Camp Zonda - all year round use?

Flâneur

Quite fancy some Camp Zonda rims - right price range, nice weight etc, but are they good all year or will I be needing winter/training wheels too?

I'd prefer to only have one set lazy/poor the whole 9 yards.

Riding a Giant TCR until I can afford a new bike, generally a lot of hills over in North Wales and some stuff in Cheshire.
Weight 73kg

Cheers for any advice. Have asked around for a local wheel smith but no one seems to be able to name one hence the factory built choice.

FransJacques

They're fine. Winter is no different than any time of year in the UK. Rain is rain.

If you're worried, wash them more often, but keep strong jets of water away from the bearing and cassette.

dw300

charlie_potatoes

Yep! that's a camp Zonda

oldbazza

Currently using my recently purchased Zondas on the Ridley and they have been fine so far,quick wipe over with some soapy water and then dry off and they come up loverly.
To be honest though I still have the Forza wheels which will be used for winter duties most of the time but I'm enjoying the nice ride from the Zondas too much to change back at the moment 8)

neeb

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Flâneur

Cheers. especially for the car, may have to save up and skip buying bike stuff ;0.

Thanks neeb, yeah some horrible wet descents that leaves rubber muck all over my frame. Guessing this will be an issue with any wheel though?
Final question from the ignorant, how long would you normally expect a pair of rims to last? I know the variables will be amount of braking etc, but generally?

keef66

I ride my Shimano RS10's year round and they still have plenty of metal left on the braking track after 6000 miles, but round here and doing the kind of riding I do, they don't get a lot of heavy braking. Were I doing my riding up and down Welsh hills / mountains I'd be checking them more frequently.

FransJacques

neeb wrote:

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Funny, I wear out rears faster. It's better to scrub speed with your rear brake than the front, esp. as the roads I ride in Surrey/Kent/commuting in London are wet 93.4% of the time hence front-biased braking, esp. vigorous, can lead to a washout and self-inflicted meeting with mother earth.

This could have a lot to do with my MTB background which really punishes overzealous front biased braking...

keef66

And I hardly ever touch the rear brake, so I'm just keeping an eye on the wear indicators on the front rim.

bianchimoon

be absolutely fine to use all year round

rolf_f

sa0u823e wrote:

Final question from the ignorant, how long would you normally expect a pair of rims to last? I know the variables will be amount of braking etc, but generally?

I've been using a pair of Khamsins (which aren't wildly different to Zondas) day in day out for probably at least 14,000 miles in all weathers. I've replaced all the bearings a couple of thousand a go but otherwise they are still fine. The wear indicator on the front rim is not far from disappearing though so soon I'll have to be checking the rim width regularly. If they make it through the next few weeks they'll probably last another 5000 or so til winter.

yaya

I've got an old set of Fulcrum 3's which are the same as the Zondas (just different drilling patern) and they are now in their 4th winter, the braking surface is showing some serious concaving and I'll probably retire them after this winter for safety reasons. They'll have around 15,000km on them by the time I do that.
Note that I do NOT wash them after every ride and that I've never serviced the hubs. I've only opened, cleaned and greased the freehub once as it became too noisy...

Flâneur

Cheers everyone, off to price match and get some harribo thrown in

gabriel959

FransJacques wrote:

neeb wrote:

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Funny, I wear out rears faster. It's better to scrub speed with your rear brake than the front, esp. as the roads I ride in Surrey/Kent/commuting in London are wet 93.4% of the time hence front-biased braking, esp. vigorous, can lead to a washout and self-inflicted meeting with mother earth.

This could have a lot to do with my MTB background which really punishes overzealous front biased braking...

Probably, but that means that you are not braking properly, just saying.

rolf_f

gabriel959 wrote:

FransJacques wrote:

neeb wrote:

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Funny, I wear out rears faster. It's better to scrub speed with your rear brake than the front, esp. as the roads I ride in Surrey/Kent/commuting in London are wet 93.4% of the time hence front-biased braking, esp. vigorous, can lead to a washout and self-inflicted meeting with mother earth.

This could have a lot to do with my MTB background which really punishes overzealous front biased braking...

Probably, but that means that you are not breaking properly, just saying.

But he is at least spelling properly!

gabriel959

Rolf F wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

FransJacques wrote:

neeb wrote:

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Funny, I wear out rears faster. It's better to scrub speed with your rear brake than the front, esp. as the roads I ride in Surrey/Kent/commuting in London are wet 93.4% of the time hence front-biased braking, esp. vigorous, can lead to a washout and self-inflicted meeting with mother earth.

This could have a lot to do with my MTB background which really punishes overzealous front biased braking...

Probably, but that means that you are not braking properly, just saying.

But he is at least spelling properly!

Excuse me?

