Swiss Side wheels - any opinions?

cruff

Just bought a set of Hadron 625s - been wanting a set of aero wheels for a while and I've seen online reviews that suggest they're pretty decent. Couldn't afford Zipps or Enves, but got a discount on these to put them in my price range. It was a toss-up between the Hadrons and a set of Reynolds and decided to bite the bullet and plump for these.

I know website reviews are often to be taken with a pinch of salt, so is anybody else riding them and have an opinion?

Grill

Why didn't you ask for feedback before you bought them? Seems a bit late now regardless of what others have to say.

mfin

Perhaps he's just interested what other people who have them think of them? It's not like he's asking for buying advice.

whosthedaddy

Purchased mine last year.
No issues, carry my 90kg, have stayed true and hold up in the wind ok
Not sure how to put this, but the noise generated by them turns heads when riding.
Here's mine

chris_bass

I've been looking at these for a while too but there doesn't seem to be much info or reviews around on them. Would be interested to hear what people think of them too, seem decent for the price.

cruff

mfin wrote:

Perhaps he's just interested what other people who have them think of them? It's not like he's asking for buying advice.

This

I'm confident enough in my opinions to think I made the right choice, and big enough to know that, if I didn't, I'll know within a couple of months and will sell 'em and move onto something else

But it'd be nice to get some opinions from people who've actually ridden them for a period

cruff

Whosthedaddy wrote:

Purchased mine last year.
No issues, carry my 90kg, have stayed true and hold up in the wind ok
Not sure how to put this, but the noise generated by them turns heads when riding.
Here's mine

Must admit, they do look lovely. That was a consideration when I bought them.

DavidJB

I always read the Hadron as Hard on though

cruff

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19599945#p19599945]Whosthedaddy[/url] wrote:

Purchased mine last year.
No issues, carry my 90kg, have stayed true and hold up in the wind ok
Not sure how to put this, but the noise generated by them turns heads when riding.
Here's mine

Having ridden them for a couple of weeks now I can confirm that the noise is 'ear-catching' (if there's such a word as that!). Sounds like a jet engine when ramping up. I put the bike on a stand to clean it the other night and span them up & let them spin down - it actually sounds like they're going down through the gears as the tone drops

Good performance though - obviously a little slower getting up to speed from a standing start but maintain top speed very well and really, really notice the difference over about 35km/h. I've never owned aero wheels before (ridden some as loaners a few times) but these feel a lot less twitchy than I expected when cars blow past six inches away - though yet to really ride them in windy conditions.

alpineaddict

I too have had my eye on these for some time, back before they even released them, and they were all only on pre-order...

Never really thought I rode enough, or hard enough to justify the expense or indeed even having wheels like this... I ended up buying some Mavic Cosmic Elites...

The Swiss Side wheels look the dogs bollox IMO, and I had heard they made a rather pleasing noise when at speed... Pleased you like em dude

Maybe one for next years shopping list

philbar72

Tried some recently they ride fine. don't spin up that quickly but once underway, are pretty rapid, though not a match for the hed jets i have installed. my 303's would be a better all round wheel, certainly better for climbing.

For the money they are very good. if you are time trialling or want a fast wheel for flat/ rolling roads they'd fit the bill.

cruff

So - after a couple of months of riding, I can state with a lot of confidence that they are a good wheel. They're stable in crosswinds (a little sketchy but that's mainly down to my shabby bikehandling) but they maintain speed almost like it's cheating once up to cruising speed.

A couple of observations - firstly, the brake track is awesome. Much more responsive than the Ksyriums I also use, and feedback from the brakes is better - somehow more 'touch' in them. I was expecting to have to get used to slippier brakes, but not a bit of it. That being said, I haven't ridden them in the soaking wet yet, so the performance might be impaired there - the Ksyriums are really good in the wet

Secondly - and again this might just be because I'm sh1t rather than anything to do with the wheel - but I notice a real shakiness of the front wheel on descents. I'm not talking about long, sweeping descents where you still pdeal, but steeper ones where you tuck. Even in low wind (less than 10mph) they feel like they're twitching more than Harry Redknapp on tax return day as soon as I'm about 100 metres into a tuck. It's so bad that sometimes I come out of the tuck simply because I pussy out of it (yes, I'm aware that's probably a stupid thing to do)

I've ridden them a lot to try and get used to it - I even commute on them sometimes as there are a couple of downhills that fit the bill en route - but still can't get used to it. Any chance this is simply an effect of the rim depth (62 mm) and I should just expect it? I mainly bought them with an eye to starting racing, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much.