Which Wheels - CERO AR30 or Mavic Ksyrium Elite

Spartacus1981

Have had glowing reports from a fellow rider re the Cero AR30 and will consider them in the future. On a Cycleclinic vs Wheelsmith tip, chatted with fella from Cycleclinic and nothing was too much trouble. I would be happy to buy from him. Sorry to say this but I actually found Wheelsmith the opposite. Just saying. Buy the Cero.

antfly

I quite like my Kysirium Elites, I did get a cracked rim on my rear wheel, fortunately it was still just about in warranty so it was repaired at no cost and they have been fine since but in future I intend to get wheels that are worth repairing when out of warranty.

The only thing that puts me off the Ceros is that Ugo said in another thread that they are basically the same as Planet X AL 30 wheels, and they are dirt cheap.

ugo.santalucia

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19694942#p19694942]antfly[/url] wrote:

The only thing that puts me off the Ceros is that Ugo said in another thread that they are basically the same as Planet X AL 30 wheels, and they are dirt cheap.

that was then... retailers keep changing the specs year on year, so it might be now they are better... they might have wider rims and blah blah...

There are 3 main manufacturers of cheap hubs (Novatec, Bitex and Chosen), 2 main manufacturers of cheap spokes (Pillar and CN) and 2 main aluminium rims extruders (Kinlin and Sun). Most of the small brands on the market use a combination of these... so it is not completely wrong to say that they are pretty much all the same thing

antfly

I see, thanks for clarifying. I do know that the Ceros have good spokes, Sapim CX-Rays.

ugo.santalucia

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19695116#p19695116]antfly[/url] wrote:

I see, thanks for clarifying. I do know that the Ceros have good spokes, Sapim CX-Rays.

Which explains the slightly higher price over some competitors...

daniel_b

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19695116#p19695116]antfly[/url] wrote:

I see, thanks for clarifying. I do know that the Ceros have good spokes, Sapim CX-Rays.

Bloody hell, 1400g!
Lighter than my Mavic RSYS (?) SLR things - the ones with black exalith rims anyway.

Would the Cero's make a good race wheel?

borisface

Neither. Campagnolo zondas: best bang for your buck by a country mile.

schlepcycling

Another vote here for the AR30s, had mine about 18 months and done 4613 miles on them according to Strava and they've been excellent. I run them on my Scott Foil with 11 speed Di2 and have recently converted them to tubeless tyres with no problems.

daniel_b

One of the reviews mentiones the option of coloured decals, but I can't see anything on the product page - anyone know what the deal is - I can of course e-mail them and in fact just have done.

The only negative part I could find in the reviews, was one chap whose rear wheel had marginally gone out of true, and he was only 70kg, and someone else who had had to replace the freehub at only 2000 miles - the nearly 5K miles above seems to suggest he may just have been unlucky though.

thepeginator

FWIW, I have cero's and can't fault them. They've been epic, fast and climb like a dream. No problems with bearings/hubs as yet and they have seen some weather. I've used them for everything, club runs, training, racing and TT-ing. They cracking and they're a fantastic compromise between a fast training wheel and a race wheel until I can buy some deep section carbon tubs.

I'm actually selling a set of ksyriums. They're absolutely cracking wheels too and the only reason I'm selling them is I don't need two awesome sets of alloy wheels and need to fund disc wheels for my winter bike, or I'd keep them.

antfly

I have been looking at superstar components, they have the same rim with Laser spokes and their Icon hubs for only £ 194.99, or the 38 mm rim for £ 234.99. A lot cheaper than the Ceros. I know they have a dodgy reputation on here but still...tempting.

letap73

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19695752#p19695752]antfly[/url] wrote:

I have been looking at superstar components, they have the same rim with Laser spokes and their Icon hubs for only £ 194.99, or the 38 mm rim for £ 234.99. A lot cheaper than the Ceros. I know they have a dodgy reputation on here but still...tempting.

