Originally Posted by
plonz
As far as weight, I actually do most of my riding on 20-23 lb vintage steel bikes. The extra 3-6 lbs over my carbon bike doesn't really hamper my speeds except when climbing. But drop a pound at the wheels and I can definitely notice.
I have found this to he true, but the impact is greater when going from a cheap wheelset than going from an excellent heavier to comparable quality lighter wheelset. A lot depends on what wheels the OP has. A great example is my wife's bike that came with 5+ lbs of Alex wheels. Bought a new set of Fulcrum Racing T's for a $100 on eBay and the difference was night and day in her riding. The new wheels are hardly light and far from expensive. I swapped out some wheels on an old steel GT mountain bike with a much lighter XTR hub wheelset and it was an amazing difference.
As far as addressing the OP's question, my brother picked up a set of Open Sport rims on 105 hubs that he likes a lot. Depending on how bad his current wheels are, that is not a bad option. I would just read reviews and look on eBay and find a decent wheelset.
One final point, I have new wheels for my bike, which I will get to, but my old 36 hole Mavic MA40's on Superbe a Pro hubs just keep going. They are not light, but it has never seemed to slow me down to where I just had to replace them. But for their era, those hubs are pretty silky... and they still are.
John