Author Topic: What are the best budget road wheels? (Read 13099 times)

Goldcrank · « **on:** 07 April, 2011, 10:08:48 am »

I thought that I should ask our racing fraternity as I would go fo a pair of openpros. My friend has £500 pounds burning a hole in his pocket and needs some wheels. Any ideas? Thanks A

Chris N · « **Reply #1 on:** 07 April, 2011, 10:17:30 am »

Quote from: GrahamG on 31 March, 2011, 11:13:35 am

Pimp road-race wheels - Pianni sprint rims on Royce hubs, 20h built by Pete Matthews, literally just been test ridden and nothing more - totally mint. Shimano freehub, bladed spokes front, DB rear. 1400g the pair. £200. (Hubs alone would cost nearly £300 to buy.)

Tufo Elite Ride tubular tyres, new and unused, 23mm, 250g. £45 each from planet-x. £65 the pair. Will chuck in tub tape for them.

These sound nice.

YahudaMoon · « **Reply #2 on:** 07 April, 2011, 10:18:07 am »

Open Pro's are excelllant. Why not get em laced up with some top Phil Wood Hubs or somthing as nice. You won't get much change out of £500 anyway with some nice hubs laced in.

YahudaMoon · « **Reply #3 on:** 07 April, 2011, 10:21:52 am »

+ 1 I also have some Pete Matthew Wheels. Bet ya can't make em go buckled.

My wheel set of Pete are as good as the day I got em and they were his cheap range ones.

tiermat · « **Reply #4 on:** 07 April, 2011, 10:23:01 am »

For that sort of money he could get Dura-Ace 7850SL's or Fulcrum racing 3's depending on wether he is using Campag or Shimano.

YahudaMoon · « **Reply #5 on:** 07 April, 2011, 10:25:38 am »

PAH ! FULCRUM ! factory built wheels. each to there own I suppose

clarion · « **Reply #6 on:** 07 April, 2011, 11:00:47 am »

£500 is more than I spent on my last new bike!

If I had that budget for wheels (and I haven't), I would certainly approach one of the renowned builders, such as Pete Matthews, or Harry (?) Rowlands, tell them what I wanted, and take their advice on a nice handbuilt set.

David Martin · « **Reply #7 on:** 07 April, 2011, 01:14:37 pm »

The concept here is 'race wheels'. These have to stand up to a small amount of hard abuse, carrying modest loads and being suitably lightweight/bling to give that all important 'fast wheels' psychological boost. Durability is not a key point as you can get a replacement from the service car.

You lose points for every spoke more than the technical regs minimum. You lose points for anything that is component built (rather than integrated bling). You lose points for grams.

Race wheels get ridden for races. Period. Training wheels (no, not stabilisers) are a different kettle of fish.

Most of the wheels described sound like very nice Audax/sportif/training wheels.

..d

Goldcrank · « **Reply #8 on:** 07 April, 2011, 01:37:04 pm »

I think that David has hit the nail on the head. He wants race bling. As I said I would have gone for the OP and hand built option but that ain't the bike he's got.

vorsprung · « **Reply #9 on:** 07 April, 2011, 02:09:22 pm »

Open Pros do have a rep of cracking round the eyelets
I like 'em though, got them on my best bike
For £500 you can get low end carbon wheels..see here Choosing Wheels and Tyres for Sportives

Tewdric · « **Reply #10 on:** 07 April, 2011, 02:23:41 pm »

Ksyrium Elite for factory wheels at that price, or else Tune or groupset hubs on DT Swiss RR1.1 double eyelet rims.

Rhys W · « **Reply #11 on:** 07 April, 2011, 05:03:26 pm »

Quote from: David Martin on 07 April, 2011, 01:14:37 pm

Race wheels get ridden for races. Period.

Hmmm... you should see our club's "slow group". Dura Ace wheels and deep section carbon rims. In February. They're essential for that 20 mile ride to the cafe. The amount of people I've seen who broke a spoke and had to get a train home (or have somebody drive out to pick them up) in the last couple of years...

Goldcrank · « **Reply #12 on:** 07 April, 2011, 05:12:15 pm »

Yes I fear he may well be in the broken spoke group. But it's what he wants...

YahudaMoon · « **Reply #13 on:** 07 April, 2011, 05:26:30 pm »

Yeah but Pete Matthews is known as the wheel meister and has built wheels for some of the best pro teams in the world over the years.

