Cheap commuting wheels

rockmonkeysc

I want to replace the wheels on my Boardman Road Race. The original hubs aren't very good.
What would be the best and cheapest choice?
I want cartridge bearings, not cup and cone.
Not too worried about weight within reason.

ugo.santalucia

Shame, the best bang for bucks are the Shimano R 500, but cup and cone. For the money they are very decent wheels that can be serviced and repaired.
Cheap wheels with sealed bearings have cheap sealed bearings that don't last... waste of money

craker

... and in 4+ years of commuting on R500s I can't recall ever having done any maintenance on them anyway. Certainly never trued a spoke. I hope I've greased and taken the play out of the bearings, still I can barely remember what I did last week.

rockmonkeysc

I can get good replacement bearings for free so not worried about bearing quality.
I think I have got Formula hubs at the moment and tgey need constant adjustment and greasing.

ugo.santalucia

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I think I have got Formula hubs at the moment and tgey need constant adjustment and greasing.

Yes, but those are the crappest hubs around... Shimano ones are pretty good. Anyway, in that price range (100 quid or so) there is definitely nothing that comes close.
If you want to spend 200+, then consider handbuilts of course

taavisudhipol

Mavic aksium are extremely reasonable

rockmonkeysc

The R500's are very cheap. I will give them a try.

ugo.santalucia

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The R500's are very cheap. I will give them a try.

And unlike the Aksium, can be repaired on a shoestring if anything happens

mitchgixer6

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The R500's are very cheap. I will give them a try.

I presume you found the deal on ribble with an extra 12% off?

I was thinking along the same lines and wanted to get away from the hassle of cup + cone. But at that price I couldn't justify the extra expense for cartridge bearings. As has been mentioned the R500's are pretty sturdy and don't need a lot of looking after.

keef66

I got the R501's with plain gauge spokes from Ribble for about £70 for my winter bike. Riding in the dark and wet I like the reassurance of the extra spokes compared with the RS10's on the summer bike. The cup and cone bearings on the latter have been utterly reliable for 6 years now with just the odd clean / regrease.

ugo.santalucia

If Shimano bothered to use stainless spokes and a non asian nipple size and charge saying 10-15 pounds more for them the R 500 would be perfect!