Recommend some wheels for weekends and centuries?
 

I'd like some recommendations for wheels, if anyone has the time and interest.

Here's my situation: I'm a 57-year-old recreational rider and tourer. I ride on weekends during the year, and in the summer I usually take a fully-loaded tour somewhere. I have a nice touring bike - a Surly LHT - but it's a bit of a tank for weekend rides and centuries, especially since I have it equipped with racks and fenders.

I just bought a Specialized Allez frame on Ebay - the price was right. I want to build it up for the weekend rides and centuries, and save the Surly for tours. It's the basic Allez - all aluminum except for the carbon fork.

I weigh about 200 lbs. I've broken spokes in the past and it's something I worry about, so getting a durable wheelset is one consideration, but I won't be loading this bike up so I think I can get away with lighter wheels than on my tourer.

I'm not a racer; I ride at a comfortable pace. I'm not sure if aerodynamic spokes are a concern, but lightness is; I want this bike to be lighter and faster than my tourer.

I don't want to spend too much money. When I have plenty of money to spend I'm going to buy a carbon fiber bike. The Allez is just to get me through until then - maybe a couple of years. But I also know that a good wheelset makes a big difference, so I'm not averse to spending some bucks. $300 sounds like a nice figure for the set, but I could be talked higher - maybe $500 - if I'm getting a good bang for my buck.

I'm planning on a triple crankset - I've gotten too used to it from my touring bike - and with a triple I've read that a 9-speed cassette is better than 10. Is that right or am I full of baloney? And does any of that affect my wheel choice?

Any and all thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm 190 and use a pair that a local shop built up for IIRC, $350, maybe $375. Ultegra hubs, DT spokes, brass nipples and 32-hole Velocity Fusion rims.

They were pretty bulletproof except when I tried to bunnyhop an 8" gap in a concrete path and cracked the rear rim. It was $60 for a new one.

I put over 8K on them before the rim incident without truing them.

I paid $269 for ultegra hubs + open pros, DT revolution spokes (32 - 3x cross front and back) at bicyclewheelwarehouse.com. From what I've heard, they're pretty sturdy.

That open pro/ultegra wheelset is very good indeed. It sounds like you are a bit of a home mechanic, as you are building the bike. Fancy making your own wheels? I suggest a cheaper wheelset for a first try. Mavic open sport rims on Tiagra hubs makes a very good wheelset, and is rather less expensive. Use 36 spoke rear, 3X with 2X on the drive side (make it a bit stiffer and stronger), and 32 on the front. Do the front radial for simplicity and because it looks fast! Or 3X if you like, maybe a little more comfortable to ride. Use DT Swiss double butted spokes, they are very robust.

I suggest that unless you really struggle on hills, and have some very steep ones on your area, you get a double chainset. The racing bike weighs a lot less, and you'll probably be going up hills a lot faster. I know plenty of people with triples that they don't use. Get a 52-39 chainset and a 12-27 cassette, and it will probably give all the gears you need. You could even use a 12-25 if your area is reasonably flat.

These are the wheels I built up for just such purposes:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=488403

very similar to an ultregra/open pro - but swapped out the Ulegra hub for Campagnolo Daytona (more or less equivialent in campy's line up), and went with the Ambrosio Excellight SSC rim, which weighs in approx equal to the open pro. Still waiting for my new tires to arrive, hopefully have a full ride review of them by the end of the weekend.

You can get the Open Pro Ultegras from Performance for $200, if you wait for a sale. less if you use one of their coupons.

I bought a pair from them to use for "roubaix" style races, and they've worked fine.

You have a lot of those in Jacksonville?

I'm not doubting you, I'm just curious.

One more for Open Pros. They're just so much wheel for the money. Now, post some pics of that LHT!

OP or Mavic Aksiums, whichever is cheaper. Nice bike :thumb:

You don't weigh that much, honestly. There are lots of wheel sets that can work. I bought a set of Neuvation M28 Aero2 wheels for $200 and they've been great. Just upgraded to Easton EA90 SLs, thanks to eBay and the 25% cashback from live.com; they'll end up costing around $420, IIRC. You can also get 1400g EA90 SLX wheels for not much more. Williams System 19 wheels are also pretty reasonable in price; just over your $500 budget if you have to pay for shipping.

Baloney. My 10-speed Ultegra SL triple (now for sale, BTW) never missed a shift and seemed darn-near bullet-proof. After running the gearing calculator over on Sheldon Brown's site, I found there wasn't really any difference between a road triple and a compact double, so I went with the double (SRAM Red) on my new bike...

The OP is a 57 recreational rider. He doesn't need 1400g wheels lol. Honestly, the Open Pros with the ultegra hubs is plenty for the bike he has and the type of riding he is doing. Plus they are pretty solid in terms of durability.

Or Aksiums, which are also heavy wheels but pretty much bombproof.

Performance has the Mavic Open Pro's for $280.

What tires will you be using? If you go larger than 32c I suggest using a wider rim than what people have suggested here.

What I used for a number of years was Mavic CXP33 rims and Shimano hubs.
You get them pretty cheap on the net from places like Colorado Cyclist. You have many choices for tires. Continental has a brand spanking new 28c tire that has Vectran and weighs 9 or 10 ounces. Very light for the size. I used to
use Rivendell Ruffy Tuffy 27c tires and with the Mavic rims it's pretty quick.

