Wheels buying advise

hansaplast26

Hello there,

I am just new to this forum and would like to ask for a little bit of buying advise.
For a good three years I took my cycling hobby not super serious and my beginners road bike was more than sufficient. It was a nice 2014 Cube Peleton race. It came with Mavic Aksium wheels which were more than sufficient for the cycling I did. I am living in the Netherlands (Amsterdam area) and there is no hills and not really climbing.
Just recently I upgraded to a more serious bike, a 2017 Specialized Roubaix Elite. A very nice upgrade, but I am thinking already about upgrading:) I came to the conclusion that I wanted better wheels, despite not knowing a lot about the Axis Elite wheels on there. I only know that they are pretty heavy, about 2000grams.
So I am looking for wheels and narrowed it down to three or four choices.
This is where your advise comes in handy, this is my selection so far:

Mavic Ksyrium Elite Disc UST (the new tubeless from Mavic), comes with a tubeless tire and weighs about 1690 grams
Mavic Ksyrium Pro Disc UST, one step up from the above, I can actually only spot three differences: a yellow spoke, a little bit lighter (1630 grams) and much more expensive.
DT Swiss RR 21, tubeless ready, about 1470 grams (yay very light).
Zipp 30 course, weight in the 1600's grams.

In the future I might take my bike more to areas with mountains, so weight is important, but I guess weight is not the only factor. I really would like to understand the differences between the Mavic Ksyrium Elite and Pro. Also I read that there is a lot of doubt about Mavic's freehub quality. DT Swiss is convincing, but surely somebody has some experience with them.

Thanks for your help!

S_J_P

I was recently in the same situation as you, and I looked at the same wheel sets, however I also looked at the carbon Flux 350R's at a similar price to the Ksyrium Pro's. In the end I came to the conclusion that the Ksyrium Elite's offered the best £/g weight saving, strength, and lack of faff so I plumped for them.

It's early days yet, but so far I love the Ksyrium Elites, and don't underestimate the benefits of being tubeless in terms of pressure, rolling resistance, and puncture resistance.

Weight-wise I saved approximately 650 grammes (over very-budget Mavic CXP Elite's), with the Ksyriums weighing in at 2.55kg inclusive of tyres, sealant, valve, wheels, skewers, and cassette.

The hub is lightweight aluminium with steel inserts, which I guess is where the durability concerns come from, I can't say how it'll stand up to long term abuse, but I hope it'll be OK for my paltry mileage and power!

chippyk

Cycle Division do some nice lightweight (for the price) disc wheels.

First.Aspect

I advise that you take SJPs advice.

Quality wise, Mavic are tough to beat. They also make very stiff (and so responsive) wheels. Hunt are worth a punt as well.

Frank Wilson

Advice not advise.

banditvic

I've got a pair of JRA Jawbones which are great set of wheels.

animal72

I looked at loads of factory wheelsets, got thoroughly confused/bored so gave up and went handbuilt.
The Pacentis that Malcom built for me are stunning, and should last forever.