upgrading to the R45 hubs...
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