Reynolds Stratus Elite.

wilkij1975

Anyone any experience of these or Reynolds wheels in general? I'm looking for some wheels to replace the stock ones that came on my bike. I've seen them for a good price but can't find any reviews. I know they're not hand built but can't afford them.

ugo.santalucia

They ARE hand built

http://paolocoppo.drupalgardens.com/con ... bites-dust

wilkij1975

So would the Stratus be made the same way?

ugo.santalucia

Not just the Stratus, pretty much all light wheels on the market are made that way... internal nipples, as used by Reynolds, make it particularly tedious to sort them, but it's not a Reynolds only thing, that's for sure.
In fact I am not sure what point I am actually making... :roll:

wilkij1975

Oh right. Good to know.

Are they a good set of wheels then? I'm not a roadie really just using it for fitness to help on the MTB so don't need to spank a load on wheels. Was looking at the usual Aksiums, Racing 5 etc. and thought these might be a good alternative. Plus I've seen a good price on them which helps!

Grill

They're fine. Well built and robust.

wilkij1975

The only worry for me is they're a bit on the heavy side at 1900g. Not sure this would make them sluggish but being a bit lardy myself at 105kg it's probably not a bad thing.

ugo.santalucia

Apologies... for some reason Reynolds = carbon in my head... didn't realise you were after those. I don't see them being anything better than a set of basic Shimano R 501 which come at 30% of the price, same weight, same spoke count, very similar quality, but at least they are not fitted with impossible to find "straight pull" spokes.

Get the Shimano or if it is an upgrade, keep your money

wilkij1975

Cheers for the info. I was also looking at Shimano's RS11 but am unsure of the cup and cone hubs. Im sure they're ok but had some bad experiences with some XT hubs a while ago. They also look a bit flimsy to me.

ugo.santalucia

wilkij1975 wrote:

Cheers for the info. I was also looking at Shimano's RS11 but am unsure of the cup and cone hubs. Im sure they're ok but had some bad experiences with some XT hubs a while ago. They also look a bit flimsy to me.

The R 501 use J bend spokes, which means any LBS can replace a spoke straightaway if needs be. The RS series use Straight pull which are harder to source. There is no significant enough upgrade between the two, so the R501 are the winner hands down.
Cup and cone go on forever, they get a bit gritty over time but they keep going... if you clean them and grease them regularly they last longer

wilkij1975

So whats the deal with straight pull spokes? If they're that hard to get hold of, why do so many manufacturers use them?

I think I'll try and stay away from them as I've read about this is several wheel posts now and I don't need the hassel if anything goes wrong.

ugo.santalucia

wilkij1975 wrote:

So whats the deal with straight pull spokes? If they're that hard to get hold of, why do so many manufacturers use them?

I think I'll try and stay away from them as I've read about this is several wheel posts now and I don't need the hassel if anything goes wrong.

They buy them in bulk and don't give a toss about you having to source spares. They are easier for a machine and quicker for an ape to fit in the flange... effectively they cut manufacturing costs...

Why are they not more available? because 90+% of the bicycle market still use the round J bend and it's not practical for a shop or a distributor to stock 17,000 different spokes of all the colour, length, shape and sizes as requested by the different manufacturers, so they don't. The latter are happy, so they can flog you a wheel upgrade when you break a spoke

wilkij1975

I'm definately off straight pulls then! It's crazy that there is so much to think about when buying wheels. It's not like I'm going top end either.

earth

Reynolds used to make their wheels with J-bend spokes for the very reason Ugo states. For this current generation they have changed to straight pull. But then the cheaper ones now have external nipples and they say that is to aid servicing them. Give with one hand and take with the other..

Do you get corrosion with brass nipples? Or did I read that brass is self lubricating? Maybe this prevents the spoke corroding into the nipple.

ugo.santalucia

earth wrote:

Do you get corrosion with brass nipples? Or did I read that brass is self lubricating? Maybe this prevents the spoke corroding into the nipple.

Brass is a lot better... of course it is a material that brings us back to Steam Engines and Victorian Engineering... but it's still a damn good material for many applications... nipples is one

earth

Is the self lubricating rumour true?

I asked a guy from Saipim once why nobody makes nipples from Ti. Seems like a good material, light, non-corrosive and hard so they don't round off. He gave two reasons: The tooling wears much quicker when making Ti parts and something about the material means the threads are not smooth so the spokes twist when the nipples are turned rather than tightening.

When I was tightening a Ti seatpost bolt, I remembered the number of turns to undo it and did the same number of turns to tighten again. On the last turn it snapped.

wilkij1975

So, if I could stretch my budget a bit, can I assume that something like a 105 / Miche / Ambrosio hub with an Open Pro rim would be a lot better than factory built wheels at the lower end?

I ask as I've looked around at some sites and that sort of build does seem quite reasonable. I'm also a big chap as I mentioned so the higher spoke count should make for a better wheel for me.

wilkij1975

So, ended up buying some Vision Team 30 wheels that arrived today. Saw them for £100 brand new from Winstanleys and after reading what I could find, thought I'd give them a go. They look pretty solid and as light as I need. No straight pull spokes either so hopefully if they go bang I can get them fixed ok.

Cheers for the advise!