First time upgrading the wheelset - advice required

fraseross

Hi,

Currently still have the stock Alex s500 wheelset on my Specialized and from reading the forum, upgrading from these wheels is almost a must! Not looking to break the bank with a new set (thinking around £150), but would I see any massive improvement with that size of budget? I can appreciate a wheelset can be seen as good transferable investment so keeping a open mind.

Just to see what would be the best wheelset to go for would be. Do i just to want to go for the lightest I can afford or is there a bit more than meets the eye?

Any advice greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Fraser

ugo.santalucia

Why is almost a must?
If you think they are preventing you from having a good time or keeping up with your mates, then by all means, but bear in mind any paid upgrade is unlikely to fill a gap in fitness.
150 is not much in terms of upgrade... you are likely to end up with something equivalent or not significantly better...

fraseross

Perfect, that what I was wondering. Was unsure as to whether my self set budget was going to restrict any actual benefit to be found. At what weight of wheelset would any saving in weight be noticeable? Compared to others I have noticed my bike could do with going on a diet so pin-pointed this as an easy way to do so.

Fitness thankfully isn't an issue, so was looking for the most effective way of optimising my performance on the bike. I'll up my budget and shop sensibly.

Thanks for the advice.

stanthomas

Something tubeless. The improvement comes from the tyre - faster, smoother, punctures all but eliminated. A bit over your suggested budget but you can currently get some Shimano RS61s from Ribble at about £177. Add Hutchinson Fusion Tubeless tyres from Wiggle or elsewhere at about £40 a piece.

Sprool

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Why is almost a must?
If you think they are preventing you from having a good time or keeping up with your mates, then by all means, but bear in mind any paid upgrade is unlikely to fill a gap in fitness.
150 is not much in terms of upgrade... you are likely to end up with something equivalent or not significantly better...

Totally agree with Ugo on this. Ride your current wheels into the ground till the rims wear out, then in the meantime save for a more significant upgrade, like £250+.

KevChallis

I don't know if you guys know, but Superstar Components has been a reasonably priced online company in the MTB scene for a few years now, they have recently started stocking road wheels, and I haven't scene any bad reviews yet. They have 2 sets which may interest you, the first are these

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=77&products_id=409

Weighing in at 1750g per set, the second are these

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=77&products_id=829

These weigh in at 1480g per set.

They have others on there site too below £200, but nothing as low as £150. Lifetime trueing too, I know you need to send them off but hey, this will be where I get my next set if wheels from

ugo.santalucia

KevChallis wrote:

They have others on there site too below £200, but nothing as low as £150. Lifetime trueing too, I know you need to send them off but hey, this will be where I get my next set if wheels from

The lifetime truing policy for a set of wheels you buy online is a bit of a joke... you spend 20 quid or so in courier (and you have to keep hold of the wheelbox, which is a hassle if you live in a flat), when a decent LBS should charge you 10 pounds to do the same job.
It's a nice selling line, but it's meaningless. I wonder how many send their wheels back to Superstar for truing...

KevChallis

Maybe so, but I live in Lincoln so I just go in lol

Andycar82

I'm considering these any opinions? http://www.4thebike.de/laufraeder/rennr ... fach-rotor

CYCLESPORT1

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... ulcwhfr295

fraseross

Cheers for all the responses!

Going from the advice i'll ride them a bit longer and save up at the same time. Hadn't considered tubeless at all, wasn't fully read up on it enough. Is going tubeless worth it in the future?

londoncommuter

Not looking for any wheels at the moment but what's the catch with the Superstar wheels? 1,480g for £199 sounds a bit too good to be true?

cattytown

When looking to upgrade anything, the first thing you should ask is what you are looking to do with the upgrade. Do you want better climbing? higher rolling speed? more comfort?

I upgraded my stock wheels because they constantly needed truing, and I am a large bloke. As a bonus I have improved stability on the bike, and descend better.

Paul.

ugo.santalucia

fraseross wrote:

Hadn't considered tubeless at all, wasn't fully read up on it enough. Is going tubeless worth it in the future?

It is deffo worth it for cyclocross and touring tyres... as you can convert any big tyre into tubeless... in the case of high pressure road tyres, you need tubeless specific ones, which limit your tyre choice dramatically. Once there will be a bit more choice, I'd say yes... right not, not sure, as they are pretty expensive and there aren't many... but it's a fast growing market

apreading

Also need to make sure you dont swap your tyres regularly - a bit of a hassle with tubeless. So if you wanted wide puncture proof tyres for commuting and a light weight set for the weekend I would forget tubeless. Probably less likely to be an issue for road bikes but I am always swapping my MTB tyres to suit the venue and conditions, so still use tubes.

Matthewfalle

Have a look at Planet X and see what they have there - some ridiculously cheap deals go down occasionally.

slowbike

apreading wrote:

Also need to make sure you dont swap your tyres regularly - a bit of a hassle with tubeless. So if you wanted wide puncture proof tyres for commuting and a light weight set for the weekend I would forget tubeless. Probably less likely to be an issue for road bikes but I am always swapping my MTB tyres to suit the venue and conditions, so still use tubes.

Or have 2 (or more) wheelsets?

stanthomas

fraseross wrote:

... Hadn't considered tubeless ...

It was a bit a lateral thinking. As you'll have gathered, for £150 you're not going to get much improvement over your original wheels. But you can realise a real improvement in your riding experience by going tubeless and, for a little over your price point admittedly, you can get some RS61s. You need tyres as well but I'm counting them as a consumable.

I'm not convinced that most people would notice the difference going to £800 Ksyriums in a blind test (probably not the best way to ride a bike anyway). But you will immediately notice the smoother ride on tubeless, your ride times will drop and, when you can't remember the last time you had to fix a puncture at the side of the road, you'll never want to go back.

And tubeless are clinchers too, so you can run tubeless tyres on your current wheels and tubed tyres on tubeless wheels by fitting a tube in both cases (don't try running non-tubeless tyres without tubes).