Pico

I bought a C'dale R700 last year, which came with Shimano R550 wheels. The rear gave been nothing but trouble. By 500 miles it was way out of true (okay fine they were new wheels), then again at 1200 (now they were pinging under load too, so I had them it tensioned), again at 1700 and a couple days later it broke a spoke. I bought a set of Velomax Circuits, which had been great. The Circuits are lighter, more aero, and are still perfectly true after 1300 miles (which may not be a lot, but the R550's already been trued and tensioned at 1300 miles).

So now I come to my real concern. The Specialized Roubaix Expert I just ordered comes with R600 wheels, which are very similar to the R550s I dread. I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade the wheels. On the affordable side I was thinking something like another set of Circuits or some Mike Garcia Niobiums. Or maybe something really expensive like Orion IIs or Ksyrium SLs.

Please share any exerience, good or bad, you've had with any of the current generation of Shimano wheels: WH-7801, WH-R600, and WH-R550. How often do you have to true them? Have you broke any spokes, if so how many miles had you put on the miles?

SteveAZ

Now own 2 sets of R550's. First set, about 3k miles on them. No problems at all. Second set I just got, so no experience with them yet. But, keep posting threads like this and I'll keep getting them cheap

For the record I'm about 200#'s, ride 175-225 miles a week, but do bunny hop pot holes and things of that nature.

aboyd

Bought an R700 a few weeks ago and it came with R550's. I have not put any miles on the bike yet, but the LBS owner said they should be fine. I am 280 #'s by the way, so we will see how they last.

DXchulo

I have some R540s (old school I guess) with over 6,000 miles on them. I've never even trued them once.

1955

hey Pico,

I have the WH-7800 BL's, same as OC had. I love them but I sure don't put out the kind of power that you or OC puts out. They have about 3700 miles on them with only a couple of very, very small tweeks done to them. I've been run into the boonies, bunny hopped pot holes and delineators (traffic cones) and once hit a huge pothole at about 20mph without seeing it first and thought it would have destroyed the wheel...nothing, not a hint of the hit it took (it just about ripped the bars out of my hands).

Of course your mileage may vary.

Downshift

I have a set on my R700. I'm 6' 180#s and ride ~50-100 miles/week. I've had no problems from the wheels. I did have to retrue them after the deraileur went into the spokes, but that was a chain issue.
All that said, I just scored a set of Velomax Orions for cheap on eBay. Roll smooth! So much smoother than the Shimanos. I say upgrade the wheels and eBay the old ones.

Pico

My Circuits are silky smooth, can't say the same for the R550s. I might just have to do the Ebay thing too.

briscoelab

I love my Niobiums... about 1500 grams, sturdy, and 30mm profile is pretty aero. Oh yea... just over $400 is a steal for these wheels.

CycleFreakLS

I have over 16K mi on my 7701s ... but I am less than 150 lbs. Never been trued, never damaged. But ... if I were to get new wheels, my first choice would be Easton (Velomax) Tempest IIs.

cs1

Pico:

They might not be trick or high tech but Ultegra hubs with Mavic Open Pro rims in 32 or 36 hole 3 cross are cheap $200 and totally bomb proof. I'm using Chorus 32 hole hubs with OP rims and they're 11 years old. I even swapped the old 8 speed cassette hub for a 9/10 speed version and am running them on another bike. You can't be OP rims with a quality hub. Good luck

Tim

Grasschopper

That weight is a typo right?

briscoelab

Fixed it 2500 would be even more than the POS Alex wheels that came with the bike

Veloduo

My bike came with WH-R550s and I was wary. I go 200 klicks, myself. To play it safe(?), I stuck my tensiometer on 'em and tensioned to spec (see Shimano site). They came a little loose/undertensioned. Once I retensioned them (before EVER swinging a leg over), I figured I'd see what was what. Now have about 2500 miles on the wheels -- true, round, no problems at all. I'm guessing your wheels weren't properly tensioned to begin with.

mollusk

Machine built wheels that aren't looked at and/or tweaked by someone that knows what they are doing is always a crap shoot. Sometimes they are great and sometimes they are really bad. It doesn't matter if the rims/hubs/spokes are all first rate. If the spoke tensioning is poor then the wheel will be a constant source of trouble. Personally I wouldn't hesitate to buy some machine built wheels because I can go over them myself and make everything right and I can usually buy them cheaper than getting the same components and building it up myself. At least it saves me the time spent to lace the wheels up.