Are these wheels any good - fulcrum 4/5 or ksyrium

sibike

I want to upgrade the boardman wheels that came on my boardman pro . It is a disc brake bike with centre lock discs . I have narrowed it down to either the fulcrum 4 (£340) or 5 (£350 ) wheelset or mavic ksyrium wheelsets .
I was going to go for the fulcrum 4 wheels but after visiting my lbs they advised against them and said the bearings fail and there not that good a wheelset . They said to go for either the mavic ksyrium (£380) or ksyrium elites (£510) but not sure if the price difference on the mavics is worth it especially as fulcrums are cheaper .
I also want to buy these through the cyclescheme so could do with buying from a store that accepts these vouchers .

jp4urio

I have Fulcrum 5 LG's, after 1,500 miles the bearings in the rear have gone.

However those miles include all weather commuting and a couple of 100m sportives in genuine torrential rain, rain that left my factory wrapped bar tape hanging off the bars.

Fulcrum 5's have cartridge bearings, with the 'LG' model being sealed only on the bearing's outer face and the 'CX' model sealed on both faces. Seeing as mine are open I'm not that miffed they've snuffed it.

I've just purchased 4 high quality, fully sealed stainless ball bearing cartridges (R4-004) and a specific press tool (6903) for £30 on eBay, and expect them to last years. It's an easy job if you have a chain whip, socket wrench and a couple of 17mm spanners. £30 on top, probably some time next year seeing as we're coming into the summer, still brings them in much cheaper.

Aside from the bearings I love the wheels, they transformed the way the bike handled, accelerated and brakes, although I'm on rim calipers. They still clean up great and I (shamelessly) went for them as they look far better than the Aksiums to my eyes.

So they will definitely go, but whether that's a pain is down to how much you like to spanner really!

sibike

Thanks for the reply . I'm still undecided and your reply confirms what the bike shop said about the bearings .

joebristol

I’m not sure if you can get them as centerloc or not but have a look at the Hunt website. I went for the Mason x Hunt 4 season road wheels which are £300. They were lighter and cheaper than the ksyriums and said to be more reliable bearing wise than the Fulcrums. If you wanted to push to £400 here are some aero lights I think they were called but they only saved an extra 100grams or so so I couldn’t justify the cost. My local bike shop got the Hunts in for me - it was their suggestion vs Hope and Mavic. They also said they wouldn’t touch Fulcrum because of the bearings.