Lost faith in standard wheels what's an upgrade

For marginally more, you can get a set of Elite Wheels ENT on AliExpress. Carbon, a range of depths, around the 1600g mark (so not Uber light, but likely a massive improvement over stock wheels).

Elite Wheels are a "quality Chinese brand" that sells some fairly advanced stuff like the Drive range through their own website, but what they sell on Ali is at bargain basement prices.

There will probably be codes on 11.11 to bring the price down.

I got a set of Ent Gravel for my winter bike, using a code and paying for DPD delivery (which takes into account customs). Came to £350 all in & took about 4 weeks, communication at every step of the process. 38mm depth, modern 32.5/25mm width, look super smart with black decals. If you don't need the super wide option the normal versions are about £30 less, whilst still being a "modern" 21mm width.

Some people might be nervous about spending that much on AliExpress, but honestly £250 is not going to get much of an upgrade. Either "take the risk" and get something like this from China or double (+) your budget to make it worth your while.

I would say that a wheel that doesn't let you down is an upgrade on one that does! The Mavic Cosmic Elite is a quality wheel, if a bit on the heavy side. A carbon wheel of similar quality will cost about a grand unless you go down the Chinese route - and then you could be compromising quality. It depends what you want to do with the bike, but if you just want a wheel that won't let you down the Mavics are a good option.

Whatever someone is selling at a decent price...

I just checked Thru Axle Carbon Disc wheelset and it threw up a set of Hunts as the first result, but there were loads on there. Rovals, Level, Prime, Vel. Might need to wait a bit if £250 budget can't be exceeded.

In your experience do you tend to get stung for extra tax/duty on those AliExpress Elite Wheels?

Huntbikewheels.com?

They've got their Black whatever sale on. I bought a pair of 4 seasons from them a year ago. Certainly an upgrade on the stock wheels on a fairly good spec Specialized allez. Thinking about getting the allroad version for the Creo at £278 for a pair. Come with all the bits you need for tubeless and to match your hub.

DT Swiss ER 1600 Spline 32 Disc Road Wheelset coming in at £425.

I love my DT Swiss's. Totally reliable and easy to service the hubs for all weathers.

I was just going to mention Cero, nearly bought a pair a couple of years back, before stumbling on some 2nd hand Enves.

I'd also add hand built to the list of options @sw19carpenters , I had Mark at spokesman wheels build me up a superlight pair of 30mm carbon rims to my budget, and they have been fantastic.

I sent him a message, said what I was looking for, what my weight was, and what kind of budget I was trying to work too, and he came back with a few options - weight of wheelset was a key one for me, so I opted to upgrade to Tune hubs, but I guess for you, you're above all else looking for reliability.

Glad to see you have upped your budget, the days of a £250 set of wheels being an upgrade, are long gone unfortunately :-(

I remember when Campagnolo Zondas could be had for £250, but of course that would have been rim brake back then, and I think you are after thru axle disc brake wheels, so that's another level up.