Road Wheels - Recommendations???

paulcuthbert

Hi,

I'm about to purchase a 2013 Trek Domane 4.0 and will have a few hundred pounds to upgrade the bike. I'm looking into getting a new set of wheels. I'm not a racer, but like to go fast! I do rides of between 30-75km regularly, and in the summer I push that up to +100km rides regularly. I'm 6'2" and my weight varies between 85-90kg throughout the year. I live in Scotland, so lots of rolling terrain I ride, and I do the odd big hill every now and then.

What would be a good wheelset for £500 or less for my bike, my stature and my type of riding?

Thanks in advance

arlowood

With your budget you should be thinking handbuilt. That way you get a good quality rim with an appropriate spoke count to suit your weight. Also you can specify some decent hubs that will have longevity.

Something like this would be a good starting point.

http://thecycleclinic.co.uk/collections ... -6800-hubs

However I would suggest contacting Malcolm at Cycleclinic to refine your options. There are other builders of course so have alook around.

northpole

Are you buying the 2013 bike new from a shop or second hand? Reason for asking is that the shop may be able to cut you a deal on a wheel upgrade with the bike which may be more economical than buying separately.

If that doesn't work I'd suggest you shop around for a pair of dura ace C24s if you prefer the idea of factory built wheels OR, exactly as the previous poster suggested but with dura ace hubs provided that doesn't brake the bank. My suspicion is that being in Scotland and in the hills, you'll be inflicting on a fairly regular basis the not so kind combination of braking on the descents with grit from surface water (rumour has it that rain falls alot up north!). In which case there would be a stronger case for hand builts than the C24s in that, as already stated, you'd be able to change the rims in a year or two and benefit from a higher spoke count. If you're still in the factory camp another excellent wheelset is Campagnolo Shamal Ultra - Ribble currently have them for just over £500.

Peter

Speckled

campagnolo zondas! under £250, light, smooth and very strong.

Im over 90kg and for the past year mine have been just fine 8)

w00dster

If buying via a Trek Store or a store affiated with Trek, how about Bontrager RXL? A fair bit more than £500 normally but you may get a bargain. Fairly light (1440 grams) and being up north you'll have no braking issues. With you not being the lightest handbuilts will be a good option as well, I have a set made up by Ugo from here, had them about a year now, done lots of mileage and still faultless, weigh in about 1650grams if I remember correctly (Archetype Rims with Hope Mono RS Hubs)

cadseen

For sheer speed and pleasure to ride I would always choose a deep section wheelset.
Something like http://tidd.ly/c063ea13 for £500

cycleclinic

There would be other wheels that I could suggest but 32 spoke ultegra wheels may not be what the op is looking for. Generally at the op weight for a reliable set I would suggest a 24 spoke front and 28 spoke rear on hubs that suit your budget. Rims should always be wide because they are better and that means the archetype, pacenti sl23 or the cheaper kinlin xc 279. If have the coin there is no better than the hed belgain plus but you pay for that perfection. These are all the rims that most wheels builder uanyway use anyway.

As for hubs well there are miche, hope, shimano Dura ace white industries T11. I don't use hope but other do. I much prefer the cheaper miche.

Rearly deep wheels do make some small difference to how fast you can ride but it is small. I manged over 19 mph over 118 miles on sunday on a bike with 30mm deep rims and 31mm wide tyres. 60 miles of that ride was in a group at over 20 mph. Deep rims not needed for speed leg strength is. Deep rimmed wheels are meant for giving you an edge in racing they cannot make a slow rider fast as all they can do is add a small fraction of a mph to your average of a long distance.

Simply if the wheel use a wide medium depth rim and is under 1700g then you will be quick on it if your legs allow. Every thing above that fallow the law of dismissing returns fine if you have the money or are competing but just be aware of that.

Deep section carbon wheels may take 30 seconds of a 10 mile tt perhaps not even that But that is compared to 36 spoke swallowed rimmed wheels not the kind your will find on your trek to begin with.

The secret rider

mavic ksyrium elite ?