What Aero Clinchers? Budget £600 - £800

T1berious

Hola!,

I'm returning to road cycling after a bit of a hiatus and could do with some advice.

Recently got a Cannondale Super six evo 105 6, absolutely loving it and put my old Mavic ksyrium SL's on it. Big improvement on the stock shimano R500's but this has left my time trial bike wheel less.

I'm returning to competing (Tri's) and was looking for some decent aero wheels for my time trial bike. Can any of you recommend a decent aero wheel set for around the £600 - £800 mark.

Looked at the Shimano RS81 C50 but just wondered if anyone had any other ideas?

Cheers for any advice!

T1b

Crozza

Flo wheels

PerformingMonkey

The RS81 C50s have been excellent for me this year. I have hit some pretty big lumps in the road (due members of my club being rubbish at pointing out potholes - rant) but the wheels are still running true and smooth.

I can't comment on any performance gains against other aero wheels but they make a big weight difference when compared to my stock Alex wheels.

I'll be racing in a tri on Sunday with them and again at the London one in August.

T1berious

Really looking for one with an aluminum braking surface. Not too keen on the possible heat build up issues. then again I wouldn't be doing a long descent with them any way, however I'm wary of a carbon braking surface (being daft I know).

Flo's did look good other wise.

Cheers, T1b

DiscoBoy

Triathlon wheels you say?

Unless you're doing very hilly courses, you need look no further than these, IMO:
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPPXPC8210 ... 1-wheelset

They're only a little heavier than RS81 C50s and will be a fair bit faster. There is also an 82-82 set available if you don't want to go as deep as 101 on the rear.

Crozza

Flo are just like Hed Jets - aluminium clinchers with a carbon fairing

the brack track is just anodised black aluminium. it'll wear off after a few weeks, just like on Archetypes

the big issue with them is the ordering process - you have to order within a few seconds of the order opening otherwise you'll miss out (they don't maintain any stock and their model cuts out distributors to pare costs to the bone)

opusver21

http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/aero-50-clincher

Gigantex, hand built

ugo.santalucia

As Crozza says, FLO offer the best compromise between cost and top end aerodynamic performance. The big question is whether you are allowed to draft or not in the races you do... if you are allowed to draft, aerodynamic are a waste of money, best to stay sheltered in a bunch.

cycleclinic

Almost anything with a low spoke count will be aero, pick a torodial rim if you want it to perform in a even a slight cross wind and ideally buy something you can get spares for. Hardly anyone checks out the latter before buying.

blablablacksheep

DiscoBoy wrote:

Triathlon wheels you say?

Unless you're doing very hilly courses, you need look no further than these, IMO:
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPPXPC8210 ... 1-wheelset

They're only a little heavier than RS81 C50s and will be a fair bit faster. There is also an 82-82 set available if you don't want to go as deep as 101 on the rear.

Tubular being the word though...
I'd be tempted to buy a second hand set of a TT forum.

T1berious

ugo.santalucia wrote:

As Crozza says, FLO offer the best compromise between cost and top end aerodynamic performance. The big question is whether you are allowed to draft or not in the races you do... if you are allowed to draft, aerodynamic are a waste of money, best to stay sheltered in a bunch.

Alas the Tri I'm doing is non drafting (something like 30 seconds to pass? can't remember).

My choices are looking like the following:

Shimano Dura Ace 9000 C50 - a bit over budget but deals are about on them
Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLS - £750 - I hear they are a bit "old" tech
Shimano RS81 C50 - £650 - looking like the best bang for the buck at the price.
Zipp 60 - slightly over budget but bugger me they look lush....

Think it's between the Dura Race C50 and Zipp 60's - SWMBO wouldn't scream too much about blowing the budget by 20%

Much..

Crozza

what I did was get a 60mm front (Zipp 404FC in my case) plus a powertap rear wheel and some carbon wheel covers from Raltech. all in was about a grand, but going second hand you could easily get the same for your budget

if you are doing TTs then you want as deep a rear as you can get - a 50mm rear just doesn't look as badass

rokt

I've just read a review on the new Swiss Side Hadron 625's, could be worth a look !

DiscoBoy

blablablacksheep wrote:

DiscoBoy wrote:

Triathlon wheels you say?

Unless you're doing very hilly courses, you need look no further than these, IMO:
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPPXPC8210 ... 1-wheelset

They're only a little heavier than RS81 C50s and will be a fair bit faster. There is also an 82-82 set available if you don't want to go as deep as 101 on the rear.

Tubular being the word though...
I'd be tempted to buy a second hand set of a TT forum.

For TTs and tris, tubular is, indeed, "the word" in my opinion.

ugo.santalucia

T1berious wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

As Crozza says, FLO offer the best compromise between cost and top end aerodynamic performance. The big question is whether you are allowed to draft or not in the races you do... if you are allowed to draft, aerodynamic are a waste of money, best to stay sheltered in a bunch.

Alas the Tri I'm doing is non drafting (something like 30 seconds to pass? can't remember).

My choices are looking like the following:

Shimano Dura Ace 9000 C50 - a bit over budget but deals are about on them
Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLS - £750 - I hear they are a bit "old" tech
Shimano RS81 C50 - £650 - looking like the best bang for the buck at the price.
Zipp 60 - slightly over budget but bugger me they look lush....

Think it's between the Dura Race C50 and Zipp 60's - SWMBO wouldn't scream too much about blowing the budget by 20%

Much..

