khackney

On Saturday about 10:30 a FedEx delivery truck appeared in my driveway with a box from Mike Garcia. After ripping it from the drivers hands, I was off to the workshop to check out what I had. First off, really nice safe shipper, each wheel is in a plastic bag and then placed in spacers to hold them perfectly safe from themselves and the outside world. Just inside the lid, was another plastic bag holding the build receipt, skewers, and a spare spoke and nipple of each size used. Very nice touch. The build copy also lists the exact lengths for each spoke so there will be no doubts if I ever need a local replacement. Now the good stuff. These wheels are built up with Velocity Aerohead rims in anodized gray color. I went this way because it is a neutral choice for any color bike frame I might end up with. The spokes are silver Wheelsmiths and I'm using silver SpeedCific hubs. The rear is built with 32 spokes and the front is 28... Let me tell you, these are perfectly true out of the box. I don't mean close, I mean dead nuts on. I sell precision tooling for a living and see a lot of spinning metal. I can usually see something that's even a little off, and these aren't. I'm sure the big question is, "what do they weigh"? Well here you go...

Front: 665 Grams
Rear: 908 Grams

That's right, 1573 for the pair... weighed without rim tape. Compare that to Mavic Ksyrium, Shimano D/A, Zipp, and you'll be hard pressed to find anything that light that someone 200 lbs could reasonably ride for an everyday wheel. And then remember that they cost me $300 for BOTH WHEELS.

As part of the wheel change I also changed the group on the bike and went to a compact crank. Yesterday afternoon I finished everything up and got to ride around the neighborhood a little. I expected the normal pops and creeks that you get on newly built wheels. Not this time, I heard maybe one or two very faint clicks in the first 10 feet and then they were stone silent. I'm taking them out tonight on their maiden "club ride" so I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow... I'll also try to get a few pics of them tonight so you can have a look.

For my money, Mike Garcia at Odds and Endos is the real deal. I could not be more impressed.

BTW, I took them by my LBS Saturday because some of the guys had asked about them. One of my friends who rides a full zoot Merlin guessed them to cost more per wheel than I paid for the pair. And, they weigh less than his Campy's. Life is good.

martin_j001

Glad you are happy with them--as I know most of Mike's customers are very happy with their wheels, and I'm certainly happy with mine!! Mike's a great guy too, and always seems to have the time to talk to his customers. Post some pics of the new ride for sure!! (your mods sound exactly like mine--new wheels and a new compact crank!!)

hi565

wow thgis guy sounds great! I dont have the money for wheels right now, but I think the time will come.

veneer

welcome to the MGC club... i love my velocity aeroheads.. it's sweet~

hi565

Oh I almost forgot!

alk

congratulations. I have the same set in 24/28 spokes, came out to 1520g. great wheelset.

SteveAZ

Good to hear, I too am getting ready to upgrade my P.O.S. wheels and figured I'd go with Mike as well.

Stubacca

Looking forward to those pics... that's a colour combo I'd been thinking about. I'm still getting around to ordering a set of MG wheels - maybe next month.

blandin

I got my MG Aeroheads in March of this year. Built 32 spokes front and rear, came in at 1577 grams. As veneer said, "Welcome to the club!"

DocRay

Khackney,

Could you post back after ~200 miles? How do they hold up?

Stubacca

Holding up well?

veneer

MG's aerohead holds up very very well.. on my first ride with them on my freshly built bike.. i took a right turn to sudden, fishtailed and slammed into the curb with the rear wheel at 17mph. wheel was out of true, but after turing.. it's perfect again~ so for me it holds up very very well.

Stubacca

Good to hear. Aeroheads are *I think* what I'll be looking to get. Just gotta stop spending money on vacations for long enough to spend some more money on bike stuff.

blandin

I'm 6'1" and weigh 220 lbs., so I give the wheels a workout. To date, I have over 1000 miles on them and outside of one minor re-true on the rear wheel, I haven't had to do a thing. They are light, fast and strong. I would highly recommend the wheels, as well as Mike Garcia and his wife Jackie, to anyone in the market.

slvoid

Don't worry, if you did that on your Lightweight's, they wouldn't even bulge 1mm.

veneer

slvoid.. yup.. i weigh in at 143lbs.. and at 5'8" it was scary and fun at the same time drifting through the corner on the bike while trying not to slip and fall.

but it's all good now~

cjbruin

How did you get them for $300? On the site it appears that they would be $340 for the pair. Were they running a special?

timwat

Mike just recently posted price increases. He was warning about it for most of the summer, and finally made the changes a couple of weeks ago, I think.

I ordered the same wheels about a week and a half ago, at $299 for the pair, shipped. Now I just have to be patient until they show up....

CPcyclist

I think someone needs to point MG to this forum. Word of mouth here for this wheel craftsman is always positive.

Thinking........Which one of you is the real MG? I mean Sheldon Brown posts here way not Mike Garcia.

kubla khan

Who is Mike Garcia and can someone provide me a link to his wheels?

TheKillerPenguin

https://www.oddsandendos.com/

kubla khan

thanks

AngelT

Haha, I was talking w/ him on the phone before placing my order. I made sure to let him know how I heard of him. I let him know about bikeforums.net

I too ordered some black Aeroheads....go figure, lol. $299 as well. Hopefully they'll arrive this weekend or the upcoming week. Cool guy indeed.

samp02

interesting....have to check them out..

Devious Rhesus

How big of an upgrade over my Shimano 550's would these puppies be? They may be a little lighter, but I think they're less aero.....

Congrats on the purchase khackney! Can't wait to see some pics.