What Wheelset?

rs6mra1

Hi Guys,

I own a Felt Z85 and I am looking to upgrade the wheels. I was initially going to settle for the Mavic Kysirium Elite S (£450)but I thought that was too much of an outlay for a bike that retails new for £995.
So i then started to consider the Shimano Ultegra's as they retail for £250.

I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions and advice.
Is there anything better to the Ultegra's and that price range.

Tjgoodhew

Campag Zondas. Cant fault them and currently just within budget at Wiggles

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/campagnolo-zond ... -wheelset/

Semantik

No good for OP as these are Campag freehub. Shimano out of stock.

sloppyschleckonds

Check rubble as I think they are cheaper

drlodge

Zillions of threads on this topic:
Best factory wheeset at this price: Zondas.
Best option at this price: Hand built using something like Archetype rims, 105 hubs and s/s d/b spokes.

rs6mra1

Thanks very much for the input guys. The world of hand built wheels is new to me and I will now look into this.
What are s/s d/b spokes?
I am not sure also what bearing my weight would have on this but I am 84Kg and more a sportive rider.
Any weblinks would be welcomed as i have checked out a couple but confused!

drlodge

rs6mra1 wrote:

What are s/s d/b spokes?

Saintless Steel, double butted. Standard spokes like Sapim Race are 2.0mm-1.8mm-2.0mm profile.

For 84kg I'd suggest you go for 32 spokes, 28 might be OK but another 4 spokes won't cost you anything in terms of weight or performance.

ugo.santalucia

drlodge wrote:

For 84kg I'd suggest you go for 32 spokes, 28 might be OK but another 4 spokes won't cost you anything in terms of weight or performance.

A bit OTT for most modern V shaped rims (wide or not). 24 front and 28 rear works well for the majority of riders out there. 84 Kg is pretty average... although it's the weight of the heaviest rider currently at the TdF... :shock:

drlodge

And there's your link to a wheelbuilder who knows a little more than me ;-)

cycleclinic

I agree with ugo 24F/28R or even 20F/28R works very well with wide medium depth rims. 32 spoke rear for a 84 kg rider would needed for a narrow shallow rim like the Open Pro or Excelight but whiles such rims are decent they have new competition that simply benefit from better design i.e they are wider.

drlodge

thecycleclinic wrote:

I agree with ugo 24F/28R or even 20F/28R works very well with wide medium depth rims. 32 spoke rear for a 84 kg rider would needed for a narrow shallow rim like the Open Pro or Excelight but whiles such rims are decent they have new competition that simply benefit from better design i.e they are wider.

OK that's where my learning from Mr Rowland has come from...my 2 wheelsets are Open Pros and Excellights! Although I do have 32 spokes on the Archetypes but that's for a CX bike so bullet proof is the aim (and I'm only 77kg).

secretsam

ugo.santalucia wrote:

drlodge wrote:

For 84kg I'd suggest you go for 32 spokes, 28 might be OK but another 4 spokes won't cost you anything in terms of weight or performance.

A bit OTT for most modern V shaped rims (wide or not). 24 front and 28 rear works well for the majority of riders out there. 84 Kg is pretty average... although it's the weight of the heaviest rider currently at the TdF... :shock:

Ugo - what would you recommend? I'm about the same weight

And what hubs (I'm a Campag rider)

ugo.santalucia

SecretSam wrote:

Ugo - what would you recommend? I'm about the same weight

And what hubs (I'm a Campag rider)

It depends what you are looking for... people have different priorities on the agenda. Handbuilts answer well if your priorities are : reliable, comfortable, predictable.
But if you want: stiff and fast, there are pre-assembled options which fit the bill... interestingly in the factory market the relationship between cost and quality is very feeble: I have just rebuilt a Reynolds Strike that had the internal nipples fitted the wrong way round... happy days!

drlodge

SecretSam wrote:

Ugo - what would you recommend? I'm about the same weight

And what hubs (I'm a Campag rider)

I'd be interested too, seeing as thought I'm also a Campag chap [Champag?]. I guess the "modern" wide-rim equivalent of my wheels would be Miche 24/28 hubs, ACI spokes and Archetype rims?

ugo.santalucia

drlodge wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Ugo - what would you recommend? I'm about the same weight

And what hubs (I'm a Campag rider)

I'd be interested too, seeing as thought I'm also a Campag chap [Champag?]. I guess the "modern" wide-rim equivalent of my wheels would be Miche 24/28 hubs, ACI spokes and Archetype rims?

These days I use ACI spokes on 32 H builds... both DT comp and Sapim Race build slighlty stiffer, hence they are better for lower spoke count rear wheels. For the front both Laser and Dt revs build lighter with no drawbacks.

As for the rims, I now have a set of 25 mm HED + and whilst they are very nice, they are not a significant improvement over the Archetype... certainly not an upgrade worth 3 times the price.

secretsam

drlodge wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Ugo - what would you recommend? I'm about the same weight

And what hubs (I'm a Campag rider)

I'd be interested too, seeing as thought I'm also a Campag chap [Champag?]. I guess the "modern" wide-rim equivalent of my wheels would be Miche 24/28 hubs, ACI spokes and Archetype rims?

What sort of Miche hubs??? I've got some Miche 707 stock wheels on my Cinelli, are the hubs any good? Wheels are a little lardy, plus I fancy some new wheels :oops:

ugo.santalucia

SecretSam wrote:

What sort of Miche hubs??? I've got some Miche 707 stock wheels on my Cinelli, are the hubs any good? Wheels are a little lardy, plus I fancy some new wheels :oops:

Bike Radar give them a terrible review, which probably means they are very good, seeing the marks that Zipp and similarly unreliable wheels do get...
I would assume the hubs are the same as the Primato, just need them laced to a decent rim with some more reasonable spokes. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to shed 200 grams from them and at the same time make them better.
But of course the temptation to chuck them in the big metal recycling skip in favour of something which is the same but 300 grams lighter is too hard to resist...

secretsam

ugo.santalucia wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

What sort of Miche hubs??? I've got some Miche 707 stock wheels on my Cinelli, are the hubs any good? Wheels are a little lardy, plus I fancy some new wheels :oops:

Bike Radar give them a terrible review, which probably means they are very good, seeing the marks that Zipp and similarly unreliable wheels do get...
I would assume the hubs are the same as the Primato, just need them laced to a decent rim with some more reasonable spokes. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to shed 200 grams from them and at the same time make them better.
But of course the temptation to chuck them in the big metal recycling skip in favour of something which is the same but 300 grams lighter is too hard to resist...

So - this would cost how much? Bearing in mind that I'd be 'losing' a set of spare wheels

ugo.santalucia

SecretSam wrote:

So - this would cost how much? Bearing in mind that I'd be 'losing' a set of spare wheels

The economics won't stack up... doing the right thing is never the cheaper options...

Realistically you are better off keeping them and getting another pair for summer