Best road bike wheels under £200?

bongofish

I would like to upgrade my wheels and wondering if anyone could point me in a direction. My bike is not disc brakes. Is there anything else I need to take into account when buying new wheels?

joe_totale-2

The main thing to consider is your weight as most wheels will have a weight limit.

You can probably get some decent Prime wheels around the £200 mark.

mrb123

Fulcrum Racing 5 are a little over £200 and are a decent set for the money.

What wheels do you have at the moment?

crescent

Mantel usually have some good deals on wheels. I bought some Vision Team Comp 35 last year and they were a shade under £200. (Note they are based in the Netherlands and their prices are in Euros - very prompt delivery to the UK in my experience though)

https://www.mantel.com/uk/road-bike-wheels

Fulcrum also have a good range of wheels at all price points and I've always found them to be bomb-proof.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

https://www.cycledivision.co.uk/wheels/clincher/cero-ar24-evo-alloy-wheelset-2017 are £169 but on pre-order

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-baroudeur-road-wheelset are in stock but £220

shortfall

bongofish said:

I would like to upgrade my wheels and wondering if anyone could point me in a direction. My bike is not disc brakes. Is there anything else I need to take into account when buying new wheels?

If you're spending <200 quid on a wheelset then don't expect it to be much good. Sorry but it's the truth. If you're on a budget I'd advise you to stay away from anything factory built as they will have poor components that will fail and then be expensive to replace even if you can find somewhere that stocks them. Extend your budget to £300 and go handbuilt from someone like Cycle Clinic who'll put you something together that suits your needs and will last a long time. Some people will say this or that budget factory wheelset is ok but either they're very light, don't ride in the wet, don't do many miles or they've been lucky.

mobile_rab-01

Agree with @shortfall above. Also, maybe consider secondhand - a lot of folk purchasing new high-end bikes immediately swap out the wheel set and sell off the stock wheels so you can pick up something decent that way?

darkhairedlord

shortfall said:

bongofish said:

I would like to upgrade my wheels and wondering if anyone could point me in a direction. My bike is not disc brakes. Is there anything else I need to take into account when buying new wheels?

If you're spending <200 quid on a wheelset then don't expect it to be much good. Sorry but it's the truth. If you're on a budget I'd advise you to stay away from anything factory built as they will have poor components that will fail and then be expensive to replace even if you can find somewhere that stocks them. Extend your budget to £300 and go handbuilt from someone like Cycle Clinic who'll put you something together that suits your needs and will last a long time. Some people will say this or that budget factory wheelset is ok but either they're very light, don't ride in the wet, don't do many miles or they've been lucky.</p>

I've had my fulcrum 5's for 4 years (i think) and never had to wave a spoke key at them. Only just had to replace the freehub bearings but other than that, fine. Used on my one bike which is weekend, evening, sunday best, cummunter, winter summer, dry rain etc.

shortfall

darkhairedlord said:

shortfall said:

bongofish said:

I would like to upgrade my wheels and wondering if anyone could point me in a direction. My bike is not disc brakes. Is there anything else I need to take into account when buying new wheels?

If you're spending <200 quid on a wheelset then don't expect it to be much good. Sorry but it's the truth. If you're on a budget I'd advise you to stay away from anything factory built as they will have poor components that will fail and then be expensive to replace even if you can find somewhere that stocks them. Extend your budget to £300 and go handbuilt from someone like Cycle Clinic who'll put you something together that suits your needs and will last a long time. Some people will say this or that budget factory wheelset is ok but either they're very light, don't ride in the wet, don't do many miles or they've been lucky.</p>

I've had my fulcrum 5's for 4 years (i think) and never had to wave a spoke key at them. Only just had to replace the freehub bearings but other than that, fine. Used on my one bike which is weekend, evening, sunday best, cummunter, winter summer, dry rain etc.

fair comment. I've had Zondas in the past and they were very reliable too. However lower spoke count wheels with very high tensions tend to become unrideable when they do pop a spoke and then you cant ride home and you're potentially off the road for ages waiting for a LBS who can get the spares and repair and true them properly. The fulcrum 5s are a bit over the OPs price limit too so it seems sensible to me if you're going over budget to stretch it that bit further and get something handbuilt. Spokes, bearings, freehub bodies etc are generic and are always in stock pretty much everywhere.

darkhairedlord

shortfall said:

darkhairedlord said:

shortfall said:

bongofish said:

I would like to upgrade my wheels and wondering if anyone could point me in a direction. My bike is not disc brakes. Is there anything else I need to take into account when buying new wheels?

