New Wheels

Wheels Schmeels.......

reckon if you arnt fazed by the coffee shop cred aspirations of most factory lookalike road bike riders and their "pretty" expensive but overall cruddy wheels, INMO stick with the classics and aim to build a quiver of reliable wheels for your needs....( good builders Hamptons Cycles, even THC at Highett-bit exxy but delivers on time and uses good bits, just tweaks the price for every red cent.....)

my , IMHO, my eclectic list and currently all used:

road racing - Mavic Mach 2 CD2's on record hubs and flat tied and soldered spokes, with singles......ageless, fast and bullet proof- if you beat these mothers on performance not value you have a set of Boras and a sponsor.
track training/club racing: see above with Campy Record or Dura Ace (newones only-old style DA's are crappy) hubs and 32H on Vitt singles.
road training - ambrosio excellence, most campag hubs or new dura ace, no other shimano hubs worthy of these fine felines.
all round tuff mothers: FIR Zeniths, at least 32 s or 36s on record hubs. double butted and rugged, pro's pick on the cobbles ( ask McGorry )
value for money factory : (only Campy for factory wheels..best all round for toughness, profile and savings G3-Vento 24/27s...very basic light but tough SOBs and low wind resitance to boot...perfect into a head wind or cross wind on beach road for those long slow rides we need for proper conditioning...huge savings on Scirrocos & Euros for just a few grams and not a lot in roll resistance.
at a pinch: most Velocity's- solid well built and rugged - early ones had Bullett hubs, latest have US generic hubs by Formula with smoooth sealed cartridge bearings, ( and on their track wheels real high-flanges with cut-outs and real track nuts....good value and tuffffff.)
and dont forget: ( Idont ride these but I would if I had a set) Mavic's CXP33s....much the same as the FIRs and (dare I say it!) the Ambrosio Excellence's but without the pretty name....good all round rollers.

IMHO, all Zipps even the 404's over-rated, Ksyriums emminently forgettable, anything asymmetric looking for trouble.......

I'll now duck the swinging arms

enjoy life, ride, drink goat

🙂

Factory built wheels , i would go the Velocity way , & as they are a
'smaller' company they won't keep you hanging if you pop a spoke under
warranty....another 'bigger' multinational company is tighter than the
proverbial & won't even ship a spoke for a warranty for us to fit in a day
or so , you must send the wheel back to assess it & a month later you might
get it back.
I notice Bikecorp is bringing in Neuvation wheels this month , their US site
mentions the wheelsets are shipped with spare spokes.
Steve

SteveA said:

I've heard sketchy reports on the American Classic hubs.
My DT hubs have been schweet.

I wore out the rear bearings. These can be swapped but I don't reckon they're much chop. I wouldn't bother with AC rear hub for heavy riders.

The front AC hub, on the other hand, was still going strong. It rocked!

hippy

Thanks guys,

I'll head down to the shop today and have a talk to them, see what we can
come up with ..

Ash

Till! said:

If you're damaging rims running over cats eyes, you just cant have
anywhere near enough pressure in them, or something else weird.

Yeah, it's weird. These were Aerohead offset rims, dented on the right
side where the wall is near vertical. I am 85kg and pump my 23mm tires
to 120 psi before every ride. A direct hit isn't a problem - have hit
plenty of potholes. Both times, the side of the tire glanced off the
cat-eye, so that the rim took a hit. One of the wheels is still riding.
The other one, the rim got a tiny crack. So I'll just play it safe with
conventional rims from now, where the rim hides a bit behind the tire.

(I would have kept riding the cracked rim until it opened up. Over the
phone, my LBS persuaded me to rebuild it. When I got down there, they'd
snipped all my near-new DT Rev spokes that I'd planned to re-use.)

Donga

hippy said:

I wore out the rear bearings. These can be swapped but I don't reckon they're much chop. I wouldn't bother with AC rear hub for heavy riders.

The front AC hub, on the other hand, was still going strong. It rocked!

hippy

I've had no problems with my rear AC hub, had to replace bearings on the front though after water got in, done over 10,000km on a set of CR420 wheels without any truing (though I did replace a rim after a crash). Not bad for a $700 deep dish 1450g wheelset. Maybe a little bit flexy, but never to the point of rubbing on the pads. The front hub spins very well but I think the bearings aren't big enough for that sort of load. Very light front hubs get that way from using small bodies and small bearings.

Adam

Donga said:

Yeah, it's weird. These were Aerohead offset rims, dented on the right
side where the wall is near vertical.

When I got down there, they'd
snipped all my near-new DT Rev spokes that I'd planned to re-use.)

Puzzling, because the widest point of these rims is still the machined sidewalls. Ive had OCR rims for years previously to riding road, but it doesnt really count on MTBs =)

adam85 said:

I've had no problems with my rear AC hub, had to replace bearings on the front though after water got in, done over 10,000km on a set of CR420 wheels without any truing (though I did replace a rim after a crash). Not bad for a $700 deep dish 1450g wheelset.

My weight-weenie wheelset is velocity fusion 18h radial front + 24h 2x/radial rear on white industries hubs with a mix of wheelsmith spokes. No pad rub on these and I dont have to pay silly money for replacement spokes like crysirum owners!

till

quote='Donga'Till! said:

If you're damaging rims running over cats eyes, you just cant have
anywhere near enough pressure in them, or something else weird.

Yeah, it's weird. These were Aerohead offset rims, dented on the right
side where the wall is near vertical. I am 85kg and pump my 23mm tires
to 120 psi before every ride. A direct hit isn't a problem - have hit
plenty of potholes. Both times, the side of the tire glanced off the
cat-eye, so that the rim took a hit. One of the wheels is still riding.
The other one, the rim got a tiny crack. So I'll just play it safe with
conventional rims from now, where the rim hides a bit behind the tire.

(I would have kept riding the cracked rim until it opened up. Over the
phone, my LBS persuaded me to rebuild it. When I got down there, they'd
snipped all my near-new DT Rev spokes that I'd planned to re-use.)

Donga[/QUOTE]
I run a Ritchey OCR rear rim on my good roadie. I'm over 100kg and I've had no problems. It was handbuilt and it is attached to the hub by 32 spokes so that may influence how well it survives.

SteveA

Thought I would gloat!!! I am building up a set of wheels at the moment. White Industries titanium LTA hubs (through shifterbikes.com), mavic open pro 32h, allow nipples, DT revolution spokes on front wheel and rear non-drive, and DT Competition spokes on rear drive side. Should come up a treat, going to be used for racing road. Mmmm....now to start thinking tyres....🙄