New wheels...

KowShak

I'm looking to replace the Alex Rims S500 wheels on my road bike, they're a few years old and looking a bit worn.

I've been trawling the internet and doing a lot of reading, it appears that lightweight is good but aero is even better. I'm thinking that deep rims and aero spokes are the way to go, I'm fairly light so I can cope with lightweight wheels. Given my spec and budget, the obvious choice for me would be Planet X's AL30s, 30mm rims and aero spoke BUT they don't have any in stock at the moment in black so I've been looking at alternatives (e.g. SuperStar's range, SwissSide, Fulcrums, Campagnolos, Halo, Shimano etc.)

One set I've found that look interesting to me but there isn't a lot of information about on the net about (almost none in fact) are the Remerx Rapids. They're another 30ish (28) mm rim and come with Sapim CX spokes which might suggest that some care has gone into choosing their components. I was wondering what people's thoughts on them were?

wellbeloved747

Budget and requirements??

Camcycle1974

it appears that lightweight is good but aero is even better.

Better for what? Why? Surely wheels that don't go out of true and can be easily repaired are "better" than light, aero wheels. Aero wheels at your budget tend to be heavy by the way.

If light is what you are after then a set of Shimano RS80's from Planet X would probably do the job. They do a 50mm deep version but those are £500. 20 spokes is not going to make for a robust wheel though.

As stated in the previous post what do you actually want to get out of the wheels? I.e what will they be mostly used for (racing, climbing, training?)

Grill

You can have it all with Reynolds RZRs or Lightweights

Camcycle1974

Think they might be a bit out of budget!

KowShak

My budget would be around £200, perhaps a little more. I look at wheels as a being a wearing component, (i.e. the brake tracks wear) so I don't really want to invest in the latest and greatest carbon technology and slowly kill them.

The roads I ride are mostly rural and fairly good surfaces and I'm fairly light (65kg ish) so I can get away with lighter wheels than many. I don't race, I mostly ride with a group who don't hang around, any help I can get to keep up with the group is welcome, hence me looking at faster wheels! What I'm looking for is good value (I'd prefer not to pay a premium to have a particular manufacturer's sticker on my wheels) and performance, my current wheels are fairly basic OEM wheels, 32 single butted spokes laced 3x on no-name hubs.

arthur_scrimshaw

I've got a brand new set of Fulcrum Racing 5's (Shimano) - or will have Saturday when my daughter picks up her new bike. she's already got a set of nice wheels so they will come straight off and have done zero miles. Just checked online and best price I can see is £180, so how about £150?

wellbeloved747

Ill give you £120!

arthur_scrimshaw

wellbeloved747 wrote:

Ill give you £120!

She'd kill me!!

KowShak

I'd looked at the Racing 5s and the Quattros too, the 5s are a little heavy compared to some alternatives and they're only a 24mm deep rim too, so not as aero as some. The Quattros fit the bill better, 35 mm deep rim and lighter than the 5's but they're probably outside of the budget...

lc1981

Are these going to be your only pair of wheels? I've never had deep-section wheels but I'd worry that they'd be a bit dangerous in crosswinds, so I wouldn't want to rely on them as my only pair of wheels.

KowShak

If you consider that a standard rim will be at least 20mm deep and have 20mm of tyre sticking out of the top of it, adding another 15mm to that isn't going to make a whole lot of difference in crosswinds, what will make a difference (in a positive direction) is reducing spoke count from 32 to 20 at the front and to 24 at the rear. If I was talking about buying 80+ mm deep full aero rims, crosswinds would press on my mind more...