Suggest you read the superstar thread - if you want cheaper then the AR30, zondas and Ar24 are a better then the above in terms of reviews.

antfly

I have read it, but it is so much cheaper for similar components and I can tension a wheel myself, if needed. I just fancy trying a 38 mm rim.

thepeginator

Do they have weights on those wheels? I'd hazzard a guess a 38mm alloy rim with cheaper spokes and cheaper hubs is going to give away at least a couple of hundred grams to the Ceros, if not more. They're less than 2/3rds the price for a reason.

EDIT- Answered my own question, they're 1655g, so they give away 255 grams to the ceros, which isn't HUGE but it's worth considering... I'd be more worried about the build quality than anything else. I'd be inclined to agree with thr above post, if I wanted a quality set of wheels for around £230, I'd buy zondas I think.. I've never heard a bad word about them (or you could buy my ksyriums for even less than that )

letap73

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19698185#p19698185]thepeginator[/url] wrote:

Do they have weights on those wheels? I'd hazzard a guess a 38mm alloy rim with cheaper spokes and cheaper hubs is going to give away at least a couple of hundred grams to the Ceros, if not more. They're less than 2/3rds the price for a reason.

EDIT- Answered my own question, they're 1655g, so they give away 255 grams to the ceros, which isn't HUGE but it's worth considering... I'd be more worried about the build quality than anything else.

If you can tension your spokes then this isn't a concern - the ar24 are around 1600g and they are less than £200.

antfly

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19698185#p19698185]thepeginator[/url] wrote:

Do they have weights on those wheels? I'd hazzard a guess a 38mm alloy rim with cheaper spokes and cheaper hubs is going to give away at least a couple of hundred grams to the Ceros, if not more. They're less than 2/3rds the price for a reason.

EDIT- Answered my own question, they're 1655g, so they give away 255 grams to the ceros, which isn't HUGE but it's worth considering... I'd be more worried about the build quality than anything else. I'd be inclined to agree with thr above post, if I wanted a quality set of wheels for around £230, I'd buy zondas I think.. I've never heard a bad word about them (or you could buy my ksyriums for even less than that )

Superstar also do the wheels with a 30 mm rim which is a claimed 100 g heavier than the ceros for 195 quid, and that extra weight will be in the hubs seeing as the rims are exactly the same and the spokes are the same weight just not the expensive "aero" ones. I can't comment on the build but they do make the ceros look rather expensive. I can't decide what to get, anyway.

thepeginator

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19698219#p19698219]antfly[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19698185#p19698185]thepeginator[/url] wrote:

Do they have weights on those wheels? I'd hazzard a guess a 38mm alloy rim with cheaper spokes and cheaper hubs is going to give away at least a couple of hundred grams to the Ceros, if not more. They're less than 2/3rds the price for a reason.

EDIT- Answered my own question, they're 1655g, so they give away 255 grams to the ceros, which isn't HUGE but it's worth considering... I'd be more worried about the build quality than anything else. I'd be inclined to agree with thr above post, if I wanted a quality set of wheels for around £230, I'd buy zondas I think.. I've never heard a bad word about them (or you could buy my ksyriums for even less than that )

Superstar also do the wheels with a 30 mm rim which is a claimed 100 g heavier than the ceros for 195 quid, and that extra weight will be in the hubs seeing as the rims are exactly the same and the spokes are the same weight just not the expensive "aero" ones. I can't comment on the build but they do make the ceros look rather expensive. I can't decide what to get, anyway.

For the record, I don't think the spokes will be the same weight. CX-rays are 4-4.5g a spoke, where as their standard race spokes are 5.5-6g... multiplied by the number of spokes you have obviously. Those are sapim race spokes too, cheaper butted spokes would probably be more. I realise I'm splitting hairs here but if you are going to compare things then best be clinical about it! CX-rays are expensive for a reason.

