Disc Wheels

k1875

I'm looking to replace the stock wheelset on my CAADX because... Well, new wheels.

Although the vast majority of the time I use the bike for commuting on road, I do like to venture onto some hardpack / gravel / rough surface tracks from time to time.

I am not slim. At approx. 16 stone, will "road" wheels be up to this sort of thing ? You rarely see filters on websites for dedicated CX wheels (which I assume would be built a bit stronger), all 700c disc wheels just all seem to get lumped together.

Does anyone have any recommendations ? For reasons I won't go into, although I'm only looking to spend about £500 max I'm going to have to go with an online retailer / high street shop who offer finance, so hand-builts from an independent are (probably ?) not an option, no matter how much they may fit the bill. Have considered just getting a cheap(ish) hardtail but the wife has vetoed that idea, on the naïve assumption that I won't spend as much on a pair of wheels...

ugo.santalucia

You should be looking at something bespoke... Archetype rims 32 holes on some decent hubs will be less than 500 pounds, even with top hubs like Hope.

CX wheels don't need to be stronger than wheels for road, the opposite is true actually

fat daddy

ugo.santalucia wrote:

CX wheels don't need to be stronger than wheels for road, the opposite is true actually

I have no idea why ? ..... why ?

ugo.santalucia

The wheel killers are mileage and load... there isn't much mileage in CX and typically folks who do CX don't weigh 16 stone. In CX you get more mud and dirt, which might lead to shorter bearing life, but that cannot be resolved by a "stronger wheel", you just need better bearings and better seals

asprilla

ugo.santalucia wrote:

The wheel killers are mileage and load... there isn't much mileage in CX and typically folks who do CX don't weigh 16 stone. In CX you get more mud and dirt, which might lead to shorter bearing life, but that cannot be resolved by a "stronger wheel", you just need better bearings and better seals

I think you need to visit the Central CX League and watch a veterans race.

andy9964

ugo.santalucia wrote:

You should be looking at something bespoke... Archetype rims 32 holes on some decent hubs will be less than 500 pounds, even with top hubs like Hope.

I'm half a stone lighter, and this is exactly what I got for my CAADX, built with Sapim Race spokes and Pro 2 Evo hubs (don't think the hubs are available any more) for £350 or £380.
6000 miles later, the rear is maybe 1mm out, despite having the rear mech crash into the spokes after the hanger snapped
Bought mine from Moonglu in Ripon

ugo.santalucia

Asprilla wrote:

I think you need to visit the Central CX League and watch a veterans race.

Possibly, but that doesn't mean the market caters for them... in other words, if you buy wheels badged for cyclocross, don't assume they are "built stronger" because of that

Dog Breath

I recently had a custom when build from 23mm Wheels. Highly recommended.

http://23mm.co.uk/blog/23mm-wheels/

Choose your hubs, rims and spokes and he will build them up for you. He will also offer advice and recommendations based on what you are after.

dhope

Hunt are getting some nice write ups
https://www.huntbikewheels.com/collecti ... eep-22wide

If they'd been available when I was shopping around a couple of years ago then I'd have gone there. As it is, I'm still very pleased with my Ugo built wheelset



They'll be moving onto a CAAD12 frame in the next day or two

ugo.santalucia

dhope wrote:

Hunt are getting some nice write ups
https://www.huntbikewheels.com/collecti ... eep-22wide

If they'd been available when I was shopping around a couple of years ago then I'd have gone there. As it is, I'm still very pleased with my Ugo built wheelset



They'll be moving onto a CAAD12 frame in the next day or two

The Hunt are OK, although I am not quite sure how they manage to go sub-1500 g with those components... it doesn't add up...
Moreover, should you not be able to get something better than rebadged Novatec hubs for that money?

