Opinions on Wheels

springtide9

I've had a few options on a few Cross wheel options. I'm a\ little sold on Stans No Tubes mainly due to the low weight.

To find out what you recommend... I have a CX bike that I'm using for road duties as well as offroad. 90kg rider on a bad day.

I'm looking for a wheelset for use mainly on the road. Ideally I'#d want to be able to mount:-

- Conti GP 24mm
- Conti 4 Season 28mm
- 32-35mm Cross (maybe)

The above could be with or without tubes - doesn't really matter as long as it works OK.
And the above is probably a pipe dream - the main requirement would be for the 28mm (winter trainer)

The Iron Cross rims look perfect - but I've seen within one of the previous posts that they are not suitable for road tyres.

The 340/400 I've read are a little narrow for 28mm tyres and the tyre ends up buldging (and contact area on the road ends up being more like a 25mm). Also don't look very pretty being a non disc rim.

I've read that the Crest rim is a potential option - obviously not for 24mm. Fine for tyres of 28mm or wider, but someone stated that 80psi is the maximum pressure (although not sure why). Obviously this would also be suitable for cross tyres. Opinions seem to differ how hard the Crest are to fit tyres.

I've been using Conti GPs - various, from old school GPs to 4 Season (currently have 4 season 28mm). Anyone here using Crest rims and road tyresd without fitting issues?
Any other disc specific rim options?

apreading

The Stans rims that are designed for tubeless dont work with higher pressures for road tyres. I emailed a few wheel builders about the Iron Cross rims and they basically said DONT.

H Plus Son Archetype or Velovity A23 or Mavic Open Pro seem to be a better bet if you want higher pressures. All should work with the tyres you list.

imposter2.0

You'd probably be better off asking in the road section tbh, seeing as the use will be mainly road. The fact that the wheels will be fitted to a CX bike seems largely incidental in this case...

veronese68

My neighbour is running a cross bike on tubeless using Iron Cross I think as his daily runner. But he is running 35mm cross tyres at low pressure. He is very happy with them. But he said they won't run high pressure road tyres.
I've got Open Pro CD built on Novatec disc hubs and I am very pleased with them. I have been running 28mm Gatorskins most of the time. I've run them with 35mm cross tyres as well and I'm going to 32mm next as a compromise between the two for use on road and trails. Ugo built the wheels and they've put up with plenty of abuse, except for when a car hit me which is understandable.

Dozzina

I've got 32H H Plus Son Archetype's. Conti GP4000 25mm on the road. Schwalbe Sammy Slick 35mm on Canal/dry stuff. Schwalbe CX Pro 30mm ready for the muddy stuff approaching.

springtide9

Thanks. A little bit more investigation.. and found these...

F.I.R. HYPERLITE 29″ ER WHEELSET
http://ontherivetcycles.com/?wpsc-produ ... ack-270-00

I've not heard about F.I.R. and wondered if anyone else has come across them in the past. They look pretty 'bling' and the while rims would probably work well with my unpainted raw carbon (rather dull looking) XLS.

Anyone?

apreading

I wouldnt - unless they are well known, spares could be difficult and they arent especially cheap. For that money, I would stick with more well known options - Kinesis Crosslight (http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/954929/produc ... tAodbzwAsw) or go to JustRidingAlong, StradaWheels or the chap Ugo on here who builds for lots of people. See what they recommend. I would certainly go for a common hub that I knew I could get spares for easily...

veronese68

Ugo built mine, very good. I'm not sure if he will send wheels by carrier, but it's worth asking.

springtide9

Biggest problem I have is finding a light-ish (~425g) disc specific rim that will take both a road and cross tyre.

Not a fan of the look of conventional rims when used on disc frames.

apreading

springtide9 wrote:

Biggest problem I have is finding a light-ish (~425g) disc specific rim that will take both a road and cross tyre.

Not a fan of the look of conventional rims when used on disc frames.

If its got to look 'disk specific' then Archetype is the best bet, but a few grams more than you say. To hit your weight target though, the only rims I know of that will take road tyre pressures have a braking track - so dont fit the disk specific look.

A good roundup here:

http://www.justridingalong.com/news/201 ... and-tyres/

veronese68

springtide9 wrote:

Biggest problem I have is finding a light-ish (~425g) disc specific rim that will take both a road and cross tyre.

Not a fan of the look of conventional rims when used on disc frames.

The Open Pro CD have a grey finish over the machined rim so look a bit more like a disc rim. The Archetype H Plus Son also do similar and they are lovely.

springtide9

@ apreading » thanks for the link.

What about the Velocity Blunt SL?
http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/shop/velo ... t-sl-rims/


Another (very likely) option is the Kinesis Crosslight CXDiscs:
http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/products/ ... ght-cxdisc

I've also had confirmation from Kinesis yesterday that a V3 wheelset is on it's way...
http://www.freeborn.co.uk/kinesis-cross ... isc-wheels

These look excellent and seem to tick all the boxes... as they'll be dropping in weight from ~1800g to ~1600g
The are also disc specific, able to take high pressure road tyres as well as cross.

rubertoe

Good Spot with the Crosslights,

after the winter when the stock wheels on my kaffenback are shot to peices, i'll be looking at some new wheels and the crosslights will fit the bill.

