Wheel upgrade advice

Quizmate

My Planet X RT 58 came with FSA Vision Team 30 wheels, which although nice to ride are a complete nightmare when it comes to tyre removal / fitting (I'm not the only one to have experienced this!) Rather than wait to be stranded by the road I thought I'd see it as a shopping opportunity to get something special as an upgrade. I thought this would be easy and a quick Google would solve everything. How wrong could I be and now I'm more confused than ever! I guess I want it all but easy tyre fitting, responsive and quick to get up to speed and stay there, good climbing abilities, comfortable....ish and easy for servicing / spares would be great. The next dilemma is factory vs custom and with the latter I'd have no idea where to start, although I wonder if local would be better in case they go out of true and spokes start snapping all over the place (seems to be a regular complaint). Factory wise I've heard that amongst others the following are good: Campy Zondas, Fulcrum Racing 3's, Kyresium Equipes or Elite but the list could go on. Budget say up to £400. Any thoughts, advice or general wisdom greatly appreciated. Oh and I'm around 11.5 stone if weight is an issue.

cycleclinic

What tyres are you using as you will find some tyres are easier to fit than other and that goes for every wheelset. Tubeless compatible rims mean harder tyre fitting for all tyres are your wheel tubeless compatible? Conti GP4000s tyres I have found are the easiest to fit to all all the various rims I have tried. Schwable ultremo are not too bad but I have not tried these on many rim yet and michelin pro's seem about the same. Vittoria Open corsa are a tighter fit and veloflex tyres are the tightest of all the light weight low rolling resistance tyres I have tired. Cheaper than changing wheels. Also tyre fitting techinque helps too and the amount of time you have been around bikes seems to have no bearing on how good you are at it. so I would look at your technique and try different tyres it's alot cheaper. starting point is tell us what tyres you are using.

As for factory vs custom, The H plus archetype rim is a good rim for all the tyres I have tried conti's and vittoria's go on quite easily. Lace those to hubs within your budget, Miche, Hope..... in a 24F/28R drilling or 20F/24R if you want a racing wheelset and job done. Still different tyres on your current wheels may solve the problem.

Quizmate

thecycleclinic wrote:

What tyres are you using as you will find some tyres are easier to fit than other and that goes for every wheelset. Tubeless compatible rims mean harder tyre fitting for all tyres are your wheel tubeless compatible? Conti GP4000s tyres I have found are the easiest to fit to all all the various rims I have tried. Schwable ultremo are not too bad but I have not tried these on many rim yet and michelin pro's seem about the same. Vittoria Open corsa are a tighter fit and veloflex tyres are the tightest of all the light weight low rolling resistance tyres I have tired. Cheaper than changing wheels. Also tyre fitting techinque helps too and the amount of time you have been around bikes seems to have no bearing on how good you are at it. so I would look at your technique and try different tyres it's alot cheaper. starting point is tell us what tyres you are using.

As for factory vs custom, The H plus archetype rim is a good rim for all the tyres I have tried conti's and vittoria's go on quite easily. Lace those to hubs within your budget, Miche, Hope..... in a 24F/28R drilling or 20F/24R if you want a racing wheelset and job done. Still different tyres on your current wheels may solve the problem.

Hi

Thanks for the wheel upgrade advice. I've had a look and would be interested to find out more. Re technique I agree that there's some skill involved and in the end with very fine (and strong) plastic levers plus var tool, some talc and an hour of patience I got some Fortezza Tri Comps on which have stayed there. I'm terrified of puncturing though so not happy. I'm not the only one and there's plenty of evidence on the web as follows:

https://www.facebook.com/Fullspeedahead ... 0853112159

and at the end of a bike radar post of mine from April where a chap struggled and sent them back to PX (he contacted me personally....testiment to his distress I think):

viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=12965939&start=20

There's also reviews on on the Planet X website complaining re the same problem and i note companies like Wiggle no longer sell them.