ninjanoir78

hi, I need an advice about customs wheels, I can buy a wheels from zen cyclery, I dont know a lot on the wheels and nothing on customs wheels and zen cyclery wheels, maybe you know something in ''that world''???

I can buy this setup : Kinlin Xr270 20/24 black/white
Sapim Cxray spokes silver/black/powder coating any color upon reqest
Alloy nips silver/black/blue/red/green/gold/purple
White Ind H2 hubs silver/black
Weight 1466 grams

about 750$

what do you think??

or ksyrium ES almost new 450$$$

thanks

Barrettscv 

What kind of riding? Discribe the rides you have taken recently, please.

Psimet2001 

Avoid alloy nipples.

I know this guy...

Barrettscv 

You know whom?

AEO

what's your weight? a 20/24 kinlin niobium rim wheelset might get a little flimsy for a heavier rider.

wmodavis

Main thing I can tell from original post is that he is concerned about weight and must have lots of $. Out of my league.

ericm979

I have White Ind hubs and CX-rays on a couple sets of race wheels, and a Kinlin 27mm rim on my powertap wheel. They are all quality components.

GPB

I checked with another builder for a setup like zen quoted you and yeah...that's the going rate. Worth it? I really don't know...probably are. But for now I opted for Soul S3.0's for $350 (delivered) and figured i'd do something in a year or two if this didn't work out. Well...so far, it's been great...they ride great and look great. My priority turned out to be "save a few bucks". FWIW.

Soil_Sampler

I like the two2one hubs, when considering a 20/24 wheelset.

https://www.ligerowheels.com/technical/technical.html
https://www.sun-ringle.com/contentpag...wheelsets.php5 R3.0C (24H/24H)
https://www.fulcrumwheels.com/jspfulc...lse&xc29=false

dmotoguy

The guy that owns zen is on my team and is a good guy.. He's building me a wheelset this week: edge 1.68s w/ white industries hubs and cx rays..

those kinlins are good rims, its a good wheelset for the price!

ninjanoir78

my weight is 180 lbs.. no racing but real training, 7000 miles....year..

robertkat

Spend the money and skip the Mavics. Even when the rims are done, the WI hubs are higher quality and will last forever as long as you take care of them. I would highly recommend brass nipples though. Or at least on the rear wheel.

road

I was looking at the exact same wheels (but not from Zen) last year.

I had my local builder build a set for me. I used the same rims, spokes and hubs as you are looking at. I was 180 and considered myself to be a very competitive non-racer and a pretty strong sprinter. My builder suggested higher spoke count for my needs, and I think for what you describe (lots of miles), I think you might want to consider more than 20/24.

The additional weight is pretty small when you consider the durability increase and the decreased frequency of maintenance you will have.

For a guy that rides 7000 miles a year (presumably on these wheels) I think I would go for less hassle (of more spokes and brass nipples) You will likely never notice the the extra grams.

FWIW I had mine built by my local builder for about 100 less than the price you mention (may be he gave me a deal because I also bought my velo plugs, tires, tubes, and cassette from him?), and I can go back and have him fix anything any time, but in 3000 miles they have not needed anything beyond inspection. This is one reason I buy/build wheels locally. If you have a problem with mail order, it is a much bigger hassle...not that you will have a problem, but when you live 2 miles from the guy there is a lot more confidence.

I had a builder about 3 hours away build a set of wheels once for me that did not go so well. EVERYONE said this guy was the best, and I can agree that he built many many great sets of wheels that most would say were "bullet proof". The fact remained that I got a set that for some reason (perhaps a defective component in the build) would never hold tension. That long distance relationship taught me to buy local from now on.

Having a builder that actually understands your needs and desires in a wheel set is nice too. When you end up with a wheel set that performs better than anything you have ever owned (regardless of the +70 grams from your target), you know that you got good advice from a builder that understands your riding and not just some lip service from a builder cranking out set after set of "semi-custom" wheels.

I guess I have a luxury here with my builder.

urbanknight

I think that's a good build for you. However, you might want to skip the alloy nipples on such a low spoke count as you will need a high spoke tension... especially on the drive side rear. Most of the price for that build is in the hubs, but if you have the money it's worth it to get good hubs.