madmatt1740

I have been riding my new road bike for about 1 month and love it. My biggest problem is that my wheels (Alex Race 28 with 24/20 spokes) have come out of true twice in about 300 miles. I am looking to upgrade, and I found these wheels online. Would they be good for a 270 pound clyde???

https://cgi.ebay.com/Mavic-Open-Pro-S...ht_1597wt_1139

Tom Stormcrowe

I'd recommend these over the Mavic's anyday. I have Velocity road wheels on my Allez, and almost 4 years on the bike with absolutely no issues at all.

https://cgi.ebay.com/New-Velocity-Dee...item3a66d776f8

Velocity makes an awesome wheel.

jr59

Tom speaks true!

sstorkel

That depends: how good is the guy building them? What support do you get if there's a problem?

CraigB

I've read a lot of good things about Neuvation's M28X Aero wheels. Right now, through noon Pacific time on Monday the 13th, a set is on sale for $179 plus shipping. They come with a 1 year warranty, and if you want to extend it to two years at the time of purchase you can get their "protection plan" for another $30 a set.

I don't have any first-hand experience with them, but I just ordered a set for myself in case the OEM Shimanos on the new Cannondale decide to fold like a taco shell under me.

CliftonGK1

I'm not a fan of the Open Pro rim, but not out of any stability issues. However, if you're set on getting an Ultegra/OP wheelset you can get 'em for hella cheaper than $330.

Pricepoint has Ultegra 6600 (previous model) with OP rims for $264.
Amazon has a pair from Niagra Cycles for $296 (straight 14g spokes, though.)

Mr. Beanz

+1.....I've had 3 hand built Mavic OP wheels by 3 different builders and not one has gotten me over 2,000 miles at 230lbs. Go with the Deep V ( or similar 30 mm rims). Solid if built correctly. At 230 +, I got over 20,000 miles out of a rear wheel.

sstorkel

I have a set of Neuvation's M28 Aero2 (or maybe Aero3? I forget) wheels. They're well-built and seem pretty strong. Still, with 16/20 spokes I'd be a bit hesitant to recommend them to uber-Clydes. Spoke tension on these wheels is very high. If a spoke were to break, I think crashing would be a very real possibility. Given the spoke tension and the limited number of spokes, I'd want to check the spoke tension on a regular basis.

CliftonGK1

Interestingly, if you look at Bicycle Wheel Warehouse, their handbuilt Ultegra/OP wheelset is listed in the "Under 220 pounds" section of their site.

CliftonGK1

I've read good things, and seen decent reviews from riders here on BF; but when I mentioned them at my LBS, the wrenches all shook their heads and said to stay away. Apparently they've seen a bunch of failures with them.

Mr. Beanz

I personally know of two riders that have lost a section of the hub on these things.

madmatt1740

Thanks for all the advice. I love the Deep V's Tom, just couldn't justify the purple. I have been to several of my local shops, but either they don't have a good set of wheels for me (One guy wanted to sell me a set of super-light race wheels that cost $2000) , or they don't want to make a wheel, but will gladly order one for me. I found a site called Bicycle Wheel Warehouse that has wheels they recommend for riders 233+. I saw a set of DT Swiss wheels that looked awesome. Anyone have any experience with these guys or have any other recommendations for buying online???

Mr. Beanz

The guy s got a ton of Deep V's and similar. You pick the rim and components, they build it. You can go on the custom section enter weight and they rec what should work for you weight wise. If money is a factor, heck, go with the rear wheel first, get the front later.

I get a Deep V at JensonUSA for $55 then build them myself. If the shop doesn't want to build a wheel for you, that' not saying much for their skill level. Find another shop.

https://www.prowheelbuilder.com/products/rims.html

CliftonGK1

BWW does good work, handbuilds, and seemingly charges out the wazoo for it (from the one pair I looked at.) Those same OP/Ultegra that are under $300 other places (machine built) are over $400 when you throw in taxes, etc. at BWW.


Peter White Cycles makes good wheels.
Psimet (posts on forums) makes a good solid pair.

I'm a big advocate of the build-'em-yerself school, just for the fact that if you build your own, you'll also know how to tune them down the line when they need it, and know how to keep them in good condition for years to come.

abdon 

I have two wheel sets I use regularly, a 32h open pro on Campagnolo hubs and a 36h Velocity Dyad on Deore XT hubs. The OP with 25mm tires are fast, the Dyads with 27mm (real width 31mm) are a lot of fun, as I can get away with a lot more

You don't mention what tire size you are using. If you ask me this makes a huge difference.

hammond9705

I've been happy with my Open Pros. I weigh about as much as the OP, and get ~10k miles on a rear. My fronts last forever. I recently bought a front at Performance (I'm sure it was machine built) for $80. I retired the old one to be the spare, but it was still true with 20k+ miles. My rears I get hand built. I've had wheels from Peter White, and Colorado Cyclist. I think that a the Open Pro get a bad name because a lot of them are machine built, but I believe that if you get a hand built one they should last a long time. Looking at the CC web page you can get a custom hand built rear for $208, and specify stronger spokes.

