Originally Posted by
jimc101
Sorry, but for a Cannondale @ $850 new, it is a cheap bike, saying very was an error, but Cannondale is a mid - high end manufacture with a few budget models and although the OP hasn't given the model name/number, going on the price, it is around the bottom of their range and will have low end wheels.
Sorry, you think that way, but I was biasing what I wrote on the info supplied by the OP and their bike, what is a good wheel? that depends on the intended use, for just riding to the shops, all you need is one which is in true, and well built (something very lacking in a lot of budget wheels) in this case, we are talking about a road bike wheel, and the cost of a same day repair, were getting off topic here....
do I own a set of high end wheels, no, but I would like to, yes, and plenty of people do, normally for specific purposes. Good road bike wheels start with wheels like Fulcrum 7, Shimano R500, these are cheap and good wheels.
As I noted above, it is cheap / low end for this brand (guess I can't win here, just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's junk, next time you are going towards the east coast, check out Aldi stores, they are cheap and good), if you were talking about a hybrid, would consider this sort of price mid to high range, it's all relative.
See, I look at this bike as a nice starter road bike:
http://www.cannondale.com/2013/bikes...mpact-crankset MSRP is 830 dollars. Sure its Sora but its still a good starter road bike. I don't like to use the word cheap only because it has a negative vibe at Bikeforums. I would call the bike an inexpensive starter road bike by a well respected manufacturer. As for the wheelset? I just looked it up and its something built with MADDUX RS 3.0 rims and Cannondale C4 hubs. Sounds kind of very basic and dare i say it, cheap, but I still maintain that they will be a fair bit better than the wheels on a 250 dollar cheap Walmart bike. They will be undoubtedly be machine built and need final truing/tensioning at the bike shop once the new bike arrived. Once trued and tensioned, they will probably last many troublefree miles even if they are a pound or few heavier than a decent 250 dollar and up wheelset.
I like nice wheels. I wish I could afford nice ones too but that isn't in the cards right now.
I guess I just took exception to the word cheap. When you are talking about tools and bikes, I don't like that word, it just makes me think of low quality stuff. I look at Craftsman tools as inexpensive yet very durable yet not cheap. I look at the cheap Harbor Freight socket sets and they really are cheap.