Which carbon wheels?

yoda81269

I am contemplating buying some carbon wheels for training and racing this year (budget €1000-€1300), my initial short list is below, has anybody got any experience with any of the list below or would you recommend something else?

1) Dura Ace 50mm (1700g) @ €1088

2) Reynolds Strike 66mm (1700g) @ €1076

3) SRAM S60 60mm (1850g) @ €1148

4) Reynolds Assault 46mm (1525g) @ €1034

5) Fast Forward F6R 58mm (1850g) @ €1228

6) FSA RD-488 50mm (1550g) @ €1089

Costs above are CRC so they may be cheaper elsewhere, please let me know if thats the case

Lumen

Clinchers or tubs?

I'd add...

7) Soul C5.0 carbon clinchers, 50mm, 1398g (with some caveats: that's what mine weight, weight may vary a little depending on build spec, and I don't know whether the current product is the same as what I got last year).

yoda81269

Thanks Lumen, I'll check your recommendation out, clinchers

Lumen

FWIW, if I didn't have the Souls I'd have the Reynolds. Reasonable combination of weight, price and reputation.

The main thing that put me off the Reynolds was spares availability, but that may be an issue with others too. I wanted wheels that were easily rebuildable.

I've read really bad things about FSA wheels.

niceonetom

The second decision is probably about braking surface. Alu or carbon?

A full carbon wheel is lighter but some people don't like the braking, or think the rim might be more delicate (particularly if you puncture), and then there's the faffing with changing to carbon-specific brake pads if you are swapping back and forth between other wheels for training and racing...

yoda81269

Good point, I hadn't thought of the issue of swapping brake pads, I guess alu then but that reduces my list and knocks off my current favourite !

briano

yoda81269 wrote: »

3) SRAM S60 60mm (1850g) @ €1148

Not sure if it makes any difference to your plans, but these are on sale in the online-bike-shop-that-may-not-be-named for €370 front and €444 rear.


Actually, scrub that, they are out of stock

fat bloke

I was in the same boat as you but eventually picked up a second hand set of zipps.

If I hadn't then, I would have bought the dura ace C50's. Glowing reviews on the web, and I rode the dura ace 7850 carbon laminates all last year and loved them, and I believe they're the same hubs.

Pop down to cyclesuperstore, they have a decent selection in stock, so at least you'll be able to see them in the flesh, so to speak. They definitely have the dura ace's and I think FFWD as well.

-BTW, there was a nice set of bontrager carbon clinchers recently on donedeal as well, might be worth a look.

bcmf

There is a guy selling a set of Bora Ultra's Two here for £1100 - much to the dismay of his friends it seems

Nmac_2011

Fudges cycles have the SRAM S60 wheelset for £849.99 plus £30.00 delivery to IE. I have the S80's & they are a good wheelset.

browneire

i had quasars for a year or two. Silly(ly) passed them on for mavics. Found them very good, pretty cheap too... http://www.vdbc.nl/quasarwheels/products/road_carbon_wheels/

Lumen

browneire wrote: »

i had quasars for a year or two. Silly(ly) passed them on for mavics. Found them very good, pretty cheap too... http://www.vdbc.nl/quasarwheels/products/road_carbon_wheels/

Ooh, these look nice. I like the brass nipples, shows attention to reliability over gram-shaving.

pprendeville

Lumen wrote: »

Clinchers or tubs?

I'd add...

7) Soul C5.0 carbon clinchers, 50mm, 1398g (with some caveats: that's what mine weight, weight may vary a little depending on build spec, and I don't know whether the current product is the same as what I got last year).

Excuse my ignorance but what's a tub - is it short for tubular and is the deep carbon wheels. Are they attahced to the bike differently than clinchers. Again, excuse my ignorance but aren't clinchers wheels that are quick releasing and tighten by action of a cam lever?

Lumen

pprendeville wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but what's a tub - is it short for tubular and is the deep carbon wheels. Are they attahced to the bike differently than clinchers. Again, excuse my ignorance but aren't clinchers wheels that are quick releasing and tighten by action of a cam lever?

