Road Cycling - Time for a new wheelset

Its time to replace my wheelset and am having trouble choosing between the Shimano R540 and Mavic Cosmos. They are both in the range I want to spend. I ride about 75 miles a week and do not race. I am also 6'1" and 195 LBS so I am no liteweight. One of these two is what I am going to get assuming I don't convince myself to spend the $ for Ksyriums.

I got some pretty good Velomax wheels on ebay! Take a look at those.

I have the Ksryuims on both of my road bikes and would highly recommend them,fairly light and very strong. 6 1 also and 180 Lbs---no problem with stability or flexing. Only downside, repairs can be costly and downtime waiting for parts can be long.

Why not just get a good, easy to maintain set of Mavic Open Pros/butted spokes/Ultegra hubs? You can get 'em for ~$200, and if anything goes wrong, get them repaired easily by any decent mechanic. You aren't all that heavy, but if you're worried about the weight issue, get 36 spokes instead of 32.

Why not just get a good, easy to maintain set of Mavic Open Pros/butted spokes/Ultegra hubs? You can get 'em for ~$200, and if anything goes wrong, get them repaired easily by any decent mechanic. You aren't all that heavy, but if you're worried about the weight issue, get 36 spokes instead of 32.

i'd agree with buzz, here. build up a solid set custom, even going nuts with king hubs you'll still get out of there MUCH less than mavics. i also read a review saying bontrager's x lites are better than the ksyriums, in that they are equally stiff, lighter, and less stiff (think it was steel spokes v. aluminum). but your best buy, imo, is what buzz said, except maybe king hubs.

We can go on and on about wheels and Mavic started the industry of designer wheels. The real question is what are you looking for in a set of wheels? If you don't race, then is it general riding? do you ride in hilly areas? Are the decents techincal or fast and sweeping? Have you consider tubulars? In general, I agree with buzz, a good set of wheels built with revolution spokes should be as light as these designer wheels that you are considering but offer ease of repair. You might even consider 32 spokes in front and 36 in the rear if you think you want something more durable.

I've put lots of miles on the Cosmos wheels, and my only gripe was that the rear spokes stretched so much over time that the wheel would not hold dish. I ran right around 190-200 pounds while those wheels were under me. Rebuilding them would have been a major pain, so I went back to using the stockers until I got my new ride. I'm running Record hubs laced up to Open Pros, 32 hole front and back. No worries yet. I'm actually considering replacing the spokes with black DT's and playing with the lacing pattern a little. It's much easier to service a regular old wheelset, and you'll be in stealth mode when you start dropping people with $800 wheelsets. You can also take your riding style into account with your rim choice. If you want something stiffer, get it.