Tubular wheelset - opinions please

mpatts

All,

I have a piggy bank that I stick all my change in, which I empty periodically and buy something bike related. This time the £200 it liberated is earmarked for some tubs for my CX bike. After doing quite some googling/ebaying and coming up blank at this (low) price point, i came across these:

https://www.merlincycles.com/carbotech-k22-light-tubular-wheelset-61300.html

Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm 65kg, race in the seniors, and a getting a bit fedup with pich flats/tubular burps (had both this season already, finished last race carrying!)

VamP

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19748542#p19748542]mpatts[/url] wrote:

All,

I have a piggy bank that I stick all my change in, which I empty periodically and buy something bike related. This time the £200 it liberated is earmarked for some tubs for my CX bike. After doing quite some googling/ebaying and coming up blank at this (low) price point, i came across these:

https://www.merlincycles.com/carbotech-k22-light-tubular-wheelset-61300.html

Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm 65kg, race in the seniors, and a getting a bit fedup with pich flats/tubular burps (had both this season already, finished last race carrying!)

I have them. They are totally fine. A bit heavy, and a bit narrow, the hubs are basic, but cup and cone so quite serviceable. They're durable and most importantly, they will open the door to much better grip for you.

I'd say go for it. I had a couple of podium finishes on them last season, so they're not rubbish.

trek_dan

Yep I've got a set too, perfectly reasonable wheels that feel and look just like bottom of the range Shimano wheels. I've got my mud tyres on them and when the bike already has a few kilos of mud on you really don't notice the extra few grams of weight from the wheels. As above they are a little narrow which I found made getting the tubs centered properly tricky. I suppose your other alternative would be getting something second hand like a Mavic Reflex or Velocity Major Tom build. There seems to be quite a lot of reasonably priced tub wheels on Ebay which I guess must be people switching to discs.

VamP

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19748559#p19748559]trek_dan[/url] wrote:

Yep I've got a set too, perfectly reasonable wheels that feel and look just like bottom of the range Shimano wheels. I've got my mud tyres on them and when the bike already has a few kilos of mud on you really don't notice the extra few grams of weight from the wheels. As above they are a little narrow which I found made getting the tubs centered properly tricky. I suppose your other alternative would be getting something second hand like a Mavic Reflex or Velocity Major Tom build. There seems to be quite a lot of reasonably priced tub wheels on Ebay which I guess must be people switching to discs.

Of course, then you have to live with other people's glue jobs

I bought some second hand Toms last year, had to unglue and reglue, rode about 5 races on them and now they need a new rim and rebuild. As well as another unglue and reglue


I use mine as mud wheels too, always reassuring knowing that even if I totally destroy them it won't have been too expensive!

mpatts

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19748559#p19748559]trek_dan[/url] wrote:

Yep I've got a set too, perfectly reasonable wheels that feel and look just like bottom of the range Shimano wheels. I've got my mud tyres on them and when the bike already has a few kilos of mud on you really don't notice the extra few grams of weight from the wheels. As above they are a little narrow which I found made getting the tubs centered properly tricky. I suppose your other alternative would be getting something second hand like a Mavic Reflex or Velocity Major Tom build. There seems to be quite a lot of reasonably priced tub wheels on Ebay which I guess must be people switching to discs.

Weirdly, I've drawn a complete blank on fleabay - wonder if I'm searching to specifically, i.e. just for CX specific?

trek_dan

Search for Mavic Reflex (they only come in tubular) and should get some results. Although they've been making Reflexs for years and the older ones can be very narrow. I managed to get a nearly new set on used Hope hubs for £80.