Hope = 200 a pair with 10% CRC discount
Rims tubeless... say 150 for a good pair
Spokes CX Ray, say 100 quid
Build say 50 quid

total 500

Drop the CX ray and get Sapim D-light and they would cost the same as the Hunt but with significantly better hubs

bobbygloss

Slight hijack, because I also need new wheels on a disc CX, but I'm after something cheap as possible.
Is there any reason not to get 29" MTB wheels and fit them to a disc CX? Is the rim too wide, or wrong hub width? I guess you can still fit a 9sp road cassette on a MTB 9sp freehub?

hopkinb

k1875 wrote:

Does anyone have any recommendations ? For reasons I won't go into, although I'm only looking to spend about £500 max I'm going to have to go with an online retailer / high street shop who offer finance, so hand-builts from an independent are (probably ?) not an option, no matter how much they may fit the bill.

OP wants finance..., do wheel builders offer finance?

hopkinb

hopkinb wrote:

k1875 wrote:

Does anyone have any recommendations ? For reasons I won't go into, although I'm only looking to spend about £500 max I'm going to have to go with an online retailer / high street shop who offer finance, so hand-builts from an independent are (probably ?) not an option, no matter how much they may fit the bill.

OP wants finance..., do wheel builders offer finance?

Though I suppose if you buy the bits from an online retailer who offers finance, then bung someone £50 to build the wheel, but then the builder loses out on the margin on the bits?

I dunno.

ugo.santalucia

Bobbygloss wrote:

Slight hijack, because I also need new wheels on a disc CX, but I'm after something cheap as possible.
Is there any reason not to get 29" MTB wheels and fit them to a disc CX? Is the rim too wide, or wrong hub width? I guess you can still fit a 9sp road cassette on a MTB 9sp freehub?

Rim is typically too wide

ugo.santalucia

hopkinb wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

k1875 wrote:

Does anyone have any recommendations ? For reasons I won't go into, although I'm only looking to spend about £500 max I'm going to have to go with an online retailer / high street shop who offer finance, so hand-builts from an independent are (probably ?) not an option, no matter how much they may fit the bill.

OP wants finance..., do wheel builders offer finance?

Though I suppose if you buy the bits from an online retailer who offers finance, then bung someone £50 to build the wheel, but then the builder loses out on the margin on the bits?

I dunno.

There are builders who are happy to build on supplied components, I was... I think Arup Sen is one of them... alternatively DIY is the way to go

jds_1981

I use mt66 MTB wheels on my CX bike. Do the job nicely. Seem to be solid wheels so far.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobi ... 7C435993UK

£150 ish

timothyw

The DT Swiss R32 Spline wheelsets are rated up to 130kg - might be worth a look.

Pro Lite seem to have become dramatically more expensive recently but they claim all their wheelsets are handbuilt. I've got a set of the cheap Garda's, it's sort of been so far so good with them.

hopkinb

Pro-lite revo a21 are still "only" £310 on Ribble. They do finance. Pretty sure another major online retailer would price match, and they might do 0% finance on top. I like mine well enough, big improvement over the wheels that came with the bike.

I know a lot of people got them for way less on some mistaken price-matching by Wiggle.

The Hunt ones look like nice, but I think there's a long lead time.

ugo.santalucia

hopkinb wrote:

Pro-lite revo a21 are still "only" £310 on Ribble. They do finance. Pretty sure another major online retailer would price match, and they might do 0% finance on top. I like mine well enough, big improvement over the wheels that came with the bike.

I know a lot of people got them for way less on some mistaken price-matching by Wiggle.

The Hunt ones look like nice, but I think there's a long lead time.

The PRO-lite crack at the rim hole... seen a lot of photos

bendertherobot

ugo.santalucia wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

Pro-lite revo a21 are still "only" £310 on Ribble. They do finance. Pretty sure another major online retailer would price match, and they might do 0% finance on top. I like mine well enough, big improvement over the wheels that came with the bike.

I know a lot of people got them for way less on some mistaken price-matching by Wiggle.

The Hunt ones look like nice, but I think there's a long lead time.

The PRO-lite crack at the rim hole... seen a lot of photos

Mine have done around 2-3000 miles each now. In awful conditions including CX, one tubeless, the other now.

