Wheels on a budget

enoonan

Lo all,
What wheels would people recommend for someone on a budget of about €300?
I have a Specialized Allez with Alex 500 rims that came with it. Other than the rear wheel going out of true once on me they have been grand.
I wont be doing any racing just some long spins and some of the tours hopefully.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Eoin

TinyExplosions

Fulcrum Racing 5 -225 quid.

gman2k

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/mavic-aksium-black-clincher-road-bike-wheelset/
Have a look around other sites for price comparisons though.

cantalach

If you can stretch to €350 or so, the Pro-Lite Bracciano wheels come out very well in the reviews, with a performance matching better known brands costing up to twice as much.

Here's an extract from the Cycling Plus review:

http://www.pro-lite.net/images/stories/Clipping_PDF/wheel%20review_bright_1680.pdf

nomadic

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Fulcrum Racing 5 -225 quid.

a fair bit cheaper here http://www.jedi-sports.de/product_info.php/info/p2315_Fulcrum-Racing-5-2011.html

You can get the racing 3's for a smidge over your budget

Hail 2 Da Thief

cantalach wrote: »

If you can stretch to €350 or so, the Pro-Lite Bracciano wheels come out very well in the reviews, with a performance matching better known brands costing up to twice as much.

I just bought a set of Bracciano's from this company for £235 + £16 delivery. Deliverd only 2 days after I placed the order.

gman2k

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

I just bought a set of Bracciano's from this company for £235 + £16 delivery. Deliverd only 2 days after I placed the order.

Great seller highonbikes - I use their ebay.co.uk shop a lot, and they are always spot on.

Hail 2 Da Thief

gman2k wrote: »

Great seller highonbikes - I use their ebay.co.uk shop a lot, and they are always spot on.

Yeah it was actually their ebay shop that I bought them from.
It seems to be more up to date on current stock than their website.

fat bloke

Great links there guys. Never came across jedi sports or that high on bikes crowd before. Some smashing deals there on cracking wheelsets.

I was going to say to the OP to keep an eye out second hand. Some great deals to be had. Worth chancing your arm with fellas selling bikes with good wheels on them. It's hard to sell a complete bike because it's size dependant, but if the seller is willing to sell wheels separately then you get a deal and the seller gets to release at least some of the cash tied up in his bike. I got a great deal on a mint set of Zipps, and my buddy just did the same a few weeks ago. Minter 808's, including cassette, with new tubes and tires on. Of course there's a little bit more risk buying second hand, but even if you buy a pig in a poke, top end wheels can be serviced. I bought my wife a pair of 303's second hand, must be 5 years ago now. Still has them, they're still perfect, and they only see special sunny day event/race use.

Dubba

May as well mention the Planet X Model B's @ €180 shipped:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPPXMODELB/planet-x-model-b-wheelset

Bit lighter that the Fulcrum Racing 5 and are strong enough for the heavy cyclist from my experience.
You could then put the savings towards a nice bike computer, e.g. edge 500

enoonan

Thanks lads for all the info. Its very much appreciated.

I was talking to some of the lads in the club I'm with last night and they suggested going down the 2nd hand route also. Said to talk to the lads in Siopa Rothar in Limerick.
Also one of the lads suggested Kinetic One wheels, http://www.kinetic-one.co.uk/. Anyone have any dealings with them?

The links for Highonbikes and Jedi Sports are great. Never came across them before.

Thanks again lads for all the info.

Eoin

Side Show Bob

enoonan wrote: »

Lo all,
What wheels would people recommend for someone on a budget of about €300?
I have a Specialized Allez with Alex 500 rims that came with it. Other than the rear wheel going out of true once on me they have been grand.
I wont be doing any racing just some long spins and some of the tours hopefully.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Eoin

These wheels are nice http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056220879

nomadic

enoonan wrote: »

Also one of the lads suggested Kinetic One wheels, http://www.kinetic-one.co.uk/. Anyone have any dealings with them?

I was looking at them when I was looking for some cheap wheels recently. The're really heavy which put me off big time.

Some of the Soul wheels seem nice and I think a few on here have them.
http://www.bikesoul.com/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=36

I was looking to spend around what your spending recently and went for the Fulcrum Racing 3's off Jedi. I'm happy with them apart from trying to source some spokes(which seems to be impossible hence the cheap wheels).

fat bloke

nomadic wrote: »

I was looking to spend around what your spending recently and went for the Fulcrum Racing 3's off Jedi. I'm happy with them apart from trying to source some spokes(which seems to be impossible hence the cheap wheels).