Story is he had so many wheels to build at one point for a pro team he used a old folks home just ta lace em so he could finish the job in time. And Pete finished em of in the truing stand.

How cool is that ! There's loads of top wheel builders out there that can do pro race wheels. Get something unique thats had some love put in to em other than some boring factory off the peg rubbish. (rubbish being the wrong word) but ya know what I mean.

YahudaMoon · « **Reply #14 on:** 07 April, 2011, 05:28:30 pm »

And he'll drop em off personally for you if he can.

Am I spamming know ?

Snakehips · « **Reply #15 on:** 07 April, 2011, 05:39:32 pm »

Quote from: YahudaMoon on 07 April, 2011, 05:26:30 pm

Story is he had so many wheels to build at one point for a pro team he used a old folks home just ta lace em so he could finish the job in time.

I hope that's true. It's what I could be doing now I've got a bit of spare time on my hands.

Snake

Greenbank · « **Reply #16 on:** 07 April, 2011, 08:23:38 pm »

Quote from: Rhys W on 07 April, 2011, 05:03:26 pm

Quote from: David Martin on 07 April, 2011, 01:14:37 pm
Race wheels get ridden for races. Period.

Hmmm... you should see our club's "slow group". Dura Ace wheels and deep section carbon rims.

Brazier's Run 100km Audax from Ugley/Henham in February gets a few entries from people for whom money is obviously no limiting factor.

I saw at least two £2k 'lightweight' wheelsets at the start. Bonkers, unless you've got pots of cash to piss away.

amaferanga · « **Reply #17 on:** 08 April, 2011, 09:53:51 am »

Fuerte Bici or one of the eBay carbon wheelsets would be my choice for bling race wheels.

Or he could buy a set of the eBay carbon rims (e.g. these for £165) then build them up with some nice hubs and Sapim CX-rays.

Open Pros

Ray 6701 · « **Reply #18 on:** 08 April, 2011, 04:27:48 pm »

My Ksyrium ssc sl's have seen loads of miles on some horrendous roads & are plenty strong enough for multi day audax rides where you are carrying a fair old weight of kit in a carradice, no broken spokes & have never even needed truing. Rear rim needs replacing now but they must have done about 15000 miles

I'd either get Ksyrium Sl's

Mavic Ksyrium SL Wheels Red - Pair - Merlin Cycles

or dura ace

Dura Ace 7850 SL Wheels - Pair - Merlin Cycles

Goldcrank · « **Reply #19 on:** 16 April, 2011, 09:19:47 am »

Quote from: amaferanga on 08 April, 2011, 09:53:51 am

Open Pros

okay, I'll bite. Why do you roll your eyes at OPs?

pumpkin · « **Reply #20 on:** 16 April, 2011, 09:35:25 pm »

OPs are good but there seems to be have been a lot of circumstantial evidence the quality is slipping. Hope wheels look good but a reputable builder or shop shoulld be able to advise. Factory wheels are fine imo. I have a couple of sets of Campag.Neutron/Ultras and I've never had issues. Ksyriums are pretty reliable. As for carbon wheels, I just watch the owners of these trying to get uphills quicker than I can on normal wheels and as for descending in the wet I ensure I am nowhere near them. Nice bits of kit to have and if you can afford them or get given them fanastic (I know a couple of people who have been given Zipps,Bontrager and now Lightweight), but those wheels aren't a cure-all.

Jack Osbourne snr · « **Reply #21 on:** 24 April, 2011, 08:09:37 pm »

Currently loving my Pro-Lite Braccianos. Under £250, under 1500g and super smooth. The difference over the Campag ventos they replaced is astonishing.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #22 on:** 24 April, 2011, 08:15:24 pm »

Harry Rowlands is supposed to be the best. Open Pros are the "standard" for racing rims but I don't like them; not laterally stiff enough and not very round either, especially at the joint. Try DT or, if they're too expensive, Rigida rims. Even my bottom-rung Rigida Nova rims (a tenner each from fleaBay) built up well and took decent spoke tension without pringling.

In terms of spokes, DT Competition are all you need but if someone else is building them, I'd be tempted by DT Revolution.

Author Topic: What are the best budget road wheels? (Read 13099 times)

Chris N

amaferanga