'budget' wheel upgrade verdict - Fulcrum 5

Sprool

I deliberated for months on upgrading my wheels until crash damage forced my hand. So I've gone from stock Alexrims on my low-mid spec Scott S30 to Fulcrum 5's (2014 model, £175 from ribble) and I was prepared to be underwhelmed since in the fraternity here I'm surrounded by people spending 2x, 3x, 4x this amount on a set of wheels. Nice indeed to be able to do that but I can't justify it, so I'm pretty pleased overall with my modest upgrade to entry-level wheels. I can notice immediately the increased stiffness and the reduced mass, more so than I thought I would. The bike feels more nimble, spinning through long climbs is much easier as reflected on some of my recent strava segments, and on smooth roads they are a huge improvement. On the down side they do transmit every bump and judder in the poor road surfaces round here, far more than the old wheels which feel almost spongy in comparison. The wheels are much quieter than I am used to and emit a pleasing whooshing sound at speed! I was a bit taken aback by the use of engineering plastic on the rear cassette hub (I don't know the correct term for this) but I guess this saves weight and cost over a metal one and engineering plastics are pretty robust spec these days, so lets hope it holds out.
Concerns about tyre fitting on the rims are not a problem here - Conti GP4000s 25's went on with a bit of hard work from the fingers, no tyre levers necessary if your hands are strong. We will have to wait and see if they stay true and bearings behave, out of the box they are trued to a very good tolerance and the braking surface on the rims seems far more effective than I have been previously used to.
Hope that others contemplating similar upgrades will find some use in this.

andyoh

I'm currently using Fulcrum 5 Evolution wheels on my winter bike. For the price they're fine and do the job with ease. I have a set of Fulcrum 3's which need a rear hub service and new bearings, once serviced these will be going on my winter bike and I'll keep the Fulcrum 5's as spare wheels.

keef66

"I was a bit taken aback by the use of engineering plastic on the rear cassette hub "

Which bit in particular is plastic?? Surely not the splined freehub body that the cassette slides on to?

Sprool

yep the bit you slot the cassette onto. Modern plastics are easily up to the job required. I just expected it to be metal.
Andyoh - how many miles did you get before needing bearing replacement on your F3's?

rolf_f

Sprool wrote:

yep the bit you slot the cassette onto. Modern plastics are easily up to the job required. I just expected it to be metal.
Andyoh - how many miles did you get before needing bearing replacement on your F3's?

They are metal on my Campag wheels - including the Khamsins which are lower in the pecking order than Fulcrum 5s but they all use the same freehub body and it is metal. I cannot see any plastic ones listed as a spare. And I'd be surprised if plastic was up to the job anyway; apart from holding the cassette, it also has to support both freehub bearings and the lockring. It's not as though there is any logical reason to use plastic.

I have just replaced the wheel and freehub bearings on a set of Khamsins used in all weathers. Probably 11-12000 miles in total on them.

Sprool

over the next few months you'll see (well maybe you won't, but they will be there.. ) an increase in the amount of fibre-reinforced engineering plastic like abs replacing more and more metal components in the automotive industry. They will get into all the peripheral industries too. Reason: - lighter, cheaper, comparable mechanical strength with ABS and cross-linkers these days. The old feeling that plastic = cheap = not up to the job does no longer apply. Nice to see you're getting good mileage out of your Khamsins.