Might be a good reason to buy local - I bought racing 3's in cyclesuperstore, and I did have ongoing problems with the front wheel - on a couple of occasions I broke a spoke out on a spin, and within a km or so the wheel was practically un-usable. I suppose the fewer the spokes, the more critical each individual spoke is, so if you lose one the wheels buckles very quickly.

Anyway, the eventual outcome, after a couple of goes at fixing it, was that cyclesuperstore sent it back and got me a new one under warranty. Dunno how that would have worked with an overseas online retailer...

barrabus

steve flynn will build you a pair open of pro rims on ultegra hubs for around 280 afaik - not glamorous or in receipt of a big marketing budget, but stiff strong and consequently pretty fast.

I think niceonetom won a few races on wheels like I am describing last year.

Lumen

barrabus wrote: »

steve flynn will build you a pair open of pro rims on ultegra hubs for around 280 afaik - not glamorous or in receipt of a big marketing budget, but stiff strong and consequently pretty fast.

Got any contact details? Is he in a shop or solo?

I've bought Open Pros builds from Parker International that have stood up very well.

nomadic

fat bloke wrote: »

Might be a good reason to buy local - I bought racing 3's in cyclesuperstore, and I did have ongoing problems with the front wheel - on a couple of occasions I broke a spoke out on a spin, and within a km or so the wheel was practically un-usable. I suppose the fewer the spokes, the more critical each individual spoke is, so if you lose one the wheels buckles very quickly.

Anyway, the eventual outcome, after a couple of goes at fixing it, was that cyclesuperstore sent it back and got me a new one under warranty. Dunno how that would have worked with an overseas online retailer...

True, but for the money I saved I've bought a cheap pair of wheels (http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-track-bike/Pro-Lite-WHEELS-FACTORY-ROAD-TRI-Pro-Lite-Merano-Clincher-Wheels-Pair/PROLWHFR265) to tide me over until I can track some spokes down.

fat bloke

barrabus wrote: »

steve flynn will build you a pair open of pro rims on ultegra hubs for around 280 afaik - not glamorous or in receipt of a big marketing budget, but stiff strong and consequently pretty fast.

I got a set of these from Joe Daly's for around 200.

He had a dura-ace hubbed set for 230 ish, but my winter bike 9 speed cassette wouldn't fit.

enoonan

Thanks again for all the info lads.

Any contact info for Joe Daly or Steve Flynn?
I'm guessing these lads are in Dublin but I'm sure they'd ship to Limerick??
No sure if there is anyone building wheels in Limerick either.

Eoin

el tel

I bought a pair of Easton EA50SLs last year for £220. They are a great and light enough wheel in my experience. Can be difficult in getting new tyres off the rims but worth any hassle.

fat bloke

Joe Daly's is 01 2981485. They're as old school as it gets though. Don't have a web site, and doubt it if they'd do any kind of mail order!

petethedrummer

I had the same or similar wheels but they couldn't hold up to the rigours of my commute. Continuous spoke breaking then an unfixable kink in the rim led me to change them. If yours are doing the job why not continue to use them?

barrabus

Lumen wrote: »

Got any contact details? Is he in a shop or solo?

PM sent to you and enoonan.

xz

nomadic wrote: »

a fair bit cheaper here http://www.jedi-sports.de/product_info.php/info/p2315_Fulcrum-Racing-5-2011.html

You can get the racing 3's for a smidge over your budget

I got my 5's from them, shipping is only 7 or 8 euro as far as I remember, ordered them around the same time as CSS had deal on the Aksiums, they ship through DHL and have track and trace, received mine within 4 days

smush76

petethedrummer wrote: »

If yours are doing the job why not continue to use them?

I agree unless you feel the urgent need to upgrade you could always wait a little and perhaps increase your budget slightly and get something of better quality/lighter or just a bit more bling. The custom route could indeed be the way to go if the build quality is good. Plenty of wheeelbuilders in the uk that will deliver to Ireland such as pete mathews or harry rowland http://www.harryrowland.co.uk/7352.html who have great reputations also there is a new crowd up north that might be worth getting in touch with to see what they can offer at your price range. heres a link...
http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Von2-Custom-Bicycle-Components/185460781485839#!/pages/Von2-Custom-Bicycle-Components/185460781485839?sk=info

enoonan

thanks again for all the info lads.

Very much appreciated.

Eoin

Plastik

el tel wrote: »

I bought a pair of Easton EA50SLs last year for £220. They are a great and light enough wheel in my experience. Can be difficult in getting new tyres off the rims but worth any hassle.

Jesus, thank god I'm not alone in thinking that they're a tough wheel to get tyres on and off.