Wheelset for the Alps sub £300

shirley_basso

Tubeless?

ugo.santalucia

Surely Tannus tyres are the answer

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Less than 10mins left of "power hour"

https://www.probikekit.co.uk/bicycle-wh ... 49819.html £310 before Topcashback

joey54321

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Shirley Basso wrote:

My concern is that I haven't done any cycling in the high mountains before and I am not a great descender even on UK roads. Therefore I would rather not worry about overheating rims and delaminating brake tracks etc. I am sensible and do understand about not dragging brakes, but would rather not have the worry, especially if it does start to rain.

I do agree with your view up to a point, but for the sake of £200-£300 quid I'd also rather not ruin them.

But you get the hang of it pretty quickly... it's much easier to descend in the Alps, than it is over here... roads are wider, better surfaced, bends are well signed and not as tight as they are over here.

The concerns about braking on carbon are

1) Cheap carbon rims from China

2) Busy events, when you are constantly on the brakes

3) very wet roads

You don't have any of these problems.

As for ruining them, why would you ruin them? Surely you want your scenic photos to have the Zipp on, rather than some cheap looking hoops... 8)

I ruined a pair of expensive Reynolds rims in the dry and unbusy decent.

Personally, I wouldn't risk it either, I have a pair of Zipps but would never take them to the alps.

shirley_basso

Thanks for the link NO, but I think at £300 for the Zondas I may as well get the Ceros for £200.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/camp ... prod153495

Just seen they would be £300 at CRC with BC discount!

The bolt thru disc version was a good price in that power hour though, £350, cheapest I've seen before is ~£390. Looked at them so many times, but there is so little out there about how good or bad they are, given they are Campags first generation design of disc wheels.

Plus without knowing how stiff they are compared to others like Hunt X Masons, they are quite heavy at ~1675g.

Have you looked at the Hope custom wheel option on CRC? You could get a pair of with Open Pro rims (or several other options) for under £300 with BC discount.

letap73

Midlands Grimpeur wrote:

I wouldn't get hung up on the weight, having used various wheelsets on various climbs I doubt you will notice 200g difference, (especially not when riding up a 8% gradient at under 10kph!). If you are prepared to sacrifice a bit of weight I would go for a good set of handbuilt wheels, you will appreciate something stiffer with better power transfer particularly when out of the saddle.

I agree with the above, you might as well take your cheap Shimano wheelset - especially as this new wheelset is not going to get used.
If you are going to get a new set of wheels - why not consider other factors such as greater comfort, the potential to go tubeless etc - so that you can use them as an alternative to your Zipp wheels on certain days.
If you go direct through spokesman wheels you will get £20 of this wheelset (Cycleclinic would have a similar product):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kinlin-XR22T ... SwnK9ZQY5z

I have owned a set of Kysriums - I still own a set of Cero AR30 and a set of handbuilts (both of which cost circa £300).

The Cero AR30s and the handbuilts were both better than the kysriums which retailed for £700.

letap73

Double post - some how?

shirley_basso

Thanks letap. I do agree with you - basically I know in my heart of hearts this is a bit of a waste of money. The thing is that I want a nice, stiff wheelset - I used to have Zondas and they are significantly nicer than the Shimanos - much more responsive when you get out the saddle and that is what I am looking for for the Alps.

I've looked around a lot and I think I may just go for the CeroAR24 and then they can be the winter wheelset when the Shimanos wear out as the brake track is getting a little thin after a few years commuting in London.

turbo1191

Hunt..

Harry182

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Shirley Basso wrote:

My concern is that I haven't done any cycling in the high mountains before and I am not a great descender even on UK roads. Therefore I would rather not worry about overheating rims and delaminating brake tracks etc. I am sensible and do understand about not dragging brakes, but would rather not have the worry, especially if it does start to rain.

I do agree with your view up to a point, but for the sake of £200-£300 quid I'd also rather not ruin them.

But you get the hang of it pretty quickly... it's much easier to descend in the Alps, than it is over here... roads are wider, better surfaced, bends are well signed and not as tight as they are over here.

The concerns about braking on carbon are

1) Cheap carbon rims from China

2) Busy events, when you are constantly on the brakes

3) very wet roads

You don't have any of these problems.

As for ruining them, why would you ruin them? Surely you want your scenic photos to have the Zipp on, rather than some cheap looking hoops... 8)

I agree with Ugo and to add to his list of things you don't need to worry about -

4) being a +100kg novice cyclist

kingstongraham

you might get very wet roads.

Matthewfalle

How about - crazy thought:

You take your bike with the Zips on AND - crazy thought - you borrow a set of spare wheels and take them in a wheel bag.

Night before check the forecast: if it's going to rain, just swap wheels over. If it isn't going to rain then leave Zips on. If it's absolutely pouring down just drink wine and eat salami instead.

Just putting it out there,

alex222

Agree with Ugo. I also found the descending easier in the Alps for the reason you can more clearly see what is coming the opposite way.
On tree lines tight descents in the UK i tend to be on the brakes a lot more.

briantrumpet

Have been very happy with Ultegra wheels, which can be got under £300. I do 3000-4000 miles in the Alps every year, and haven't had any problems.

robbo2011

briantrumpet wrote:

Have been very happy with Ultegra wheels, which can be got under £300. I do 3000-4000 miles in the Alps every year, and haven't had any problems.

That's very impressive considering that the mountain passes are only opening around now and will be shut again end of October. I live in Switzerland and most people living here only end up doing 4-5 high mountain rides per year! Most of the time we end up riding in the lower altitude hill ranges.

briantrumpet

robbo2011 wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

Have been very happy with Ultegra wheels, which can be got under £300. I do 3000-4000 miles in the Alps every year, and haven't had any problems.

That's very impressive considering that the mountain passes are only opening around now and will be shut again end of October...

Depends where in the Alps one goes - where I'm based the cols are 1000-1400m, and can be open in February in a good year. In any case, I'll get 2000-3000 miles in in the summer holidays.

robbo2011

I edited the post. I think we are saying the same thing...

briantrumpet

robbo2011 wrote:

I edited the post. I think we are saying the same thing...

Aha. Yes. One of the reasons I chose the area is because of all the options it gives for riding year-round. Longest descent my way is about 30 minutes. It's a fair point that on most descents one doesn't use the brakes much for extended periods, but there are one or two of the hairier ones (Col de la Chaudière, for example), where you'll want to have the confidence to be able to use the brakes extensively without overheating: any sort of failure would be, shall we say, 'interesting'.

shirley_basso

So having discussed the plan with the rest of the team, it looks like we're also doing a Cingles attempt while out there so seems that Alu wheels would be a good idea.

Managed to get some very low mileage (100 or so) Zondas off eBay with brand new Gp 4000s II for £180 posted so pretty happy with that.

es993

https://btlos.com/new-brake-technology-from-btlos.html