Custom wheels or off the shelf max 400 budget

Konkers

Folks, have read a couple of threads on wheels.

Descending from kippure (first time up there....where the phone mast is) busted a spoke (at the rim end) and the rear wheel of my fulcrum racing 5's (after only 5/6k kms) is buckled. Aparently, cos of where the spoke broke, the risk is that others will go eventually.
Is this true?
don't race and use my one and only bike for everything (commuting, training and sportives). This is the second set of wheels I have had on this bike. I'm looking for something that is durable, handles well in all conditions and is good value for money.

So should I go hand built and if so what spec, or is there a set of wheels on the market that would serve me better Than the racing 5's.

400 euro budget.

barrabus

Konkers wrote: »

Folks, have read a couple of threads on wheels.

Descending from kippure (first time up there....where the phone mast is) busted a spoke (at the rim end) and the rear wheel of my fulcrum racing 5's (after only 5/6k kms) is buckled. Aparently, cos of where the spoke broke, the risk is that others will go eventually.
Is this true?
don't race and use my one and only bike for everything (commuting, training and sportives). This is the second set of wheels I have had on this bike. I'm looking for something that is durable, handles well in all conditions and is good value for money.

So should I go hand built and if so what spec, or is there a set of wheels on the market that would serve me better Than the racing 5's.

400 euro budget.

Holyboy will build you a set he charges 60 per wheel to include good dt Swiss spokes. If I was you I'd buy ultegra hubs and open pro rims on bike 24 and get him to build you a set comfortably below 400...

Konkers

Barrabus,
Thanks for coming back

Is this spec low maintenance?
I.e. sealed, not good on maintaining bike, know I should learn. Getting there have all the gear but no brain.

Who is holy boy?
How does this work?
Do I visit him, we pick out the stuff online based on his advice and I drop him in the parts and he builds it.

Sorry never done this before.

Crow92

Konkers wrote: »

Is this spec low maintenance?
I.e. sealed, not good on maintaining bike, know I should learn. Getting there have all the gear but no brain.

Who is holy boy?
How does this work?
Do I visit him, we pick out the stuff online based on his advice and I drop him in the parts and he builds it.

Sorry never done this before.

It's a good solid set of wheels, have them myself, generally 32 hole.
Holyboy is a member here on boards, he runs http://www.beecycles.net/
which is just next to the coombe hospital off cork street.
And afaik he can get them for you or you can buy the parts yourself and give them to him to build.

He built my rear ultegra with open pro rims in Feb and there hasn't been any problems.

greenmat

+1 on Mavic open pro, ultegra hubs. I'm the same, 1 bike used for everything. Bulletproof wheels. Got mine handbuilt by Humphries Cycle shop in Finglas for approx €250. Recommend wheels and shop.

Bunnyhopper

Holyboy is a poster on this forum. He has a shop on the South Circular Road in Dublin. You could PM him and see what would be involved.

There's a picture here of some higher spec wheels he built for another forum member.

(Beyond posting in the same forum here I've no connection with Holyboy or the shop.)


Edit: yeah, so basically what Crow92 said

Quigs Snr

Here's what you do... light, stiff, reliable, cheap.

Campagnolo Zonda's on bike 24 or Jedi Sports:

http://www.bike24.com/p23979.html

Highly rated here...

http://www.tour-magazin.de/services/qtr/epaper_4_2011/page104.html#/90

Failing that get a set of Shimano RS80's.

Seaswimmer

greenmat wrote: »

+1 on Mavic open pro, ultegra hubs. I'm the same, 1 bike used for everything. Bulletproof wheels. Got mine handbuilt by Humphries Cycle shop in Finglas for approx €250. Recommend wheels and shop.

Got mine handbuilt in UK by Parker international. Open pro silver rims,36 spoke, DT Swiss spokes, Ultegra hubs, I weigh about 87kg, carry a backpack and cycle across Dublin daily on some rough roads. Still true after 18 months and about 12,000 KMS. Probably cheaper to get them built locally with Sterling strong at the moment but a great combination. Highly recommend..

