I know that BD uses them on their bikes and BI sells them, but are they any good? Or just another brand setup by the BD crew?

The Vuelta wheelsets I've seen are a inexpensive rather heavy Chinese built wheels. If your looking for a set of rain wheels or just something cheap they are fine but remember they appear to have no resale value.

It's important to note the Vuelta does a lot of things. I have Vuelta Typhoon rims on my hybrid, but I have never seen those in Europe.
Anyway, there is a Vuelta USA, and a Vuelta Italy, and I'm pretty sure that there is a Vuelta Germany too (which I think is related to the company that makes Grünert rims and Renak hubs). Vuelta USA seem to distribute the Vuelta Italy products, most of which are made in Italy, and use nice things like Alpina spokes and Novatec hubs (Novatec is the swanky mark for one of the major Taiwanese hub makers).
The XRP ones listed by Bikes Direct are ones that Vuelta sells to OEMs. www.vuelta.it lists them as being Italian made.


If they are good enough for pro teams.....

lol... 12 spoke front wheel...

I looked at their rims on ebay and was shocked at the weight. Over 600 grams for 1 rim is rediculous. That's almost the weight of a pair of rims by other manufacturers!

Slightly differing opinions it seems. I happened to see a VueltaUSA ad in bicyling mag and was wondering if it was connected to BD. Apparently not. I am building up a Bianchi Veloce frame and wheels are probably my next purchase. Think I might go with the cheap Fulcrums.

There are too many wheels called "vuelta" to understand who makes them. Trek's used to come with Ambrosio "vuelta" rims.
There are many good carbon wheel builds with 12 spoke fronts.

I had a set of 30mm aero wheels by them for a while. Very heavy, very sturdy, and fast as hell once you got them going. They were good for rolling hills, actually, because you carried allot of speed up each hill before you had to start climbing. Sucked for pacelines though on rolling hills, because other people accelerated and deaccelerated at different times.

Actually, if 600 grams is the rear wheel, that's pretty light.

I think he means just the rim, not the whole wheel.

I have a set of Vuelta XRP's from Italy and they are decent wheels. I put a set on my wife's bike as well and they have done the job. I upgraded from my XRP's to Spinergy Xaero Lites however and use the XRP's for the trainer now.

For the money you can't go wrong.

I have 3 sets of the "BD Vuelta XRP" wheels that I use for training. Yes they're heavy and cheap, but I have had zero problems with them at my weight (165)