Semantik

I have a pair of Zonda's and a pair of RS80's ,both for summer use.
I don't use them in the winter, because:

A lot of my riding is training in bad weather and/or in the dark on greasy, muddy country roads and commuting into a sh*t part of town on sh*t road surfaces and mixing with sh*t drivers.

Winter riding is, as a rule, slower, more cautious and less competitive than in the summer. I don't think that riding a £300+ wheelset will gain me any worthwhile advantage in the winter when a £100 wheelset will do just fine. And, in case anyone didn't notice, the weather is worse than in the summer ,more rainy days and salty roads equals more wet grit acting like a grinding paste on your rims every time you brake. So, the amount of wear on your wheels IS accelerated in winter.
Course, if you have money to burn you may not think £300 is a lot of money or you may only go out on sunny days or at the weekend ,so then maybe you should just use your expensive wheels all year round. They won't be any less durable than a cheap wheelset. It's just that putting them through 3k or so winter miles is just putting wear on them for very little gain, a gain that most of us can live without at a time of year when outright speed and responsiveness from our wheels is not particularly important. This is why most people use a cheap pair of wheels in winter.

rolf_f

gabriel959 wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

FransJacques wrote:

neeb wrote:

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Funny, I wear out rears faster. It's better to scrub speed with your rear brake than the front, esp. as the roads I ride in Surrey/Kent/commuting in London are wet 93.4% of the time hence front-biased braking, esp. vigorous, can lead to a washout and self-inflicted meeting with mother earth.

This could have a lot to do with my MTB background which really punishes overzealous front biased braking...

Probably, but that means that you are not braking properly, just saying.

But he is at least spelling properly!

Excuse me?

And you shouldn't be sleeping properly tonight!

gabriel959

Rolf F wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

FransJacques wrote:

neeb wrote:

They'll be absolutely fine, as long as you accept that their lifetime will effectively be the lifetime of the front rim - sourcing Campagnolo replacement rims is too much hassle and expense to be worthwhile, and they don't sell single wheels. With handbuilt wheels you could get the hubs rebuilt on new rims when the latter wear out. But you could still get years of use out of the Zondas, so it just depends on your priorities. The Zondas are difficult to beat for weight/stiffness/value. However I'm guessing that in North Wales you do quite a lot of descending in wet conditions - that could seriously shorten the life of the rims...

Funny, I wear out rears faster. It's better to scrub speed with your rear brake than the front, esp. as the roads I ride in Surrey/Kent/commuting in London are wet 93.4% of the time hence front-biased braking, esp. vigorous, can lead to a washout and self-inflicted meeting with mother earth.

This could have a lot to do with my MTB background which really punishes overzealous front biased braking...

Probably, but that means that you are not braking properly, just saying.

But he is at least spelling properly!

Excuse me?

And you shouldn't be sleeping properly tonight!

Don't do anyway as I have a one year old who wakes up once or twice a night!!! :twisted:

Doony

I've had Zondas on my Cube the past two years, been ridden all year round, and been perfect, not a mark on them, still perfectly true, great wheels for the money.

Semantik

Doony wrote:

I've had Zondas on my Cube the past two years, been ridden all year round, and been perfect, not a mark on them, still perfectly true, great wheels for the money.

To have genuinely NO wear on them in two years would suggest a microscopically small mileage in that time. Unless you ride billiard table smooth roads and never brake.

Doony

Semantik wrote:

Doony wrote:

I've had Zondas on my Cube the past two years, been ridden all year round, and been perfect, not a mark on them, still perfectly true, great wheels for the money.

To have genuinely NO wear on them in two years would suggest a microscopically small mileage in that time. Unless you ride billiard table smooth roads and never brake.

Well I probably slightly exaggerated

Semantik

Doony wrote:

Semantik wrote:

Doony wrote:

I've had Zondas on my Cube the past two years, been ridden all year round, and been perfect, not a mark on them, still perfectly true, great wheels for the money.

To have genuinely NO wear on them in two years would suggest a microscopically small mileage in that time. Unless you ride billiard table smooth roads and never brake.

Well I probably slightly exaggerated

Thought so
Pleased to hear you rate them highly. Looking forward to putting mine on once it stops raining...

Flâneur

Rather than making a new topic, fresh question as I thought the wheels would include rim tape.

Do you need rim tape if the spokes are't visible from within the rim? I've just got a polished smooth surface but would rather check before I go puncture a load of inner tubes having had 3 punctures last night

neeb

sa0u823e wrote:

Rather than making a new topic, fresh question as I thought the wheels would include rim tape.

Do you need rim tape if the spokes are't visible from within the rim? I've just got a polished smooth surface but would rather check before I go puncture a load of inner tubes having had 3 punctures last night

No, assuming the current Zondas are like the Shamals and Eurus (pretty sure they are), you don't need rim tape.