New wheels a worthwhile upgrade?

mattham

Hi All

Superstar have 20% off their wheels this month. I keep looking at the Switch Ultra/Tactic set up:

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/s ... eelset.htm

This would be £160 which just seems like crazy cheap for these.

I have a 2014 Whyte T-129 with the OEM wheels on which are 21mm internal (Tactic is 23mm) and by my reckoning when I stripped them down weigh 2.245kg.

The SS ones weigh 1.832kg so I am wondering if £160 to save a pound of weight on the rolling mass is too good an opportunity to turn down.

There is nothing 'wrong' with my current wheels, they work perfectly fine, just wondering if I would notice the difference enough to make £160 vale for money....?

Any opinions welcome

Thanks,
Matt

jimothy78

I've just bought that same wheelset in the 26er size. Whilst the front was pretty much bang-on weight-wise, the rear is 60g heavier than the claimed weight on the site - not a deal breaker, but more than I would imagine can be put down purely to manufacturing tolerances, so suspect the figures might be slightly off. For the sake of comparison, just make sure you've removed valves, rim strip etc from your old wheelset, too.

Also, 100g saved from each rim is going to make a MUCH bigger difference than 100g saved from each hub, so would be worthwhile checking the weights of the individual parts, new and old, not just comparing the wheelsets as a whole.
http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/s ... ar-hub.htm
http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/s ... nt-hub.htm
http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/s ... am-rim.htm

rockmonkeysc

I would stick with the original wheels. Superstar hubs are reasonable weight but poor quality and their own rims are just OK.
60 grammes is a lot more than manufacturing tolerance. More likely heavier than claimed rear hub weight.

The Rookie

Superstar rims are from Mach1 (or whatever the new name for the company is) which are worthy if not sparkling rims, most superstar hubs are Novatech, and RMSC may have lots of issues, many others haven't, my Superleggera are now 5 years old and doing sterling duty on my daily commuter, rear bearings replaced, front still going strong.

rockmonkeysc

I had the Switch Evo and Tesla hubs. Both were complete rubbish, very unreliable and very much made down to a price. To be fair,Superstar kept replacing freebies and axles under warranty but the standard email for warranty claims gave the impression they get a lot of failures. I know others who had the same problems as me.
I would say it's definitely worth spending a bit more to get Hope, Shimano or DT Swiss.

Caveman_Chris

Sorry no help from me, I'm looking similar superstar wheels myself ATM.

off topic. What rear tyre you running? Thinking of getting a 2.25 ardent for the rear but as you know, it's tight as anything.

mattham

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I've decided not to do this for the moment....though I guess I have until midnight to use the discount code :?

Caveman, I'm actually running a 2.25 Ardent on the rear I switched it from the front and put an On One Chunky Monkey 2.4 at the front instead. There is enough clearance with the 2.25 Ardent, though I guess that might get a bit close to the limit with a wider rim as it changes the profile, but for the moment its fine. Hope that helps!

Caveman_Chris

Thanks dude, that's perfect. I've been shaping between a 2.2 ikon and a 2.0 beaver since I got sick of the HR2 buzzing.

They're good tyres but they have thier limits.

Thanks CC