New wheels

billybodger

Looking to upgrade my wheels from the factory ones on my old triban . Im just a casual rider so not so dont need anything mega. Looking at some Fulcrum racing 900 c17 £109 on black Friday deals or Shimano RS 100 at the same price . Any ideas as to what would be better or any other ideas.

shirley_basso

You really want to be spending £250 to make a noticeable upgrade I think.


Campag zondas, Mavic krysium etc.

singleton

If you are a casual rider, then can I ask what you are hoping to achieve with a wheel upgrade? Are yours faulty or broken? Are you looking for a bit of extra speed?
Also, does your triban have rim brake and does it have a Shimano groupset?

ugo.santalucia

Some stock wheels are simply terrible these days... for instance, I borrowed my wife's wheels a couple of months ago, these are Giant PR2 tubeless. The hub engagement angle is the worst I have ever experienced, it takes almost half a turn of the pedal before the pawls finally engage with the hub and you get traction, that results in clunking of the pedals when standing uphill if you don't use a massive gear. The bearings appear to be already a bit rough, despite having done maybe a couple of hundred miles, mostly dry. They are just cheap censored and even the most basic wheels from Mavic (say a pair of Aksium) would be an improvement.
For a real improvement, as above, you need to spend a bit more

jlloyd

Yeah, the wheels on the older triban's are a bit rubbish, bit of a shame as it's a great bike.

Either of those wheels would probably be an upgrade, add a decent set of tyres though, and you'll really notice it.

daniel_b

Triban bikes are rightly well regarded, but their inhouse wheels also have a reputation for not being very good sadly. I've seen a front wheel die within not very many miles/months, probably badly assembled, though they replaced it with a shimano set under warranty iirc.

Superstar components sometimes have some good offers, and make pretty light wheels - assuming that is what you are after of course.

If you want reliability, it's difficult to look beyond the cheap shimano offerings.
I still have some WHR500s and 550 variants that simply will not die, nor deteriorate to any great degree.

ugo.santalucia

daniel_b said:

Superstar components sometimes have some good offers, and make pretty light wheels - assuming that is what you are after of course.

I would always steer clear of Superstar components...

billybodger

I would say im a casual rider as i dont do loads of miles but still do a few miles a week when i can. I have done a few thousand miles on it and as things have worn out have been slowly updating things . The wheels are slowly dieing i think ive kept them going for as long as i can . I have been keeping the original freewheel alive for the last few years so think it needs making into a new one so hence the new wheels. I brought the bike from a guy who hadnt used the stock wheels so they had been un used but they ran very rough and i found that there were several bearings missing so no wonder they didnt want to roll very well..... Its all Shimano Sora and had some good revews at the time puting more expensive bikes to shame . It dose me its not the lightest but it keeps me out on the road which is whats its all about as far as im concerned . I havnt got a fortune to spend so just looking for something better than the originals.

joe_totale-2

If you're just looking to replace your knackered stock wheels and you're mainly riding from A to B then I'd recommend the Shimano ones over the Fulcrum ones as they're more durable and easier to maintain.

However, as stated above I wouldn't expect much of a performance upgrade on your current wheels and that if you want better performing wheels, you'll have to spend more.

TBH in my experience tyres can make a bigger difference to performance than wheels, the difference between GP5000's and Gatorskins is like night and day.