Old schoolers getting squeezed out of the wheel market?

fat bloke

By which I mean tubed and aluminium rim braked. (I.e. Not disc, not tubeless, and certainly not "tubeless ready")

It seems like an age since there was a must-buy bargain alert wheelset. That's mirrored now in a real paucity of availability and choice in what must be becoming a niche market now, from what was only a short time ago the most popular, or even only, wheel set up.

MAVIC seem to have ditched the exalith thing altogether and I'm really sorry I didn't pick up a pair of cosmic SLE's before they disappeared. Even aksiums now appear to be out of stock in a huge amount of the online outlets.

Fulcrum / campag are one of the few makers catering now. Who else is there?

fat bloke

Sorry. Wrong subforum:rolleyes:

eeeee

Thread moved

fat bloke

Anyone use Vision Team 30's or 35's? -Would you have them over a set of aksiums? They're similarly priced.

koutoubia

Its probably not gonna help the availability of Mavic wheels since they have gone bust.
Would you not look at getting a set of wheels custom built. Still plenty of rim manufacturers making nice metal clincher rims.Match them with a nice set of DT swiss/Chris King etc hubs and you will have a great set of wheels.

Harrybelafonte

fat bloke wrote: »

Anyone use Vision Team 30's or 35's? -Would you have them over a set of aksiums? They're similarly priced.

I have them and like them more than the Aksiums I had. My Aksiums would warp a little under load, these don't. Criticisms of them I've seen is they're heavy, while others say the spokes are crap, others complain that the black paint on rim brake area rubs off too soon. Like I said, I'm happy.

Shame re Mavic, wasn't aware of this. Does this mean I can get my Ellipses for cheap now?

fat bloke

koutoubia wrote: »

Its probably not gonna help the availability of Mavic wheels since they have gone bust.
Would you not look at getting a set of wheels custom built. Still plenty of rim manufacturers making nice metal clincher rims.Match them with a nice set of DT swiss/Chris King etc hubs and you will have a great set of wheels.

Have they absolutely and definitively gone bust now? I know there was talk of it, or a danger of it but I thought surely someone or something would save them.

On the ol' homemade wheelset thing - Who makes "nice" custom wheelsets? Anyone in Ireland? I'd have no interest now in 120 spoke :pac: open pro's or similar like.

I already have a pair of zondas, which I only got at the beginning of the year and the front is in the shop for a bearing service now. So I'm looking around my shed and I don't really have a spare, which is what put to shopping around. In fairness to the Zondas though they're newish, I've done all my lockdown riding on them which is adding up to about 8000km! So fair enough that they need a service.

Weepsie wrote: »

I've the Trimax 35, so aluminium braking surface on carbon rim. I find them excellent. Have a set of t42s as well.

You can have a look at Cero wheels too. I had a pair before that I found excellent.

Just looking at the trimax there and listed on Merlin as discontinued! And Cero look nice but they're all now "tubeless ready", which in my experience is the worst of both worlds - not fully tubeless and b@stard-hard to get a tubed tyre on. -Unless anyone else has specific experience of those Ceros.

lennymc

if it's just spares, the shimano budget wheels are pretty good value and pretty bombproof at around 100 quid a set - https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/shimano-rs100-road-clincher-wheelset/rp-prod184427

koutoubia

fat bloke wrote: »

On the ol' homemade wheelset thing - Who makes "nice" custom wheelsets? Anyone in Ireland? I'd have no interest now in 120 spoke :pac: open pro's or similar like.

Lukaz in Apex Cycles in Kildare (right at the edge of the Curragh) built a set for me. I supplied the rims and hubs.
He currently has another set that is being built.
He will advise you on what hubs ,rims and spokes to use.
He knows his sh1t about wheels and there is a waiting time as a result.

fat bloke

It was spares to begin with but then I started looking around to see what else is there and it's slim pickin's. I'm a huge fan of the Mavic exalith rims - the superlight SLR's or R-sys, and the cosmic SLE version and they all seem to be disappearing.