CliftonGK1

Open Pros get a bad rap because (at least on the old, red-label version) if you tension the spokes high enough for a 250 pound rider, they have a tendency to rip the eyelets out along with a section of rim. I haven't seen that happen with the new blue-label version of them except for once; and I know the guy was beating the hell out of his rims on some very bad roads during a daily commute, so they were likely under other stresses than just high tension. Whatever they did for the new version, it's stronger; but I think they're noisy. Open Pros seem to amplify road chatter like a PA system.

professorbob

I'm a fan of Open Pros as well. They're light and if they're hand built with 36 spokes 3 cross, they can be pretty darned good. They've worked quite well for me at between 230 and 270. I'd be wary of them if they were machine built.

Wheels are probably the most important component on the bike for a clyde. Whatever you decide, don't go for something just because you found a great deal on the internet. Save your lunch money, get them custom built by a good builder and if you choose good components, they'll last a long time.

madmatt1740

Once again, I appreciate the feedback. I have the itch to build my own wheels, but how hard is it. I am fairly mechanical, and tune up most issues on my own bikes, but I am a bit leery if my LBS is hesitant to build me a wheelset. I know I would need a good truing stand, but how difficult on a scale of 1-10 is it to build and properly tension your own wheels???

CliftonGK1

If you do most of your own wrenching, then you've got the know-how. The tools are a toss-up between how much you want to spend and what ROI you expect to get on them. Most home builders don't need a bajillion dollar Park top of the line pro stand. You can build a good stand for fairly cheap (plans all over the internet), you can get a Minoura Pro for around $60 online if you poke around a bit. I got mine for $55 on sale at Nashbar. I paid $35 for a WAG-4 dishing tool from Park, $12 for a set of generic black/green/red spoke wrenches, and I made a nipple driver by filing down a screwdriver bit for my drill (to speed up my builds). The most expensive thing I have is my Park TM-1 tension meter, and I think it was $65. While not necessary if you have a reference wheel for truing-by-pitch, the quality of my wheels has gone up since I started using one. My initial build was done using Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding instructions for lacing. I read Jobst Brandt and Roger Musson's books on wheelbuilding.
Overall, it's not that difficult. Start out with building a front wheel, then move on to a dished rear. I'd say it's a 7/10 the first one you build of any specific type, then gets progressively easier. After a couple pairs I didn't even need to look at my lacing guide any more.

nfmisso

+1 for Peter White. https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/wheels.asp

Even if you don't go with Peter, spend some time reading his website; lots of very good information.

I am with CliftonGK1 - I build them myself, they don't fail and never need re-truing. The stress relieve step is the critical one to building a maintenance free wheel.

I have purchased custom length Wheelsmith DH13 spokes from Peter White - which is my only relationship with him.

CraigB

Good point, and one that didn't even occur to me, maybe because I'm getting mine as a backup to the same-spoke-count OEM Shimano RS10s that come on my new bike.

Staggerwing

At your size, Velocity Dyad rim, 32h or 36h front, 36h rear, both laced 3x to either Shimano 105 or Ultegra hubs. Double butted spokes, and brass nipples. Relatively easy to build, and the Dyad is borderline bullet proof, which is amazing for a 460g rim. It is one of Peter Whites favorite rims, and I initially dismissed it as it is sold as a trekking rim, and 24mm wide. Then, everybody started falling all over themselves over the wider HED rims, and Velocity jumped on the bandwagon with the 23mm wide A23, which has been receiving some fine reviews. The Dyad is just 1mm wider (about the thickness of a paper match), a smidge taller and heavier, and clyde worthy.

If you want to through more dollars at it, the DTSwiss TK540's are bullet proof, but about $90 per rim and 540g each.

Don't know what you are running for tires, but I would suggest a 25 at absolute minimum, and a 28 would be be better still. I'm just a bit over the clyde border, and run 32s on my everyday Gunnar Crosshair.

CliftonGK1

Another rim suggestion is the Sun CR18. The beauty about these is that the tooling has long since been paid off on the original design, so they're cheap as ever these days. I think I picked mine up for around $50 for the pair. Definitely run 28mm or wider tires on them.

My current favourite cheap and strong rim is the IRO Cold Fusion. 95% sure they're a whiteboxed Velocity Fusion, which is just 5mm lower profile than the Deep-V. I've been punishing a pair on my singlespeed CX bike and my singlespeed commuter just got shoe'd with a set of these.

In the past I've used Alex DA16 and DT Swiss RR1.1 (now the RR465) with good results.

madmatt1740

My LBS called me today and said that they got in a set of Velocity Chukkers built up with 36 spokes on Deore hubs and would let me have them for $249. I looked on Velocity's website and they said that the Chukker is a beefed up version of the Deep V. I went to look at the wheels and liked them. One problem, though, they are 24mm wide. I want to run them with 25c tires and they fit on the rims, but is this a wise decision. The guy in the shop said they should work fine. My other option is to go to 28c tires (as mentioned by Staggerwing), but I am concerned that they might slow me down too much for some of the rides I am doing.