PS. I also have one with a 105 hub but seems a bit rougher. Spend a bit extra and get the Ultegra..

Dubba

How about keeping you front fulcrum racing 5 and picking up a rear Cosmic Carbone for €400

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/a48578/cosmic-carbone-sl-011-m10-rear.html?lg=en

WUFF

Got a wheelset built about a year and a half ago. open Pro Rims with Campag Record hubs. Rear wheel giving a lot of trouble...broken spokes and wheel badly out of true on two occassions. Got it retrued again a few weeks ago but starting to go again. Used for club spins and sportives. A bit disappointed as they have a good name and i thought would have held up a bit better. Just unlucky i suppose

Could anyone advise if wheel would be worth rebuilding?
otherwise also looking at the Campag Zondas as a replacement.

colm_gti

Carbonzone clinchers? They look damn cool for the money!

blahblah06

Mavic open pro with dura ace would get my money

letape

I would get the rear Fulcrum 5 fixed and continue to use them. Can't see why the spoke couldn't be replaced - they should normally be a durable set of wheels.

Konkers

letape wrote: »

I would get the rear Fulcrum 5 fixed and continue to use them. Can't see why the spoke couldn't be replaced - they should normally be a durable set of wheels.

@letape
Yeah for the money (200+ for the set) I would have expected them to hold up a bit better. Reviews say that they are durable but I'm not convinced. The worrying thing is that the spoke detached from the rim and not the hub and I didn't hit anything. Have had a couple of speed wobble incidents on these wheels so not gutted. Also I was looking at the wheel 3 weeks go when I was fitting new brake pads and noticed (when looking v carefully) that it seemed very slightly out of true. Will get some opinions on whether they can be fixed and used as an emergency back up anyway.

Konkers

greenmat wrote: »

+1 on Mavic open pro, ultegra hubs. I'm the same, 1 bike used for everything. Bulletproof wheels. Got mine handbuilt by Humphries Cycle shop in Finglas for approx €250. Recommend wheels and shop.

so did you buy the parts or did they get you everything and build them for the 250?

Konkers

Crow92 wrote: »

It's a good solid set of wheels, have them myself, generally 32 hole.
Holyboy is a member here on boards, he runs http://www.beecycles.net/
which is just next to the coombe hospital off cork street.
And afaik he can get them for you or you can buy the parts yourself and give them to him to build.

He built my rear ultegra with open pro rims in Feb and there hasn't been any problems.

Crow92,
open pro rims come in 32 and 36 hols.
What's the difference? is it a weight versus durability or is that dependent on the spoke configuration and 32 v 36 is to accommodate diferent configurations.

montac

I'd highly recommend Holyboy.
I bought a set of 36h Open Pros on Ultegra Hubs from Parker. The price was good. However, there was a definite buckle in the back wheel after a couple of weeks commuting. I reckon spokes will tend to loosen after the first few weeks, but I was disappointed with the extent of the buckle all the same...
Anyway, Holyboy trued the wheels, and tidied them up nicely. His attention to detail is brilliant. I know he sometimes has a stock of rims, hubs and spokes in the shop, but it may be worth ordering the parts online as someone said earlier, and having Holyboy build the wheel himself.

denlaw

letape wrote: »

I would get the rear Fulcrum 5 fixed and continue to use them. Can't see why the spoke couldn't be replaced - they should normally be a durable set of wheels.

+`1 on those , i bought a set of those fulcrum 5's , put about 2k since new , no problems at all ...

Crow92

Konkers wrote: »

Crow92,
open pro rims come in 32 and 36 hols.
What's the difference? is it a weight versus durability or is that dependent on the spoke configuration and 32 v 36 is to accommodate diferent configurations.