However... while all this will help, I have been down this road before. The frame has some give built into it that eats some of your energy. It just wasn't
intended to go fast.

IMHO... look at used road bikes, preferably in the Sport category cause they will take a 28c tire. One example of the breed is the Surly Pacer, another is the Gunnar Sport. They've always been around, and they're not hard to find... my first road bike was a Schwinn varisty it's one.

+1 they are what I have on my Specialized Roubaix.

The Williams System 19 wheels are only rated for 190 lbs; you need to go to the 30x in their lineup if you weigh more. I have a set of the 30x and they're nice, but overkill for the OP's needs. As a previous poster said, I'd avoid the lightweight wheels in this case. The ultegra/open pros sound like the best option to me.

BTW, unless your area is flat or extremely hilly you might want to go with a compact crank (50x34 or 36), with something like a 11-26 cassette on the back if you're in an area with lots of climbs. Unless you're going to be doing sustained and steep climbs, or are pretty weak, the triple is likely to be overkill on a road bike.

Two words: Peter White

Call him up (he doesn't do email) and basically tell him exactly what you wrote in the OP. Whatever he recommends will be the bee's knees. Accept his suggestion as if it were the word of the Buddah. Then buy 'em. They'll likely last forever.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/wheels.asp

What are "bee's knees" anyway?

In any case, if you can true a wheel, get the Performance OP + ultegra wheelset (they come a bit loose so you'll need to tighten them up a bit - not hard). I train and have raced on those, and they hold up just fine. I went from 205lbs to 185lbs using those wheels (and a lot of bike time). If you don't like futzing with truing, you should probably pay an extra $100 to get a better built set from Colorado Cyclist. I've heard them recommended by a former master's pro who rides for our team.

I don't think you'll see them for $200 at Performance again - just my observation that they were $200 at this time of year last year and now that they aren't; it probably means that their prices have gone up. But believe me, $250 isn't a bad deal either.

Anyway, stay away from tricky wheelsets. You don't need them (you aren't racing) and they are hard to repair and work on. Oh, and get an 8/9/10 speed hub (basically anything but 2006-2007 DuraAce - I think, someone should verify the model years which aren't 8/9 speed compatible). That way you can make the switch to 10 speed when you want without changing anything but the shifters and the cassette. If you can find the shifters, 9 speed is fine for your needs and the cassettes are now way cheap given that 10 speed is standard.

I am no longer a fan of low profile rims, and particularly of Open Pros. The last two OPs I have had have cracked at the spoke eyelets and had a loose sleeve at the joint that rattles.

'Aero' profile rims make for much sturdier wheels. The larger cross-section rim better resists twisting, which makes for a wheel that it laterally stiffer. The wheel will flex less when you are standing on the pedals. That will let the spokes last longer and the wheel will stay truer. Even though I only weigh 140-145 lbs I have to regularly retrue my back wheels, and I have had to get wheels rebuilt after they break too many spokes and get too hard to true. My Powertap hub is on its fourth build and it's only two years old. I do ride a lot of steep climbs, I am sure that has a lot to do with it.

My most recent PT wheel build uses an IRD Cadence "aero" rim (re-badged Niobium rim that's available under different names such as Kinlin). Its listed weight is all of 20g more than the OP's listed weight but it's much stiffer laterally.

These stiff wheels don't make for a harsher ride.... its lateral stiffness. Any well tensioned wheel is going to have the same vertical compliance: nothing that can be felt by the rider. The only wheel I've ever felt had a noticeably smoother ride was one with the spoke tension was so low that the non drive side nipples were rattling around in the rim by the time I got home.

Ultegra hubs OTOH are great. Not light, but very durable. Of the "boutique" hubs I like White Industries hubs. Not the very lightest but they have a Ti freehub body which won't get chewed up by cassette cogs, bearings that roll well, and widely spaced flanged that make for a laterally stiffer wheel.

Whatever wheels you get make sure the spokes are tensioned fully. The #1 problem with wheels is low spoke tension- most wheels are built by machine and those generally don't tension the spokes enough.


10sp works fine with a triple. If you are riding a lot of steep climbs (and I could see that being on the central coast) the triple is a good choice. 9sp and 10sp levers have different hood shapes. Most people like the 10sp ones better but some prefer the 9sp shape. 10sp chains wear out a little faster and cost a bit more but even with the amount I ride the difference is only about $40/year.

So the IRD Cadence is the same rim as the Kinlin?

You can get good strong prebuilt wheels for around $200 Mavic Aksiums are solid or a pair of Ultegra Hubs and Open Pro rims..solid good semi light wheels....I have both..my faster wheels are old school rolphs vector pros

are the ultegra/mavic open pro's similar to the williams 30x or the new chris king wheelsets?

:rolleyes: Yea... Ultegra hubs are just like Chris King.......:eek:

Williams 30x wheels use 30mm deep rims... OP rims are shallow section rims. Both are good wheels, just different.

^^^Are these a good upgrade to my bontager select wheels???? or are they about even?

Just to be contrarian -

Mavic Aksiums?