UKC

Carbon Fibre or Aluminium wheels? Looking at upgrading my wheels and thinking about £500 - £600 budget. Question is, alloy or Carbon fibre. General sportive riding and not necessarily TT where they need to be super aero or anything. I’m thinking that for that amount I’d get some really great Alloy ones as supposed to bottom end Carbon ones. Would there be a huge weight difference between the two is also a consideration?

In reply to Carpe Diem:

Depending what you'ce got to start with, these seem a very good deal - get good reviews and I believe the upper weight limit is a recommended 100kg:
http://www.cycledivision.co.uk/product-info.php?pid133.html

In reply to Carpe Diem: http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/wheels/road-wheels/factory-road-wheel... these are nice and light. Think they may only take dura ace cassettes though 7800 and 7900.

In reply to Carpe Diem:
Have a think about hand builds for that money.

In reply to Carpe Diem:
Some hand built wheels with a good alloy rim can be customised to meet your specific needs (weight, riding style etc) and will be as light and strong as a factory built set. The other benefit is that if you break a rim somehow, it is generally far cheaper to get them re-built than fixing some factory wheels. At that price you will be scraping the barrel to find a carbon rim, and you certainly won't get a wait saving worth sacrificing the quality of the rest of the components for.
For about £500-600 you could get H Plus Son Archetype rims and with either Royce or White Industries hubs with some light spokes - that would be an awesome pair of wheels. A good wheel builder will advise on the detail (number of spokes, lacing pattern etc). I recently got a new wheel from dcrwheels, service and quality was great.

In reply to Carpe Diem:

I wouldn't touch carbon at that price.

E

In reply to Enty:

Agreed and for the style of riding you describe you would probably be better off with some nice alloy wheels anyway. Lots for choice of very good hand built wheels at that price. If you are looking at factory built wheels I can recommend Mavic Ksyrium SLS. If you can wait a few weeks for new models to come out you might be able to pick some up within your budget, I managed to negotiate a pair for £600 last year when they first came out. They come with Mavic tyres which some people don't particularly like but I'm quite impressed and the wheels are excellent, there are some reviews around if you do a search. They are light, strong, stiff and very responsive. They look good too. Mavic rims are expensive to replace compared with hand built wheels so that might be a consideration but it didn't put me off and I expect them to last a good while.

In reply to Carpe Diem: can I have your old ones?

In reply to all: thanks for the info - very useful

In reply to shumidrives: no

In reply to PeterM:

I like the look of the Cero wheels. How would they compare to Shimano RS80's - that's what I currently have. I fancy trying some new wheels and these seem a bit lighter and fancier :-P

In reply to Carpe Diem: Lots of carbon wheels from Planet X within your price range........ http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/c/q/wheels

In reply to Carpe Diem:

Another vote for Mavic Ksyrium SLS. I have the SLs on my bike and they are superb wheels, the strongest I've ever ridden and really stiff and responsive.

In reply to Carpe Diem:
Only heard good words spoken about these.


http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/american-classic-420-aero-3-road-wheelset-sh...

In reply to Carpe Diem:

Planet X carbon clinchers or tubular's are excellent value for money. There is nothing bottom of the range abotu them at £500

thoroughly recommended

In reply to thread: I've just put tubeless on my best bike, and was thinking about doing the same with my bad weather/winter/mudguardy bike - I know the new Shimano and the "2 way fit" Fulcrums are "tubeless ready" but if a wheel doesn't say "tubeless" does that mean it's not compatible?

In reply to andy:

How did you find putting the new tubeless tyres on?.
Got a bit of experience with these and they were a bloody nightmare. 20 minutes and 10 fingernails

E

In reply to Enty:

I have a man for that sort of thing! He said it wasn't too bad - Ultremos. Got them from bike-discount.de - about £70 for two including sealant and fitting fluid.

In reply to andy: Any wheel can be made tubeless, you just need to seal all the holes, I've run electrical tape and stans valves with no problems

In reply to johnj: Yes, I know about that (and have some Stan's valves sat somewhere) but if I'm buying new wheels I'm thinking about getting tubeless ready ones as fitting the tyres to the Fulcrums I've got was pretty straightforward. I know in Fulcrum they do a specific "2 way fit" version, and I think Shimano are "TL" for tubeless. It also looks like American Classic do specific tubeless wheels - at a price!

In reply to andy:

I was in the Gorge de Loup in the rain with a Canadian client. He got a puncture and the gunk didn't seal it so we had to put a new tube in. F%$%^&£g nightmare getting the tyre off then putting it back on.


E

In reply to andy:

Do you need new wheels for the hack bike, or do you just want tubeless?

In reply to johnj: It's not really a hack - It's a bit better than my traditional winter bikes have been, but has 'guards etc, so I tend to use it when the weather's bad year round. I've got some Hope hubs with Mavic Open Pros on as my "winter" wheels, but I'm thinking of getting some others for summer - and I like the tubeless on my summer bike so thinking about getting some tubeless compatible wheels. It's only a thought just now as the Hope/mavics are fine, just a wee bit heavy.

In reply to Enty: Yep, that's a risk, I guess, but my brother's been running them all year with no problems and has had to put a tube in once - I wonder if tubeless wheels make it easier? I know the American Classics Tubeless are wider and shallower rims.

In reply to andy:

Now that would be a cool set of wheels, hope and open pro tubeless conversion, you'd get rid of some of the weight as well without the tube.