No issues.

hopkinb

Mine haven't yet in 2000 miles of winter riding, but I'll keep an eye. Rim hole as in where the valve goes?

ugo.santalucia

Conditions are irrelevant to rim fracture... load is very relevant and the guy is 16 stone... I would not advise a crack-prone rim to a heavy guy. The shape of the rim lends itself to cracking at the holes.
There are better rims than Archetype, but none that is as robust at the same weight

hopkinb

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Conditions are irrelevant to rim fracture... load is very relevant and the guy is 16 stone... I would not advise a crack-prone rim to a heavy guy. The shape of the rim lends itself to cracking at the holes.
There are better rims than Archetype, but none that is as robust at the same weight

Gotcha, I'm not a featherweight at 85kg, so will keep an eye.

bendertherobot

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Conditions are irrelevant to rim fracture... load is very relevant and the guy is 16 stone... I would not advise a crack-prone rim to a heavy guy. The shape of the rim lends itself to cracking at the holes.
There are better rims than Archetype, but none that is as robust at the same weight

Generalisation is not relevant to rim fracture either.

ugo.santalucia

bendertherobot wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Conditions are irrelevant to rim fracture... load is very relevant and the guy is 16 stone... I would not advise a crack-prone rim to a heavy guy. The shape of the rim lends itself to cracking at the holes.
There are better rims than Archetype, but none that is as robust at the same weight

Generalisation is not relevant to rim fracture either.

It is... V rims are inherently more robust as the nipple bed is thicker... rims with a flat bed normally make use of double eyelets to avoid the problem... if a rim has neither it needs a very thick rim bed to avoid fracture, otherwise fatigue is almost a given. Fatigue is proportional to load and cycles... hence rider weight and mileage

bendertherobot

Ok, so, how many Revo have broken..........that's what you stated. You've seen lots of photos. LOTS. Can we see them?

ugo.santalucia

bendertherobot wrote:

Ok, so, how many Revo have broken..........that's what you stated. You've seen lots of photos. LOTS. Can we see them?

2 or 3 folks just on this forum. It's not the point. My opinion is that a rim with that section is prone to cracking, the vast majority of cracked rims I have seen are light flat rim bed with no eyelets or single eyelets. My opinion is that it is not suitable for a heavy guy... it is my opinion, then everyone can do as they please... there is a warranty that covers that and I would like to think even outside warranty Wiggle or PRO lite would do something to address the customer.

Personally, I would not buy them or build a set of wheels on that rim for myself... better?

bendertherobot

Your point was that THEY break. Which implies all of them. Moderation see, not generalisation

I'm heavy mind. And by all conditions I include cross which, one assumes, puts even more stress on them.

ugo.santalucia

bendertherobot wrote:

Your point was that THEY break. Which implies all of them. Moderation see, not generalisation

I'm heavy mind. And by all conditions I include cross which, one assumes, puts even more stress on them.

It doesn't, unless you ride on very hard, rooty terrain... but even there, you have the very soft tyres acting as a dampener.

My point is that they are not advisable for a heavy guy... they might break they might not, there are options which are less likely to break

bendertherobot

ugo.santalucia wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Your point was that THEY break. Which implies all of them. Moderation see, not generalisation

I'm heavy mind. And by all conditions I include cross which, one assumes, puts even more stress on them.

It doesn't, unless you ride on very hard, rooty terrain... but even there, you have the very soft tyres acting as a dampener.

My point is that they are not advisable for a heavy guy... they might break they might not, there are options which are less likely to break

I do. And will do so next week in Battle of the Beach again with lots of variable conditions. And much of my off road IS hard, rocky terrain. And they are still unbroken.

Your point is that these are from rims of a type that is more likely to break than a V shaped rim. That's somewhat different to your assertion that 'they break'

bendertherobot

In the interests of balance mind, I'd not buy them because they are an utter bugger to put tyres on.