What are thoughts on best wheel in the 2k and under range? Looking for a speed improvement over my non aero, but lightweight carbon wheels.

It's my opinion that the "best deal in town" comes from Light Bicycle wheels. They're a direct-to-consumer Chinese brand which means a much lower cost to you for wheels that are every bit as good as the top brands.

Unlike a lot of brands that make proprietary rims, hubs, and spokes, LB just makes the rims and uses name brand spokes and hubs like DT Swiss, Industry 9, etc. As such, if you're wheels need maintenance in the future (broken spoke, bad bearing, etc.), you'll have no problem getting parts vs proprietary brands like Hunt, Winspace, etc. As a Bontrager fan, I wanted a set of Bontrager XXX wheels for my Trek Domane, but for the same price as one XXX wheel, I got a wheel set from LB that's considerably lighter than the Bontrager wheels, nearly as aero (within a few watts according to the highly controversial Hambini web site), and look better thanks to a cool looking "3K twill carbon weave" and custom spoke nipple colors. I have several hundred miles on my LB wheel set that arrived last month and I am completely pleased with my purchase.

The only down-side to ordering from LB is that you'll likely have to wait a while to get your wheels, especially if you do the custom build option. There are several threads on several forums regarding LB wheels, typically filled with satisfied customers like myself.

Boyd

Right now there's a 3-4 week lead time for builds at the North American distributor.

I have a Boyd wheel that I have been very happy with.

For under $2K, I would consider the HED Jet 6/9 Plus (60 mm front / 90 mm rear) from mybikeshop.com and Flo 64 mm / 77 mm carbon wheels. Use the code “PODCAST” for 20% off at Flo. Each of these sets cost around $1200 - $1300.

Last month I got my second set of custom-built Light Bicycle wheels. They arrived 21 days after I ordered them.

If there's anything comparable at their price points, I am unaware. First class wheel set for not much more than $1k

What kind of bike? Tire clearance? Disc or rim? What kind of riding? What kinds of roads? Tubed, tubeless or keep your options open? How important is warranty/service to you?

Is it 2008 again?

I'm sorry Mr. Ford but your "any color as long as it's black" isn't my style. ... and I was thinking more like the 1980s, not 2008.

he got 3k twill, not 3k weave.

If you already have light carbon hoops, more aero ones are going to be a very, very small change in speed for a very, very big price.

Being slightly zig-zaggy doesn't change much.

This is what I'm thinking, unless the existing wheels are narrow and s/he also wants to go wider/lower pressure while also improving aero (frame and brake clearances allowing).

I'll throw my positive comments behind Boyd wheels. I have a set on my bike, closing in on just over 25,000km. No complaints.

What wheels do you have now so we can compare?

I have been super happy with both my Reynolds AR58x and FFWD F4R wheel sets. Which one is more aero than the other, or would be more aero than your setup, I have no idea. Both wheel sets are below 2k and don't have a wait time which is nice.

I've got Giant CXR1 wheels now.

How deep of a dish do you wanna go in an aero wheel?

Probably not crazy. Got some availability for mavic cosmic and syncros capital 1.0 50.

Same here which is why I recommended them. You can write to the company and Boyd Johnson will typically respond. Great customer service and yes, their products are great.

I'll throw in a recommendation for PSIMET. I've had eight sets of wheels built by them over the past 10 years. That includes road (aluminum & carbon clinchers), cyclocross ( aluminum and carbon, clinchers & tubulars) and most recently a set of MTB, wide rim clinchers. I don't think there is a better value on the market. He has some pre-configured offerings with options or you can go full custom. As long as they are making wheels, I won't buy anything else.

This is assuming rim brake: HED or Flo

As an average joe I appreciate the alloy braking track so that there aren't braking issues in wet OR some weird proprietary brake treatment or pads or shaping on a full carbon wheel. The weight penalty is super negligible.

Also, you can run both TL. For the fairing style ones, just don't crank down on the tubeless valve nut without doing this first: install a little metal sleeve that can fit over the valve stem but through the hole in the fairing to crank down on. There's topics online you can find showing this. That way you don't crush the fairing if going tubeless.

"For the money", those two are my "go to" wheels. They're not the super fancy newest 28mm/30mm tire size optimized aero wheels.......but they're still great with a 25. Which seems plenty for an aero road wheel.

Have fun.

HED and Flo are at the top of my list for disc brake wheels also. I just bought a set of Flo carbon disc wheels for my wife's bike and currently running HED Jet+ wheels as well. Both are great wheels.

From a purely subjective point, Flo is nice because you can customize the color scheme and it's easier to mix / match different wheel sizes when ordering. The HED Jet wheels make a very cool whooshing sound, similar to a disc wheel.