Don't be fooled, if you want time savings, you can't waste your time with things that "look lush"... set your budget and get the most out of it as you can.
Ideally you want a 50-60 mm rimmed set with a wide rim and rounded geometry to avoid crap handling. Leave the bling to the cafe' brigade. Planet X might well be the best option, some top athletes use them for the Iron Man Worlds in Kona... if they are good enough for them...

ugo.santalucia

DiscoBoy wrote:

For TTs and tris, tubular is, indeed, "the word" in my opinion.

I disagree, tubs are good for going downhill and avoiding certain death, or on a hilly course to shed some weight and have better acceleration, but on a flat course it has been demonstrated that you can go just as fast with a clincher or tubeless tyre... where rolling resistance and aerodynamics rule, tub or clincher is pretty much the same

maddog 2

Ugo,

Do you know much about the FLO 30 rim? I notice they sell a 28h version so would suit a disc-build, and $80 a rim sounds okay.

singleton

Haha - I just got a cannondale supersix evo as well - some great deals about.

I put a set of Shimano RS81 C35's on mine as a set of do-it-all wheels and so far they're great - although it is still very early days.

I decided that doing the switch straight away would maximise the re-sell value on the standard wheels as they have not been ridden on.

ugo.santalucia

maddog 2 wrote:

Ugo,

Do you know much about the FLO 30 rim? I notice they sell a 28h version so would suit a disc-build, and $80 a rim sounds okay.

They are very nice rims, but weigh 560 grams each, can you live with that?

maddog 2

ouch :roll:

leejdavies

I have a set of farsports carbon clinchers direct from Taiwan.

Cost me £425. You can choose your spec. So alu rims carbon fairings are available too. In any depth.

I have Novatec hubs, sapim cx-rays with 25mm wide 50 deep front 60 deep rear. I couldn't fault them so far. I've done around 500-750miles on them and they're great. Half your budget, so you could blow the other ~£400 on another upgrade 8) Or buy two sets or a deeper rear wheel for TTs or Tris, etc.

They were excellent with communication too. But buy swissstop pads, their pads are OK but not great.

T1berious

Hi there,

I've seen a few reviews regarding the Far East Carbon Wheels. has to be said I haven't seen a negative review. Someone put "So what isn't made in China?".

It's an interesting point and one that's making me scratch my chin in a pondering manner with a raised eye brow.

Hmmmm.

ugo.santalucia

T1berious wrote:

Hi there,

I've seen a few reviews regarding the Far East Carbon Wheels. has to be said I haven't seen a negative review. Someone put "So what isn't made in China?".

It's an interesting point and one that's making me scratch my chin in a pondering manner with a raised eye brow.

Hmmmm.

I think you are missing the point. Most stuff is made in China of course, but that's irrelevant, if you buy it from the EU, then you get a warranty from the EU retailer, otherwise the warranty comes direct from China. Assuming they honour the warranty, you still need to fork out 100 + pounds to send your wheels back to the retailer (unfortunately couriers charge a lot to private customers for big boxes, with no guarantee they will refund you the postage cost. That's the main issue. Quality will be bad, good, excellent, in the same way you will find over here.

In practice you gamble on the fact that they will be good and trouble free... sometimes it pays off, other times it doesn't

Camcycle1974

A conundrum I am currently dealing with.One of my Farsports clinchers had an imperfection in the rear rim. I e-mailed and they agreed to warranty me a new pair without having to send the old ones back. Great I thought. They turned up the other day. I was expecting wheels and got rims so now have the re-build costs to foot. The new rims are of a different appearance to the ones I originally bought and you can see where the joins in the carbon are. I suspect they just sent out what they had spare lying about. I now have two wheels and two rims which are not up to the standard I would expect but I don't want to incur the postage and hassle of sending them back. Caveat emptor.

I may be able to cobble together something 1/2 decent but as the bloke in the shop said where I took them to be re-built I could have just bought some Shimano RS81's for the same money and had the benefit of warranty back up etc. Not that he would recommend carbon clinchers in the first place!

ugo.santalucia

Camcycle1974 wrote:

A conundrum I am currently dealing with.One of my Farsports clinchers had an imperfection in the rear rim. I e-mailed and they agreed to warranty me a new pair without having to send the old ones back. Great I thought. They turned up the other day. I was expecting wheels and got rims so now have the re-build costs to foot. The new rims are of a different appearance to the ones I originally bought and you can see where the joins in the carbon are. I suspect they just sent out what they had spare lying about. I now have two wheels and two rims which are not up to the standard I would expect but I don't want to incur the postage and hassle of sending them back. Caveat emptor.

I may be able to cobble together something 1/2 decent but as the bloke in the shop said where I took them to be re-built I could have just bought some Shimano RS81's for the same money and had the benefit of warranty back up etc. Not that he would recommend carbon clinchers in the first place!

I was wondering why you had not chipped in support of Farsports yet...
As you probably read in my blog, the rims you get are not necessarily a faithful copy of the rims you see on their site

Camcycle1974

Mmmm, I was reserving judgement unti after the warranty claim went through as I didn't want to sound off unnecessarily about them. I thought the originals were a little out of true so took them to my LBS who condemned them as being unfit to ride! I went for the lightweight version which it appears they no longer do (coincidence?) The rims they have sent as a replacement are heavier (probably a good thing) but don't look as nice cosmetically which was partly the reason for buying them in the first place! I will have a set of rideable wheels hopefully but will always feel a bit apprehensive about descending o them. As I live in cambs not too much of an issue really.

I read the blog (although a lot of the technical stuff passes me by). As you say it depends on what shipment they have at the time from whichever manufacturer they use. Farsports are merely an intermediary, acting as a middle- man between manufacturer and consumer. On the whole their customer service has been fine as they could have just refused to do anything about my situation. on balance though I probably won't be taking the risk of buying direct from China again, just too many variables involved.