Wheelset advice: Campag or Fulcrum?
pepero
Posts: 36
Hey all,
Just took delivery of a Giant TCR Composite frameset and now deciding on components to build it up with. Put the bulk of my cash into the frame so keeping the rest of the spec fairly budget with a view to upgrading down the road. Seeing a lot of good things about Campag Centaur so pretty much set on that for the groupset, but now trying to decide between Fulcrum Racing 7's and Campag Khamsin for the wheelset. Both are coming in around the euro150 mark.
I'm not going to be doing any racing, just plenty of 100k+ spins on rough-ish roads. Any advice/recommendations very much appreciated.
Cheers
Just took delivery of a Giant TCR Composite frameset and now deciding on components to build it up with. Put the bulk of my cash into the frame so keeping the rest of the spec fairly budget with a view to upgrading down the road. Seeing a lot of good things about Campag Centaur so pretty much set on that for the groupset, but now trying to decide between Fulcrum Racing 7's and Campag Khamsin for the wheelset. Both are coming in around the euro150 mark.
I'm not going to be doing any racing, just plenty of 100k+ spins on rough-ish roads. Any advice/recommendations very much appreciated.
Cheers
0
Posts
http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/w ... -2013.html
I recently got some of these and have found them to be very good.
Out of stock where? Commonly, they are cheapest at Ribble who have Khamsins in at £112 Campag fit. http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... ampwhfr627
I wouldn't bother. I'd assume those are the Fulcrum equivalent of the Campag Vento Reaction. I have both Vento and Khamsin and although the Ventos look a little better, the weight saving doesn't give a meaningful performance advantage. If £30 is worth the minor positive bling factor, then 5s or Ventos are worth a look but they aren't in a practical sense any better.
But I will add that the many thousands of miles I've put under a pair of Khamsins have been absolutely trouble free aside from a possibly unneccessary regreasing of the hub pawls. They remain smooth, straight and true after probably some 8000 miles.
Thanks for the advice
The 5's I linked too are the cheapest price I've seen (Merlin).Ribble & Wiggle are about £20 more. But if they are out of stock thats £30 saved
To the OP, maybe check out ribblecycles. Considering you have a Campag setup, they seem to be a bit cheaper than other places when it comes to Campag hubbed wheels. The Vento Reaction, Rolf mentioned fall in budget
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... ampwhfr610
Yeah, ribble are good. I live pretty close so I get a lot of my stuff from there. The only problems I've encountered is if they are out of stock it seems to take a while for them to get new stock, and for some reason, they dont stock shoes bigger than 46.
TBH, I think you buy Campag/Fulcrum wheels by the weight! There's not much between Fulcrum 7, 5 and Campag Khamsin, Vento and Scirocco. They all hover around the 1800g mark - buy whichever appeals most in terms of looks and cost. But an extra £100 (at Ribble - £279) on the Sciroccos gets a Zonda wheelset which only weighs about 1550g and that's an upgrade worth considering. You tend to pay a fair bit more for the Fulcrum 3 equivalent.
FWIW, I paid about £100 from Ribble for my Ventos which was a 'silly not to' price.
£100 was a great price, the current £140 odd is still good too. Agreed about the wieght, I mainly wanted new wheels for the aesthetics and after considering the Scirroccos 35 decided to save 40 odd quid and get the Racing 5, similar weight and I (now) prefer less aero styled wheels.
At the end of the day, its an entry level £500 bike and the stock DT axis were made of granite. The racing 5 wheelset was only 450g lighter (weighted both) but they spin smoother and look good so I'm happy. I got £50 on ebay for the stock wheels so it seemed a good move.
I'm sure when I get a second bike in the future, I'll invest in something better/lighter but for the mean time, I can stand losing some body weight
Commuter - http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40044&t=12877017&p=17855019#p17855019
MTB - http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=12930006&p=18407199#p18407199
Why would you probably break a spoke? As well as the Khamsin and Vento wheelsets, I've also got Neutrons. No spoke breakages in probably 12000 miles or so. 4 Khamsin spokes costs £12 so I can't see it costing almost £60 to fit one.
Not sure recommending a Mavic wheel on the basis of potentially expensive repairs on another brand is exactly sensible either! Mavic are hardly the most repair friendly company going.
I ran Fulcrum 7's for 2 years before selling them on. In that time I used them for winter and wet riding and hit some truly terrible pot holes, one so large it knocked the rear wheel partially out of the dropout. Despite that, they never went out of true and had zero spoke issues. During this period I was a heavier 14st too, so hardly a mountain goat!
This 'they probably will' (break spokes) is nonsense, sounds like you just had bad luck. My best wheels are Fulcrum zeros - surprise surprise they also stay true, have zero spoke issues and the hubs are honey-smooth!
Going back to the OP - Fulcrum 7's do a great job for the money. The weight means they are not exactly a spritely ride, but they are stiff enough not to have brake rub issues and they will survive the worst of British B roads and weather.
I don't know where you get your figures from, but that is not the price of spokes for Fulcrum 7's or 5's. I broke a spoke on a Fulcrum 3, had to buy a spoke kit, which had five different spokes in the pack which cost me £25 and had the spoke fitted and wheel trued for nothing as i know the guys very well in my LBS, otherwise it would have cost £20 for spoke fitting and wheel truing. That equates to £45.
Your figure of £70 I can believe for replacement spokes for Fulcrum Zero's, but not 7's.
As you say you can't buy individual spokes as they come in packs and you on top of that you can't buy the packs- you have to buy the kit. £70 was what the Fulcrum rep told the manager of my LBS for said kit for a Fulcrum 4 yesterday. This is the smaller of the two shops as the other (which is very large) had already stopped selling Fulcrum due to quality issues.
Some people get lucky. I'm an absolute brute with my kit so I make sure to buy things that last.
Take the word of your LBS with a pinch of salt.
Peter
These are friends of mine who I ride with all the time. Not to mention I was in the shop when he called about replacement spokes (wheel is there minus spoke sheared at the nipple). They've never steered me wrong and have yet to let me down.
Weight is an issue on any wheelset as I've seen most brands crushed, but the owner of said wheel was about 12 stone and doesn't ride that much. Disappointing to say the least.
Not to say it affects them all, but when neither shop will stock said brand as they're tired of dealing with issues and unhappy customers, it seems reasonable to avoid in order to eliminate risk. Seeing as the whole point of the OP's question was to garner opinions for a potential purchase, mine is as valid as anyone else's. He can take it with a pinch of salt, but at least the info is out there.
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/fulcrum-sp2.html
Spoke kits also on here!