Suggestions for sub $200 wheelset
 

looking for a 7 speed compatible 126-130 spaced light wheelset for under 200.. by light I mean decent weight not ultra weight weenie. Suggestions plz? Black rims are preferred.

Do you want new or just serviceable?

I'd just buy a complete used bike off of CL, strip it, and sell off the components and frameset right back on CL. If you find good deal on CL for the used bike you might even come out with a free or next to free wheelset.

I found a great set on ebay for $120 delivered, tubulars or course, including silk tires. But you did not specify type. Color of the rims I think should be the last item on the list of wants.

Black, Clinchers, Decent weight, I'd say you look for wheels with Amborsio Elite 19 rims. The definitely came in anodized black as I had a wheelset with them back in the 80's. There were a lot of black anodized clincher rims from Matrix too from the mid 80's that were very good quality and not heavy.
If you want to try tubulars, maybe try out sheels with Wolber Profil 20 rims. not quite black but very dark in color and looks like black in most of my pics. Very strong and stiff early aero profile design. I recommend it as the rims can usually be found at eBay for not so much money compared to other tubular rims.

Chombi

Go to the newer Centurion Lemans thread. He's looking to sell his Exage/Campy Gamma rims.
BF member byhsu

+1 Think used. In 300 plus bikes in the last several years, I have yet to have bought a single new wheel, despite replacing probably at least 100 during that time. There may be a time where I buy a new wheel, but given my current inventory of spare wheels, it won't be anytime soon. I typically find them either on Craigs List (someone upgrading), garage sale, or in the form of a complete donor bike.

Another advantage of used wheels is they typically come complete with skewers, cassette, rim strips, even tires and tubes. Often, the value of the extras exceed the entire cost of the wheels.

+1 To Robbie below: sometimes the tires on used wheels are great, sometimes they are decent (usable for a flip), sometimes they are crap. But the tubes are almost always good.

You can even go the proactive route, place a WTB wheels in your local C/L, in the bikes for sale section (the wanted section gets ignored around here).

You haven't really looked. There are tons of wheels out there in that price range.

No, I'm not going to look for you.

I've built flip bikes with $76 Magnum deepV wheels, and they worked just fine.

cehowardGS bought two sets of modern wheels, under $150 each, and they roll and spin and work just great.

If you watch ribble carefully, Campy Khamsins can be had for pretty decent prices once in a while, and I think they come in Shimano hubs, too.

Modern wheels will need a spacer if you go 7-sp on them. Older wheels won't, but a lot of the older ones need a freewheel, not a cassette. I'd search for Shimano 105 1050 and 1055 wheels, and 6400 wheels, both of which came with 126mm freehubs.

They're out there. Purchases in the last year:

8-sp Campy Eurus: $100 with cassette and horrible tires, but the tubes held air.
10-sp Campy Vento: $100 with cassette and ProRace 3 tires.
10-sp Campy Eurus tube/tubless: $150 with cassette and ProRace 3 tires.

Missed recently:

10-sp Mavic Aksium: $150 in silver.
10-sp DTSwiss 1900 tube/tubless with Stan's kit installed: $140



I'm no rabid shopper, so if I can find them, you can, too.

I would like to thank most of you for your input!

Teetime.. wow man. Just wow.

I am not sure if black is your thing but I got a decent set of wheels for my Batavus from Bike Island, Bike Directs parts website. They were 8+spd but with a spacer work fine with 7spd. and for $130+ shipping w/ tires how can you complain?

http://bikeisland.com/cgi-bin/BKTK_S...ls&ProdID=2446

http://bikeisland.com/images/121311017.JPG

If those wheels weren't 2000 miles away I might be interested.

What's the weight like? I don't want to go from boat anchors to smaller boat anchors ;)

No offense, but those are alloy rims with clinchers....so, 1. They can't be that bad, 2. You can always go for a lighter tire, and 3. Are you looking to ride in Olympic qualifying ? ..."What's the weight like..." ? seriously ??

