Originally Posted by
Trakhak
I'd wondered what you meant by "crap wheels" in a previous thread where you said that a young racer's bike would cost a minimum of $6,000 (IIRC) and that that number included replacing the stock crap wheels. You weren't referring to, e.g., the quality of the hubs or rims but to somewhat improved aerodynamics (I guess) and somewhat lighter weight. In that case, "crap" seems a little strong.
I wasn’t talking about wheels on the 6k bike. I was saying that is the price point where decent wheels started to show up…
The wheels on many of the lower/lower mid spec road and MTB’s are flat out crap.
My Emonda ALR 5 came with wheels that were not only heavy - but smoked bearings and hubs every few thousand miles. Bike was always in the shop.
Those wheels came on some of CF bikes as well.
Wheels that came on my son’s entry level racing MTB ($1700 bike) - complete crap that he proceeded to break ASAP. In fact, the other tab on my browser has a search for replacement wheels.
And not to derail too far - we just got back from regionals. The kids that won (top 10) were on S-Works, Project One’s or other similar 8k+ rigs.
Even the kids on “charity” type teams were riding SuperCalibers, 4-5k or so. I’m talking 14-15 year old kids… my point then was - kids can race on basic bikes - but compete/win?
So when 115# kids are racing - 10#’s of bike weight is a huge advantage…