Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Bevan
10-01-07, 09:01 AM
I've been on these forums for a while and rather selfishly used them for free advice on bikes, clyde strength equipment and so on. Anyway I thought I would weigh in (pun intended) on my experiences for the benefit of clydes down the road to pick up in searches.
In my experice the limiting factor for Clyde weigh roadbike riders is always wheels. I've tried the following :
Mavic Open Pro - Ultegra 6600 hubs. The old dependable. Totally bomb proof and the untegra hubs are very smooth rolling. Not exactly aero, heavy, and old school looks. You can do a lot worse than these at $200-$250 a set.
Ritchey WCS Protocols. These came with a new bike, and are supposed to be top notch, they are certainly pretty light, and the aero section and bladed spokes look the part. However the rear wheel would blow out spokes, often at the oddest times (not peak effort or big bumps) every time the spoke was OK but the nipple would be fractured. Anyway, at one point this happened and the spoke got chewed up in the chain so I had to get replacements fitted and a full true up, wish i hadnt bothered, soon after something broke in the rear bearings, started making noise and very stiff rough feeling. These are sealed, non serviceable bearings so that was it for these wheels. Warranty support was essentialy none.
Mavic Aksium - These were a stop gap after the WCSs went bad, but for $180 they are GREAT. Strong, amazingly smooth bearings and pretty cool looking. I havent had any spoke break issues and they are staying true. If the clyde default open pro 32 spoke wheel is just too dull to bear, these are definitely an option.
Based on my experiences I think I'll be sticking with Mavic in the future too.
In my experice the limiting factor for Clyde weigh roadbike riders is always wheels. I've tried the following :
Mavic Open Pro - Ultegra 6600 hubs. The old dependable. Totally bomb proof and the untegra hubs are very smooth rolling. Not exactly aero, heavy, and old school looks. You can do a lot worse than these at $200-$250 a set.
Ritchey WCS Protocols. These came with a new bike, and are supposed to be top notch, they are certainly pretty light, and the aero section and bladed spokes look the part. However the rear wheel would blow out spokes, often at the oddest times (not peak effort or big bumps) every time the spoke was OK but the nipple would be fractured. Anyway, at one point this happened and the spoke got chewed up in the chain so I had to get replacements fitted and a full true up, wish i hadnt bothered, soon after something broke in the rear bearings, started making noise and very stiff rough feeling. These are sealed, non serviceable bearings so that was it for these wheels. Warranty support was essentialy none.
Mavic Aksium - These were a stop gap after the WCSs went bad, but for $180 they are GREAT. Strong, amazingly smooth bearings and pretty cool looking. I havent had any spoke break issues and they are staying true. If the clyde default open pro 32 spoke wheel is just too dull to bear, these are definitely an option.
Based on my experiences I think I'll be sticking with Mavic in the future too.