Originally Posted by
StanSeven
The thing that made me realize how much wheels affect performance is a test ride I did a long time ago. When I cam back to the shop, the owner asked what I thought. I said the bike felt very harsh. He switched the deep aluminum wheels to box rims and I went back out - night and day in terms of comfort.
I have an older carbon fiber Specialized Ruby road bike (2007). It came with nice Ultegra low spoke count wheels. I'm a petite rider and I'm sensitive to whether a bike has a smooth ride. The Ruby rode nice but I thought it was a bit buzzy. Eventually I changed the wheels out to a set of Mavic Open Pros (32 spokes). It made a big difference in the ride and the bike is now as smooth as my 853 steel road bike (also with Open Pro wheels).
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Gunnar Sport
Specialized Ruby
Salsa Vaya Ti
Novara Randonee x2
Motobecane Fantom CXX
Jamis Dakar XCR