Yes, tub = tubular. The difference is how the tyre attaches the the rim, and how the rim is shaped.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tyres.html#tubular

Lemag

pprendeville wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but what's a tub - is it short for tubular and is the deep carbon wheels. Are they attahced to the bike differently than clinchers. Again, excuse my ignorance but aren't clinchers wheels that are quick releasing and tighten by action of a cam lever?

'Clincher' refers to the wheel clinching the tyre. Tubs are glued on.

pprendeville

so if you get a puncture you're in a spot of bother unless you've got the wife in the car following you?

Lumen

pprendeville wrote: »

so if you get a puncture you're in a spot of bother unless you've got the wife in the car following you?

Or team car.

There are various approaches involving gunk used by people who race unsupported (e.g. triathletes).

Training on tubs would be unusual.

mloc123

Lumen wrote: »

Or team car.

There are various approaches involving gunk used by people who race unsupported (e.g. triathletes).

Training on tubs would be unusual.

I trained on tubs a little last year, just to get used to my race wheels. Every ride was a mix of fear and avoiding anything on the road. My plan was to phone the OH to collect me if it went wrong.. this plan would have been a suprise to her of course if it happened.

That said, tubs are quicker to swap out than a clincher in a race I have heard. Only problem being you can't corner on the fresh tub.. unless taped.

Quigs Snr

I have heard that tubs are easier to swap out that a clincher also. I am firmly of the opinion that this is bullsh*t of the highest order. Try to pull a correctly glued tub off a rim in a hurry and let me know how you get on.

Even if you do get it changed, you have to tiptoe around the place until you can get it glued or taped. Plus you have to carry a pretty bulky and unwieldy tub around in the first place. I can change a tube in a clincher in 3 minutes taking it easy on a Sunday morning spin. I fail to see how a tub would be signficantly quicker.. and when you have to take into consideration the aforementioned hassle of carrying a bulky tub around, plus the fact that you now have to crawl around the corners, well then how much time do you really save overall, even if you can swap it out quickly ?

For me, tubs are for TT's or races with support cars.

browneire

@lumen - yes they were very nice and took fair beating, I did the offroad section of Gaelforce with them the first week I got them. Unfortunately passed them on in a dowry deal! The dutch guys were a little tough to deal with for anything out of the ordinary but straight sale, they're fine.

pprendeville

mloc123 wrote: »

I trained on tubs a little last year, just to get used to my race wheels. Every ride was a mix of fear and avoiding anything on the road. My plan was to phone the OH to collect me if it went wrong.. this plan would have been a suprise to her of course if it happened.

That said, tubs are quicker to swap out than a clincher in a race I have heard. Only problem being you can't corner on the fresh tub.. unless taped.

love that plan. Surprises keep the relationship fresh.says you.

dermur

Quigs Snr wrote: »

I have heard that tubs are easier to swap out that a clincher also. I am firmly of the opinion that this is bullsh*t of the highest order. Try to pull a correctly glued tub off a rim in a hurry and let me know how you get on.

I would have to agree with Quigs Snr - A properly glued on tub doesn't come off without a fight. I still have the emotional and physical scars from the few I've had to change...

Then there's the problem of spares - who's going to carry around two spare tubulars? If it hasn't been stretched beforehand it can be right b0110x to put on too! Never mind pre-gluing.

Sealant is good for small punctures - I got one tubular inner repaired recently and it had 7 puntures, six were being held in check by sealant but the last one was just too big. The problem with sealant is that if it's not evenly distributed around the tyre then it can cause some a fair bit of shake at high speed.

You don't get any of this grief with clinchers.

Fazz

Spinergy Stealth PBO's.

May not be the lightest but medium weight and good strength.
Recommended to me by experienced racers for Irish roads.
€995

Worldwide cycles sell them.

anoble66

anyone tried these:-

http://zerocx.com/carbon/zerodrag

CheGuedara

anoble66 wrote: »

anyone tried these:-

http://zerocx.com/carbon/zerodrag

Look similar to Williams Cycling Systems wheels but I've not heard of them before. At least the williams wheels are well reviewed.