Aluminium wheel set for circa £300

[RogerThat]

Wheelsmith.co.uk are probably the most successful bespoke builders in the country. What I like about their wheels is the fact they use normal, easy to get hold of spokes (normally Sapim) and will do re trues and spoke replacement for free. They also stock the full range of Ambrosio rims.

Reputation wise they're unparalleled, much of the racing fraternity use them exclusively as the wheels stay true and you get exactly what you've paid for. This success means a little waiting for your bespoke roulettes (about 10-14 days) but in my experience they are steady innovators rather than stuck in the past builders.

They also box (with proper insulated wheel boxes) and will ship your wheels all over the globe. I've a set of Record hubs on Ambrosio Excellence from them and have not had them go out of true (up/down or sideways) in 24 months, and I'm very hard on my wheels, including heavy laden with camping gear.

You might have to pay a bit more than the £300 for factory fodder wheels, but not that much!

[robc02]

To me a major disadvantage of a lot of these ready built wheels especially with the fancy spokes and lacing patterns is the lack of spares

+1. Spares are, in fact, available for some (most?) when they are newish, but when they go out of production who knows how long parts will be available for?

[foxyrider]

I've got Khamsin and Khamsin CX wheelsets - bombproof, lighter than many much more expensive wheelsets and survive my 14st without issues.

[RogerThat]

The Khamsin are fine budget wheels, but very heavy. Their claimed weight is always about 100gr too ambitious! Usually about 1900 gr.

The trouble with nearly all these factory built wheels is that if you break a spoke they'll not sell you individual priced spokes to replace, generally in packs of three (or ten, and different sizes for drive/off side) so a broken spoke could end up costing you £15-30 depending on the manufacturer.

I prefer 75 pence for a Sapim Laser, and my wheel builder will more often than not replace them for free and give you a free tune up and hub grease into the bargain! Try asking for that down at Evans

[RogerThat]

Apparently the Khamsin is down to 1675gr for 2014/15 but you still add a 100gr onto that for enthusiasm!

http://road.cc/content/news/90797-campa ... heels-2014

[pwa]

If I lived near Paul Hewitt's place I would just go round and have a chat. I think I would come out knowing more about wheels than when I went in, and I would get what suited me. I recently got Open Pros on Ultegra (36r/32f) from Hewitt for £300, and they arrived within a week. They also sell factory wheels.

[nathb]

Cheers for all the feedback guys, really appreciate it.

I'm not very good at making decisions on biking kit

I've found some fulcrum racing 5's for £144 delivered, which have caught my eye to be honest...

[nathb]

I hope you all don't think I've wasted your time here...

I've decided to half my budget and put the extra £150 towards next years new bike.. I can't justify putting £300 wheels on a £400 bike


I'm currently split between:

Fulcrum Racing 5:


CAMPAGNOLO VENTO ASYMMETRIC G3


I know they're a pain for spares but they both look really good.. and for £145 delivered I can't go wrong..

Any advice on which to go for, if there is any difference (bar a few g's) would be much appreciated!

I'm leaning towards the 2015 fulcrums as they're wider for 25c tyres - which would mean that they'd be more comfortable on my longer cycles?

[fastpedaller]

I hope you all don't think I've wasted your time here...

I've decided to half my budget and put the extra £150 towards next years new bike.. I can't justify putting £300 wheels on a £400 bike


I'm currently split between:

Fulcrum Racing 5:


CAMPAGNOLO VENTO ASYMMETRIC G3


I know they're a pain for spares but they both look really good.. and for £145 delivered I can't go wrong..

Until you have a broken spoke?

[Dave W]

I've recently bought the Zondas to replace the Shimano RS010's on my Cannondale. I don't know much about wheels but looked at the same range as the op and read all the reviews I could find. Pleased with them, first 'quality' wheels I've ever owned. Probably make very little difference to top speed but they feel a lot better.

[Des49]

Well the only experience I have of similar wheels are the Mavic Aksiums that came with a racing bike I got for one of my daughters.
They are ok, relatively light and smooth bearings. But the rear rim is already very worn after a year, but then these sorts of wheels are not built to last.

Also with so few spokes beware of damage. After one minor pothole incident the front was very badly out of true. But with so few spokes what do you expect?

I reckon with an adult these would be trash already. It all depends on your intended usage, how heavy and strong you are.