If you're spending <200 quid on a wheelset then don't expect it to be much good. Sorry but it's the truth. If you're on a budget I'd advise you to stay away from anything factory built as they will have poor components that will fail and then be expensive to replace even if you can find somewhere that stocks them. Extend your budget to £300 and go handbuilt from someone like Cycle Clinic who'll put you something together that suits your needs and will last a long time. Some people will say this or that budget factory wheelset is ok but either they're very light, don't ride in the wet, don't do many miles or they've been lucky.</p>

I've had my fulcrum 5's for 4 years (i think) and never had to wave a spoke key at them. Only just had to replace the freehub bearings but other than that, fine. Used on my one bike which is weekend, evening, sunday best, cummunter, winter summer, dry rain etc.

fair comment. I've had Zondas in the past and they were very reliable too. However lower spoke count wheels with very high tensions tend to become unrideable when they do pop a spoke and then you cant ride home and you're potentially off the road for ages waiting for a LBS who can get the spares and repair and true them properly. The fulcrum 5s are a bit over the OPs price limit too so it seems sensible to me if you're going over budget to stretch it that bit further and get something handbuilt. Spokes, bearings, freehub bodies etc are generic and are always in stock pretty much everywhere.

Fives over budget? Cripes I paid about 120 for mine, inflation eh? I blame brexit.

shortfall

darkhairedlord said:

shortfall said:

darkhairedlord said:

shortfall said:

bongofish said:

I would like to upgrade my wheels and wondering if anyone could point me in a direction. My bike is not disc brakes. Is there anything else I need to take into account when buying new wheels?

If you're spending <200 quid on a wheelset then don't expect it to be much good. Sorry but it's the truth. If you're on a budget I'd advise you to stay away from anything factory built as they will have poor components that will fail and then be expensive to replace even if you can find somewhere that stocks them. Extend your budget to £300 and go handbuilt from someone like Cycle Clinic who'll put you something together that suits your needs and will last a long time. Some people will say this or that budget factory wheelset is ok but either they're very light, don't ride in the wet, don't do many miles or they've been lucky.</p>

I've had my fulcrum 5's for 4 years (i think) and never had to wave a spoke key at them. Only just had to replace the freehub bearings but other than that, fine. Used on my one bike which is weekend, evening, sunday best, cummunter, winter summer, dry rain etc.

fair comment. I've had Zondas in the past and they were very reliable too. However lower spoke count wheels with very high tensions tend to become unrideable when they do pop a spoke and then you cant ride home and you're potentially off the road for ages waiting for a LBS who can get the spares and repair and true them properly. The fulcrum 5s are a bit over the OPs price limit too so it seems sensible to me if you're going over budget to stretch it that bit further and get something handbuilt. Spokes, bearings, freehub bodies etc are generic and are always in stock pretty much everywhere.

Fives over budget? Cripes I paid about 120 for mine, inflation eh? I blame brexit.

Yeah I know! I saw the Fulcrums for £220 at Merlin with some tyres thrown in and I suppose they're not a bad call at that.

bongofish

oxoman said:

Bongo it may be that your bike already has decent wheels on without you realising. If you could a better idea of what they are or what bike they are off we can advise more accurately.
Cycleclinic,s Borg 22,s or 31,s are well worth having but only if they're better than your existing ones.

Hi,

I have the boardman SLR 8.6, so I'm presuming for £500 for the full bike the wheels are not the best?