Generally the more spokes you have the stronger the wheelset is because it can distribute the loads better with 32+ spokes you'll have a 3 cross spoke pattern.. It depends the roads you cycle on and your weight.

Personally am building a new wheelset atm with 36 spokes at the rear and 32 on the front for a bike with panniers just to give it a bit of extra strength.

greenmat

greenmat wrote: »

+1 on Mavic open pro, ultegra hubs. I'm the same, 1 bike used for everything. Bulletproof wheels. Got mine handbuilt by Humphries Cycle shop in Finglas for approx €250. Recommend wheels and shop.

Konkers wrote: »

so did you buy the parts or did they get you everything and build them for the 250?

€250 for the wheels, just order them, they have all the parts and make them in a couple of days, sometimes they have some pre-made and can be collected straight away. I was told to bring them back after a few hundred km's as the wheels "bed in" and need to be trued/retensioned. Prefect since.

mp31

Does anyone have an idea of what these 'open pro rims with ultegra hubs' wheels weigh?

High Nellie

Konkers wrote: »

Folks, have read a couple of threads on wheels.

Descending from kippure (first time up there....where the phone mast is) busted a spoke (at the rim end) and the rear wheel of my fulcrum racing 5's (after only 5/6k kms) is buckled. Aparently, cos of where the spoke broke, the risk is that others will go eventually.
Is this true?
don't race and use my one and only bike for everything (commuting, training and sportives). This is the second set of wheels I have had on this bike. I'm looking for something that is durable, handles well in all conditions and is good value for money.

So should I go hand built and if so what spec, or is there a set of wheels on the market that would serve me better Than the racing 5's.

400 euro budget.

Some people are making this complicated. And I'm not sure why your budget is for more than you actually need. My advice - for what it is worth to you - is to buy a set if these, fit and forget, and save yourself a nice bit of money:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=58590

Dubba

These look good:

http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;menu=1000,4,123,30;product=17761

gman2k

http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;product=11695;page=6;menu=1000,4,123,30;mid=0;pgc=0;orderby=2

Great deal, and tubeless compatible also! If they were only half as good as the DA version they would be fabulous wheels. In fact they are probably better than the DAs, as the DA hubs are renowned to be too soft!

TheBlaaMan

gman2k wrote: »

http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;product=11695;page=6;menu=1000,4,123,30;mid=0;pgc=0;orderby=2

Great deal, and tubeless compatible also! If they were only half as good as the DA version they would be fabulous wheels. In fact they are probably better than the DAs, as the DA hubs are renowned to be too soft!

Really ? I don't know if you are damming them with faint praise, or actually recommending them ! (BTW, I'm also on the lookout for something very similar to the OP)

Are they better then these Shimano RS80 C24 - €380 @ Planet-X plus postage, or the Campag Zonda http://www.bike24.com/p23979.html @ €340. Both sare significantly lighter wheelsets, and come well recommended (apparently) though both are a bit pricier that those Ultegra's...?

Also, are those Mavic Cosmic Elites not quite heavy for what they are?

gman2k

Sorry for confusion Blaaman, the Ultegras are great wheels, if I was shopping for factory made these are the ones I would get. The DAs are a little lighter due to the hubs, but they are softer, and they do give trouble with bearings.
Also, pre price reduction, the Ultegras are the most expensive, lighter than the Cosmics, but heavier than the Zondas and the RS80s (which are out of stock).
The Zondas are great wheels also, but the looks are not for everyone, and the Ultegras are tubeless compatible.
Of course the trouble with all factory wheels is the spokes, when they break, they are harder to source and more expensive to replace. If you do in a rim, it's more economical to replace the wheel altogether.
I ride Open Pro on ULtegra (32h) on my steel bike, and I have Open Pro on Record with Revolution spokes on the carbon - Zipp 303s also!
If I was getting handmade again, I'd go for a 36h front and back spoke option. Much stronger for the sake of 8 spokes and nipples (i.e. very little additional weight)