[Tonyf33]

I hope you all don't think I've wasted your time here...

I've decided to half my budget and put the extra £150 towards next years new bike.. I can't justify putting £300 wheels on a £400 bike

Your primary aim was to reduce the weight of your wheels and have some wheels that would look good and work well for a carbon framed bike?
But now you're saying that you want to save £150 of your budget for the bike on the basis that the wheels would be too expensive for a £400 bike You were considering carbon wheels in your opening post!
personally I think you're making a mistake. Wheels are one of the big differences to how your ride will be and whilst the cheaper end of the market factory wheels are fine and indeed can perform quite well are you really going to be happy with a used lower end wheelset on your new carbon bike(frame?) next year?

Why buy the wheels for it now and use them on your present steed when they are destined to be what I would presume is going to be your best bike?
Why not continue using the wheels you have on the bike you have and wait until next year so that everything is new together, you'll be able to see exactly how much you can spend rather than having to compromise which is what you seem to be doing.
I think IF you buy either of those wheels putting them onto a carbon frame you could end up being dissapointed or just wanting something better and be left wanting to buy another set. Measure twice cut once and all that.

[nathb]

Ah ha!
I've missed out a vital piece of information in the sudden change of heart...

So I have decided to keep my cheaper road bike, and sell one of my MTB’s (using the trusted S-1 formulae), this should be picked up this weekend. This means that I can buy, next year, a shiny new road bike with a decent set of wheels and sell the ones it comes with. That is unless I decide to build one from scratch, which is also highly possible given some really impressive deals on framesets and group sets. The old bike will be used for winter, rainy days and commuting once I’ve found a decent route into work (bike can be stored indoors and we’ve got shower facilities).

I also had in my head that I want to get the bike down to just under 9kg. Through changing the tyres and chainset I’ve got the weight down to 9.83kg, so without spending more than it’s worth I don’t think the 9kg target is achievable.

So this leaves me with wanting to replace my current wheels, which I don’t like for reasons I cannot explain. I’ve set myself an artificial budget of £185 (half the bikes original cost) and came across the Vento and Racing 5’s for a very reasonable £140. After the wheels, grip tape (white it came with is very dirty already) and quick releases I shall leave the bike alone and enjoy it (I hope).

[Brucey]

The old bike will be used for winter, rainy days and commuting ....

So this leaves me with wanting to replace my current wheels, which I don’t like for reasons I cannot explain...

so really... you are saying that the wheels that you are going to buy are going to be replaced with others that you will end up using as training/foul weather/ commuting wheels. I'd argue that

a) your present wheels are ideally suited to that task and
b) when you get another bike that will come with another set of wheels (that you will presumably take exception to for some reason and) you will want to replace them.

Having spare wheels is a good idea but soon you will have a spare bike from the sound of it and probably another set of wheels shortly after that...

I quite like 'conventional' (eg 32 spoke) wheels with cup and cone hubs for 'doing the dirty work' because the hubs can be serviced easily and when the rims wear out they can be replaced (with ones of similar ERD). If you break a spoke you can normally continue your ride/commute. With many 'factory wheels' none of these things apply.

You (and lots of other people) presumably assume that the hubs and rims are cheap and nasty things but I think this belies how good they really are; they are stronger, lighter, and more aerodynamic than comparable wheels used to be by some margin. If adjusted and maintained correctly the hubs will last tens of thousands of miles, and if stress-relieved the wheels will not break many (or probably any) spokes even after significant mileage. Eventually the rims will wear out and then I'd be inclined to replace them. I would expect you to be able to source suitable rims for less then £20 a go and learning to build wheels is a fantastic skill to acquire that will serve you well in times to come.

Additionally in times past when I've had a 'training bike' and a 'best bike' that are similar weight to one another, I've found the race bike something of a disappointment. By contrast if the training bike is somewhat heavier, getting on the race bike is like suddenly having wings... I might be by myself on this one but I will happily put up with a rather heavy and slow winter bike if it means that the race bike feels that good come springtime...

cheers

[mig]

i'd agree with the above. riding a heavy winter/training/commuter bike serves its own purpose well and does indeed give that well earned bonus of going back to a lighter one in the spring. it's one of the best days of the year in my cycling diary. roll on spring indeed.