I'd love a look at your handbuilts Koutobia if you could link a pic at some stage.

Plastik

koutoubia wrote: »

Lukaz in Apex Cycles in Kildare (right at the edge of the Curragh) built a set for me. I supplied the rims and hubs.
He currently has another set that is being built.
He will advise you on what hubs ,rims and spokes to use.
He knows his sh1t about wheels and there is a waiting time as a result.

If I need any pro help with a bike he's the only man I give it to. Has built up loads of wheels for me. Open Pro's and H Plus Sons on Ambrosio hubs a few times. Have since changed to H Plus Sons and DTSwiss 350's. Currently rebuilding a MTB wheel for me. Will build to whatever spec you want. And he's sound.

koutoubia

Yeah no problem.
They are in the attic in a wheel bag. Will dig them out tommorrow and send you on some pics.
PM me your number at some stage and I will send on some pics.

magicbastarder

are they the ones you had on sale here a year or two back? open pros on record hubs - or was that someone else?

fat bloke

Plastik wrote: »

If I need any pro help with a bike he's the only man I give it to. Has built up loads of wheels for me. Open Pro's and H Plus Sons on Ambrosio hubs a few times. Have since changed to H Plus Sons and DTSwiss 350's. Currently rebuilding a MTB wheel for me. Will build to whatever spec you want. And he's sound.

Am I doinh handbuilts a disservice by asking if they have to be plain Jane's? Bomb proof reliability is great but a bit of pizazz and panache is nice too . Which factory wheelsets know all about.

Plastik

Plenty of pizazz to go around, just depends on how deep your pockets are! The problem with handbuilt pizazz is that they can't match the volume machine built economy of scale that the big guys do, that you then pick up 33% and turd off with online retailers, so you don't tend to see them around too often. Proper pizazz hubs can be the price of an off-the-shelf wheelset alone, some nice DTSwiss or ChrisKing hubs might cost you €400 a set easily (plus rims 100x2, plus spokes, plus build). But barring disaster you essentially have them indefinitely.

Plus people don't place any monetary value on the ability, when your rim wears out, to be able to rebuild your hub onto a new rim very easily. I bent a Campag Eurus rim once upon a time and it meant the whole thing was for the bin, even though the hub and bearings were 100%, because the cost of a new rim was extortionate.

koutoubia

+1000 on what plastik says.
Its the reason I am know veering away from campag/fulcrum wheelsets.
Brake a spoke /rim and its expensive and sometimes impossible to get a spoke/rim replacement.
I know a lad who has a lovely set of campag wheels. A spoke went and the rim collapsed as a result. Was gonna cost him well over a grand for a replacement....if he could find one.
Get custom built and you have an easy route of replacement spokes and rim.

at1withmyself

fat bloke wrote: »

Have they absolutely and definitively gone bust now? I know there was talk of it, or a danger of it but I thought surely someone or something would save them.

No they have not gone bust, someone did step in and save them, they are restructuring the business and gonna focus mainly on wheels gain. I believe they will drop the clothing lines etc...

JMcL

at1withmyself wrote: »

No they have not gone bust, someone did step in and save them, they are restructuring the business and gonna focus mainly on wheels gain. I believe they will drop the clothing lines etc...

Not sure why I'd missed that at the time, as it was news to me reading the thread. I'd be dubious about how viable any restructuring is going to be if the backstory to the takeover in this road.cc piece is accurate. "Private equitiy firm" usually to me suggests asset stripping - look at the firm that took over the former Sony Viao laptop range - top quality at the time, living on as a name only now. Same wiil apply I suspect to Olympus Imaging who are being taken over by the same outfit. From that article, there also seems so have been some chicanery over who was ultimately buying Mavic which doesn't bode well.