Joe

Mods.................................please move this thread to the road forum.:p

Think of me as wheel challenged, I've only ever bought ultra budget wheels, all my good ones came with bikes... >.< and trust me budget alex wheels weigh too much.

The formula hub/CXP 23 wheelset for about ~$130 on ebay is a great value if you really want new. Formula hubs are cartridge bearing and bombproof. The CXP 23s are also really strong without being overly heavy.

I have planet x model b's that were $149 when I bought them. They weigh in around 1750 grams for the set. I think they've gone up a little, but not too much. I have no complaints yet.

The total weight of a wheel set is not the best way to judge how
well they'll work in your application.

The majority of the rotating weight is in the rim....far outboard
from the center of the rotating mass. So it makes more sense
(to me, anyway) to look at the weight of the rim (and tire) as
the factor in deciding how much oomph it takes to accelerate.

Does that make sense at all ? This is why a lot of the deep V
stuff is not always a good choice if you want gofast wheels.

But for what I do here, even a rim like the Alex adventurer
seems to work out pretty well for me. Certainly they are
very strong and resistant to road hazard.

Like I said my friend, wheel challenged! Thus why I'm asking here. The alex rims I currently have are bottom of the barrel modern factory made sub 50 dollars each wheels.. and yes it makes a lot of sense, but I am also light and getting lighter due to cycling so unless the wheel is downright noodley hopefully most any can work for me.

I bought a decent set from Velomine for around $170. Shimano 105 hubs and Mavic Open Sport rims, they have been good wheels. Cassettes are the way to go, they are a big improvement over freewheels for a number of reasons.

They have some less expensive sets for around $120, sun rims and formula hubs I think.

This. I have a set of Mavic Open Pros/Shimano hubs with skewers, tubes and new tires. These were takeoffs, and I paid under $200 shipped. This was actually a "high" used price, since I wanted wheels with little/no mileage, but it's $150+ savings over new for everything.

It's trickle-down: people buy expensive bikes and upgrade them with even more expensive wheelsets, and a few brick-and-mortar shops that do swaps will often sell these parts on eBay. They can be used for another bike on the floor, but they can't be sold as new.

build your own; that way you get the rims, spokes and hub you want.

As noted by 3alarmer; for the lightest wheels, you do not want a V, you do want a shallow rim, higher spoke count with Wheelsmith XL15 or similar spokes and a low flange hub.

Thank you guys so much, but I need to note something. I currently lack the funds to do this, it's planning for the future here.. soooo all the kind offers I can't accept atm for wheelsets :/

Not black, but I just put a set of Alex alloy wheels on my bike and I am suitably satisfied. I notice someone mentioned they aren't light - and they aren't especially. Only about a half pound lighter per wheel than the chromed rims I replaced, so a little over a pound off the bike weight.
They seem fairly well built, arrived true and round (I can't say for certain that the LBS didn't do that before giving them to me, but I suspect not) and the pair with hubs cost me about $80. Axle bolts where over-tightened but that was an easy fix.

I usually scavenge wheels from discarded bikes and true them up and re-use them, this is the first set I've ever bought actually, but my recent rebuild needed something I didn't need to polish every week, and I have no spare 27" alloy wheels.
I suspect you could find some used higher end ones in black with some searching... I've seen the odd black Mavic rim in the area on some seriously gnarled hipster bikes, so that indicates they can't be that expensive if they went that way instead of Velocity deep V's.
Also, Velocity V rims seem to be relatively in that price range if you already have hubs and come in a variety of colors, probably black is one of them.

Right now there are a bunch of Shimano R500 wheelsets up on eBay for under $100, some shipped at that price. Great wheels, came stock on several recent Cervelo and Pinnarello models.

Take off the decals = black rims with machined braking surfaces. I used a couple pairs of these on customer builds in the spring (they were NEW on eBay for under $100 in the winter) and they were exceptional wheels for the price. And black.

Key is you need to buy when prices are low, and the only way to do that is to be a constant shopper, watch the market.