Failing that, I'll take ugo's advice (never heard anyone complain about his advice/wheelbuilds yet) amd get some handbuilts.

itsnotarace

Bit cheaper from Fatbirds

http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/954929/produc ... descAnchor

springtide9

itsnotarace wrote:

Bit cheaper from Fatbirds

http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/954929/produc ... descAnchor

Looks like FB have updated their website as they were previously quoting the older versions a day or so ago.....

But at £234 for the set disc specific CX wheels that are only just over 1600g ..... that had to be the bargain of the century....

I've not seen any long term tests/reports on how they hold up over time... only this review of the previous wheels:
http://road.cc/content/review/69946-kin ... isc-wheels

ugo.santalucia

springtide9 wrote:

itsnotarace wrote:

Bit cheaper from Fatbirds

http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/954929/produc ... descAnchor

Looks like FB have updated their website as they were previously quoting the older versions a day or so ago.....

But at £234 for the set disc specific CX wheels that are only just over 1600g ..... that had to be the bargain of the century....

I've not seen any long term tests/reports on how they hold up over time... only this review of the previous wheels:
http://road.cc/content/review/69946-kin ... isc-wheels

I have a front one here that needs repair as the rim is bent following an accident.
They are nice wheels, but use Pillar spokes, which are not available in the UK, so you'll have to make do with other brands for spares... not a big issue. The rim also is not available, but the Archetype and the new slate coloured one in particular is a suitable replacement. The hubs are rebadged Novatec, they have the same design of the 711/712, but slightly different shell... if the rest is the same, then they are good durable hubs. Price is very close to what you would spend for getting a set of Archetype built on Novatec 711/712 hubs, but with better quality spokes, like DT Swiss or Sapim

walney

Currently running the kinesis wheels on my Mares.

I have used them with 28c contis and 25c luganos for road duties all year and been very impressed.
Did a 24min 10mile on my cross bike with them on!

This was interspersed with long days of off road on old railway lines with 35c conti cyclo cross race. Took lots of hits and still nice and straight. (13stone rider)

Will be doing my second cx race on them tomorrrow (32c kenda kwickers).

Superb wheels and at the price I got them if they last more than a year I will be pleased.

Stock was very low when I got them (jun) dealer said only 3 pairs in country. No idea what stock like now.

springtide9

@Ugo: What is the rough build price (and weight) of the Archetype / Novatec 711/712 ?

Walney wrote:

Currently running the kinesis wheels on my Mares.

I have used them with 28c contis and 25c luganos for road duties all year and been very impressed.
Did a 24min 10mile on my cross bike with them on!

This was interspersed with long days of off road on old railway lines with 35c conti cyclo cross race. Took lots of hits and still nice and straight. (13stone rider)

Will be doing my second cx race on them tomorrrow (32c kenda kwickers).

Superb wheels and at the price I got them if they last more than a year I will be pleased.

Stock was very low when I got them (jun) dealer said only 3 pairs in country. No idea what stock like now.

Thanks for the info. I believe there is no stock in the country as they now have a V3 coming out. I was thinking about this last night... as they are 200g lighter than the V2 (a pair).. this probably means a new rim and probably hub.. so they probably will be a completely different wheel - apart from the name.

In my internet searching I came across Superstar Components. They used to only see a few bits and bobs (a cheaper Hope), but they now sell all sorts of stuff.

These looked interesting at 420g :
http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_ ... cts_id=681

They also seem to also have a range of their own branded hubs. Found a few reviews on the MTB forums and people seem pretty pleased.

ugo.santalucia

springtide9 wrote:

@Ugo: What is the rough build price (and weight) of the Archetype / Novatec 711/712 ?

If you supply the hubs (90 quid on Ebay), then you are looking at 185-200 depending on spokes

ugo.santalucia

And here is the Kinesis rebuilt... 8)

http://paolocoppo.drupalgardens.com/med ... ail/16/561

mattrixdesign2

My new (2nd hand) cross is a Specialized Tri-Cross Sport 2010 (with 105), as soon as I got it I realised the wheels were pig heavy, so swapped them for some Mavic Aksiums I had spare from my road bike.

So far, so good. Is it safe to be running these? I have been off road plenty of items and its been fairly well hammered. Will they self destruct at some point?

Planning on doing the Rapha Supercross at the end of the month.

springtide9

mattrixdesign2 wrote:

My new (2nd hand) cross is a Specialized Tri-Cross Sport 2010 (with 105), as soon as I got it I realised the wheels were pig heavy, so swapped them for some Mavic Aksiums I had spare from my road bike.

So far, so good. Is it safe to be running these? I have been off road plenty of items and its been fairly well hammered. Will they self destruct at some point?

Planning on doing the Rapha Supercross at the end of the month.

I'm sure they'll cope OK. The road builds don't seem to be that different to cross TBH, with the exception of disc wheels usually have a 32 spoke count. The Stans Alpha 340 are rated for cross - and people have mentioned that they are a little lightweight for road training wheels.

I guess the impact of hitting grass ditches at 15mph isn't much different to hitting tarmac potholes at 40 mph. If you were riding rock gardens I guess it would be a different story.