Originally Posted by
Campag4life
Thanks. Your response really underscores the difference in wheelsets for the average weekend warrior. Fulcrum 1's which are awesome wheels cost nearly 3's more than Fulcrum 5's. They are a bit lighter and stiffer. Some, particularly those that don't race, may prefer the slightly less stiff ride quality of the Fulcrum 5's. The durability difference is also unclear but the 5's may also be a bit more robust because of spoke count. In summary one is paying almost 3x's as much for the Fulcrum 1's and yet you correctly state the difference for an amateur racer is probably small. I really believe that captures the high end wheelset debate.
Yep, I agree with you there mate - prior to the Fulcrums, I had some very heavy, bombproof wheels (2.2Kg for the pair) and going to the R3s I've got, firstly, was a marked difference for me; whilst the difference between R3 to R1 was lesser, whilst the R5s are in the ballpark for MY skill-level and are very good for the price!
Whilst the more-expensive wheels look good and for me, have provided performance improvements, I reckon that even if I had you-beaut Zipps, or similar, they wouldn't improve my riding over and above me losing some more pounds around the midriff! Disclaimer - I do reckon these more performance oriented wheelsets allow me to climb better than the heavy wheelsets did, but again, the difference between Fulcrum R1 to R5, for me, isn't that much.
BTW - only my R5s were purchased brand new and are my 'back-up' wheelset, the R1s and R3s I have were secondhand and well-used, but still run very nicely.
cheers