Weather that difference makes any difference to you as a rider, or weather it's worth the money is entirely your decision

The way I see it is in the real world you probably won't notice a 200 gram difference in wheel weight but you definitely WILL notice if the quality of the wheel and it's components are poor; if the bearings in the hubs are shot after a month of winter riding, if the spoke tension keeps dropping, if they keep going out of true, if they flex and rub on your brakes etc. The Ceros aren't bad for the money, I'd imagine the AR24's are pretty much just as good for a lot less, Ksyriums are also good for the money considering how bomb-proof, fast and light they are. If you want to go cheaper you will have to compromise on something, even if on paper they're comparable, superstar are saving that money somewhere to sell them at that price. I've not read the reviews of them but whatever they say, I'd heed them. I wasn't sure about ordering the CERO's when I did but I couldn't find a bad word against them and after ordering them and using them for nearly 6 months come rain or shine I'm glad I did.

thepeginator

Also for the record; http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/elite-30-ultra-11speed-wheelset-2024.htm

I'm assuming it was those you were looking at, they do actually look VERY similar to the AR30's, I'm pretty sure the rims are the same and the hubs look similar but with laser spokes. It does seem like a fairly good deal.

thepeginator

Also just found this:
http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/clearance-ex-demo-wheels.htm

Item "X23" appears to be a pair of those 38mm wheels, built with cx-ray spokes, they're a demo set of wheels apparently... £120, might be worth a phone call. Check the PDF, there's several sets of various build specs.

Weirdly there's this page too, same deal really but all 'road' wheels.
http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/clearance-road-list-deals.htm
If you only need a 10 speed hub, 38mm rims, race spokes, 'icon' hubs are £100...

antfly

Thx for the links, it would be impossible to pay Cero prices now...very tempting at 100 or 120 quid.

Bikergroves

I've been riding on a pair of cero ar30s for about two years now. Thought I'd share my experience.

Like a lot of other guys on here I'll assume, I have only few other wheelsets to compare them to. Personally, i've ridden about 6-7 sets of wheels over say 5 years ( not that many) and these are far and away the best. They roll really nicely, spin up fast and are a joy to use. First 18 months no problems then the freehub pawl springs broke. Then the freehub broke. I've had to replace the bearings twice but tbf they're racing wheels and if you've done 20km on them then that's expected.

Kimlin rims right? And chosen hubs? I'm tempted to build up a set as I'm sure it would be much cheaper. Can't fault cycle divisions customer service.

Rigga

The cero Ar30's have been reduced to 279.99 now and that's with the Conti tyres and bib shorts and top.

dstev55

Rigga wrote:

The cero Ar30's have been reduced to 279.99 now and that's with the Conti tyres and bib shorts and top.

I've been riding mine since December and they really are brilliant wheels.

jonnyc1973

Rigga wrote:

The cero Ar30's have been reduced to 279.99 now and that's with the Conti tyres and bib shorts and top.

Does this definitely include the tyres?

northcliff66

Have you decided yet?

antfly

northcliff66 wrote:

Have you decided yet?

If you mean me (and if you don't) I bought some Vittoria Elusion wheels for 450 quid from Merlin Cycles. I have been using them all winter as they have brass nips and so far am very happy with them, They come with a 3 year warranty too.

dstev55

jonnyc1973 wrote:

Rigga wrote:

The cero Ar30's have been reduced to 279.99 now and that's with the Conti tyres and bib shorts and top.

Does this definitely include the tyres?

Yes definitely, if in doubt give the shop a ring tomorrow but every set of wheels they sell come with tyres.

Richard66

I've been using the AR30's since April 2015 on my summer bike and they have been absolutely superb. The service from Cycle Division was excellent and they're now being used by a few other guys from the club I ride with. In terms of value for money and performance, I'd recommend them to anyone.

bluemoon17

So tempted to get a pair of these for £280. Was almost about to click buy on the AR24's at £185, but this price reduction has just put the AR30's in my price range.

antfly

I would have thought the warnings they give about the hubs on these wheels on their own website would be enough to put anyone off, they have obviously had a lot of problems.Be sceptical about glowing reviews.....