Wheelset Recommendations
 

Hi everyone, Im new on this forum..

Looking for recommendations to upgrade my bike's wheelset..

Riding a 2019 Giant Defy Advanced 2 right now and thinking of upgrading my wheels..I dont do races, just leisure road/park connector cycling distance of about 70-80km at a time but aiming to hit 100km..

Have been looking at Fulcrum Racing 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 Disc Brakes, a little more incline towards the Racing 4 and perhaps also the DT Swiss wheelsets..however, im not too sure what to look out for..can these fit my bike? What other recommendations are there where pricing are somewhat similar to these few models i have in mind...

What are you hoping to gain ?

Many folks upgrade to 1) Save weight. Expensive. 2) Replace a crappy wheel set on a basic bike due to spokes breaking, which is usually the rear wheel in any case, so maybe only a rear wheel needed. 3) Looks. Deep carbon wheels look great. 3) Have a set of racing vs. training/winter wheels. 4) Have a set of wheels with different tires - gravel bike with a set of big dirt tires, vs. a set of 25-28mm road tires.

Defining your goals helps us make a recomendation

Certainly hoping to shed some weight off the bike..From what i understand, the Giant PR2 wheelset that comes with the bike weighs in at approx 2kg.

Those wheels are boat anchors, so it shouldn't be hard to drop a pound or more. How much do you want to spend?

Perhaps maybe in the range of USD 300-400? Basically the range of Fulcrum Racing 4, 5, 6 & 7 DB are in my range...

I read a bunch of wheel reviews on-line back in December over the holiday and was getting ready to buy a set of big brand wheels. Before pulling the trigger I emailed Robert over at Psimet. A few emails and a phone call later I ordered a set from Psimet. Think I did better there than I would have elsewhere. Super knowledgeable guy.

Problem here is that I am actually from Asia, Singapore..

Mavic USTs will cost under $500 and include tires. Faster, smoother and more comfortable. And, of course, major flat protection.

In that price range I'd probably go with Fulcrum Racing 3 DB for $391.94 with shipping to Singapore.

https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/f...19-149739.html

or DT Swiss R23 Spline Disc Clincher Wheelset for $259

https://planetcyclery.com/catalog/pr.../category/676/

Did Soul Bike close shop? I purchased a Soul 4.0 wheelset from them a few years ago. They are located in Singapore.

Lightbicycle has some pretty good wheels at very reasonable prices. Reputable company and good after-sales support. I just got a 1412gm / 36mm deep wheelset from them for a hair over $600. Dont have enough miles on those wheels to have an opinion on quality yet, but given the positive reviews they get, i dont expect any issues. Cosmetically, they look amazing.

My experience with Fulcrum has been meh. I have a pair of Racing Zeros with perhaps 4000-5000km on them and no major pothole impact, and they are out of true. By comparison, my Psimet wheels ran for years and years with zero fuss and zero truing issues. As an alternative to LB, consider opening a Shop'n'Ship account and getting wheels from him - you'll pay around $50 in shipment, and his wheels are flat-out amazing.

where are Mavic Ksyrium UST disc wheels available(with tires) for under $500?

I bought a set of rim brake wheels w/tires for under $500. That was about 6 months ago.

They still have a website -- last updated in January.

Those won't work for the OP, and the disc version is about $575 without tires.

The OP wants to keep it under $400

It's been much longer since they updated their product line..

Another place to consider is Hunt Bike Wheels.

Neugent Cycling A220 Aero or A330AS are both outstanding.

I wouldn’t consider either of these options because of issues with the hubs. A little searching will find many complaints about the hubs on Hunt wheels, and the Neugent hubs use a poor geometry that requires an insanely high DS tension.

I’m not a fan of Mavic wheels, but I’d give Mavic another try before buying Hunt or Neugent.

I've never had an issue with the hubs on my Hunt Aero Light Disc wheelset, they're on my rain bike and get plenty of abuse. In fact, I quite like them, they spin very well and have a high engagement rate for the price. I've only heard about these supposed hub issues here, hardly what I would call many complaints.

Much, much happier with my Neugents than I was with my Mavics. No comparison in terms of performance. Not everyond agrees that the geometry is poor.

I have a set of Ksyrium wheels and had multiple failures. Mavic warranteed the rear rim twice but the third time I paid for it. Broke spokes and I paid for that, too. Stopped using them and switched to Open Pro rims hand built on Record hubs.

Im currently leaning towards getting a DT-Swiss 350 32 holes hubs (front and rear with 36T ratchet) together with DT-Swiss RR481 or R500 rims to go with a pair or Schwalbe Pro One TLE..

I see that DT-Swiss has rims with rim height of 21mm, 23mm, 25mm and 32mm, personally prefer the mid-range (thus RR481 and R500). Also because they can support weight of 130kg which im quite close to..plus they are quite light too, 485g and 495g respectively..

Waiting to hear what price my local bike shop here in Singapore can offer..

Not everyone understands what a poor hub geometry is, but if you ask an expert like Psimet2001 I'm sure he would agree that Neugent hubs have a poor design.

I'm not surprised that you like the Neugent wheels better than your old Mavic wheelset. Those were boat anchors, so the weight difference is very noticeable.

I was referring to the new Mavic UST Ksyriums, not the old one that used proprietary spokes, and nipples(that thread into the rim. Their old hubs sucked too, and sourcing replacement parts was a pain in the ass(and expensive)

The new ones use traditional straight-pull spokes, and the hubs were redesigned to use a splined ring gear similar to DT.

I'm not a big fan of Mavic wheels, but I'd rather try their new ones than either Hunt or Neugent.

(edit) after looking at the Mavic website I see that they still use proprietary spokes on their wheels. For this reason I will never recommend their wheelsets.

I sill love the old Open Pros laced to 8 speed Record hubs on my Guerciotti, but even OPs quality declined in the later years.