As to why they got into difficulty, I suspect dropping quality control may have been a factor. Personally I've had 2 sets of Kysriums over the past decade. First were bombproof and gave way after a fair few km with a fair amount of abuse thrown at them (i.e. they didn't owe me anything) 2nd set was a nightmare. Rear wheel kept going out of true, spokes twisting and loosening, nipples seizing. I eventually had to ditch it recently. LBS said he'd seen a steep decline in Mavic reliability over the past 6 or 7 years, and for his money Shimano were beating them hands down. Don't get me wrong, when they're working as they should, they're great wheels, but I don't think the next wheelset I buy will be Mavic

magicbastarder

re olympus, they've already announced they're leaving the camera market.

fat bloke

JMcL wrote: »

Not sure why I'd missed that at the time, as it was news to me reading the thread. I'd be dubious about how viable any restructuring is going to be if the backstory to the takeover in this road.cc piece is accurate. "Private equitiy firm" usually to me suggests asset stripping - look at the firm that took over the former Sony Viao laptop range - top quality at the time, living on as a name only now. Same wiil apply I suspect to Olympus Imaging who are being taken over by the same outfit. From that article, there also seems so have been some chicanery over who was ultimately buying Mavic which doesn't bode well.

As to why they got into difficulty, I suspect dropping quality control may have been a factor. Personally I've had 2 sets of Kysriums over the past decade. First were bombproof and gave way after a fair few km with a fair amount of abuse thrown at them (i.e. they didn't owe me anything) 2nd set was a nightmare. Rear wheel kept going out of true, spokes twisting and loosening, nipples seizing. I eventually had to ditch it recently. LBS said he'd seen a steep decline in Mavic reliability over the past 6 or 7 years, and for his money Shimano were beating them hands down. Don't get me wrong, when they're working as they should, they're great wheels, but I don't think the next wheelset I buy will be Mavic

Shimano have an odd wheel catalogue though don't they. Lots of very basic entry level stuff and then a chasm of nothing, or nothing particularly attractive at least, and then some ageing deep section carbon clinchers at the top. Maybe that's not the case with their disc range I dunno, but a mid-range shimano wheelset hasn't jumped out at me for a long time.

Daroxtar

I have the Shimano ultegra wheels as my winter wheels. They were my all year round wheels until I got I good set. I think they have about 5 years worth of cycling on them. Brake track is well worn but they are as true as the day I bought them. Think I paid just over €300

Cee-Jay-Cee

I have been riding campag/fulcrum wheels since I took up cycling nearly 10 years ago now and never had any issues with any of them. My 3 road bikes are currently shod in Fulcrum wheels. If I were buying new wheels I don’t look at anyone else anymore other than them.

MojoMaker

Be patient, your enlightenment will come

letape

Plastik wrote: »

If I need any pro help with a bike he's the only man I give it to. Has built up loads of wheels for me. Open Pro's and H Plus Sons on Ambrosio hubs a few times. Have since changed to H Plus Sons and DTSwiss 350's. Currently rebuilding a MTB wheel for me. Will build to whatever spec you want. And he's sound.

Another recommendation for Lukaz. Really nice guy and great wheel builder. I’m getting a set of early 90s Campagnolo Record hubs built onto Mavic open pros by him at the moment too.

crosstownk

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I have been riding campag/fulcrum wheels since I took up cycling nearly 10 years ago now and never had any issues with any of them. My 3 road bikes are currently shod in Fulcrum wheels. If I were buying new wheels I don’t look at anyone else anymore other than them.

I'm the same. I've a pair of Campy Zondas with 27,000km of all weather winter/Dublin City commute spins and they're still true and spinning freely despite never having the hubs serviced. They're about to be replaced with Fulcrum R3s (~10,000km) from the other bike which has been shod with new Campy Zonda 2 way that I got for €300 on Planet X back in May.

I can't fault them and they've been solidly reliable so I wouldn't be inclined to change.