cooleric1234

I know there are a lot of wheelset threads, but I think my situation is a little more unique. I feel like I'm in that no-man's land regarding weight. I weigh a few pounds under 190. In the clyde forum they have recommendations for strong wheels (open pro/ultegra, velocity deep-v, maybe mavic aksiums), but that is often for people well into the 200 lbs region. Then here it seems like the suggestions are for people who weigh significantly less than me.

I'm looking to get a set of wheels that are strong enough for me (meaning infrequent truing and re-tensioning) but as light as possible for say under $400-500. It seems that once you get to the expensive wheels there isn't even a market for really strong and really light so I'm guessing any wheels strong enough would be below that price range anyway. I read someone recommend if you're over 175 lbs you shouldn't get wheels under 1700 grams, but I saw no evidence to back that claim.

Any suggestions then? So far the only ones that might work are Neuvation M28 (I'd like SL but maybe Aero4). I currently have some Veulta wheels that are quite heavy but strong, maybe some lighter versions of their wheels would do (MSRP is a joke, can be had for just over $200). Any other ideas?

Jay-W

At that price I think hand built will be your best bet. Maybe Ksyrium Equipe's for factory made.

AEO

I would go custom. psimet.com

something along the lines of XR-270 with DT hubs.

Jay-W

^yes.

Val23708

open pros + dt competition spokes 32-hole 3-cross + dura ace hubs.

~1600g ( or ~1500g if you use dt revolution spokes)

under $500 at bicyclewheelwarehouse

melanotaenia

check out Soul wheels

cooleric1234

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm still fairly new to cycling and the idea of $500 for wheels still surprises me a little. I just know that I can't get something for nothing (the whole light, strong, cheap pick two addage). If I can find something for $250 or $300 that would be better, I'd give up some weight. I'm not sure what my wheels now are but the front one is over 900 grams (no skewer, tubes, tires), so I'm pretty sure they're well over 2.0 kg. I guess 1.7 kg might be a noticeable improvement when I'm doing some local climbs. I don't race, for what it's worth. I just want something that doesn't feel so sluggish (the slime tubes and Gatorskin tires don't help...I use the bike for commuting too).

Mr. Beanz

Open Pro's heavy? What other wheel have you ridden? Are you sure it's the wheels that are sluggish?

I've seen 180lb riders on sluggish $1300 climbing wheels!

mrvrsick

For factory: Soul 3's, williams sys 30 (X if you want more spokes), or something nice from bicycle wheel warehouse (they have OP/DA and RR 1.1/240 combo), or heck, aksium wheels are smooth.

Hand built sounds to be the way to go though, something from psimet or elj-something (sorry) are ALWAYS highly regarded.



Wait, what do you have now?

urbanknight

+1. Better yet, get the Kinlin XR-300 or XR-270 rims and Formula hubs from ElJamoquio and then have psimet build them up, and you will find a nice light set that can easily support 190 lb.

carpediemracing 

+1 on that question.

If you're a touch under 190, you are basically what I weigh for half the year. If you're reasonably easy on your wheels (I consider myself reasonably easy on mine), you can use pretty much any wheel you want.

I train on DV46 clinchers, race on a pair of the same but in tubular (recently supplemented with an old Zipp 440 front wheel), have broken a spoke on each end on different days (once in a race, once on a training ride, and I have 16/20 spoke wheels), did a field sprint on the 15 spoke front wheel after racing it for most of the race.

I've also used, at that weight, TriSpokes aka HED3 for front and rear - a sad looking picture of me at about 190 lbs here (I'd just lost about 20 lbs in the prior 6 months or so):


From this page: https://www.krislau.com/cycling/bethe...3-28/index.htm

So as not to make everyone start feeling too sympathetic, the sprint starts here). I got third in the race, and it has a short uphill finish. I also got two 2nds and another 3rd to place 2nd overall in the series.

I used the wheels for racing and training, also Campy Eurus, Spinergy Rev-X, Spinergy SPOX, and various other wheels I got up to 8-10 years prior (and 50-65 pounds lighter). I never changed my wheel selection process because I never thought of myself as "heavy". Well, until I broke 210-215 in Aug 2003, but that was briefly and even then I just used what I had. I never bent a wheel or anything - I gave away many of them (to some BFers actually), sold the best ones (to friends), but the wheels were still fine.

As far as being easy on wheels... In groups (races or training rides) I ride through obstacles as I should, meaning I don't swerve around holes and potentially take out riders around me. I do look ahead though, so I have an idea if something is coming up. I can bunny hop well enough to get by. I've ridden dirt roads regularly until a couple years ago, ride very chopped up CT back roads all the time, and I am always sprinting after trucks and buses and such (and therefore hitting things at 40-45 mph blind). I've double pinch flatted at 40-ish, but the last rim I bent was a 280 gram, 28 spoke rear wheel, and I was about 140 lbs when I trashed that. It had little to do with the rim, all to do with the "nut that holds the seat down" (in other words, it was my fault).

Because of my own experiences at these weights and above, I firmly believe there are no more rims made that I'd consider too light for a reasonably fluent 190-200 pound rider. A 400 gram rim used to be the heaviest rim out there; now it's the lightest. If you got a new old stock 280-300 gram rim, I'd save it for a front or track or something light duty. But today's 400 gram rims are very strong (box aluminum). Stay at 28 spokes up front, 32 rear, if you're doing box section alu wheels (unless they're prebuilt, in which case you can go lower, like Campy Zondas or Eurus etc). Don't dip below 24 on either end unless you have a tall profile rim (i.e. aero). I'd consider 16/20s to be the lowest number of spokes, and for sake of replacement rims and hubs, I'd stick with 24 spoke wheels minimum.

For box section I'd get 28/32, Reflex or 1.1 or similar, DOUBLE EYELET (for the 1.1, that means the heavier version of the rim), whatever hubs you feel like. I prefer grouppo hubs like Campy (Chorus), Shimano (Ultegra or higher), SRAM. I'm leery of almost any aftermarket hub, but I haven't had one in a while. My Reynolds have White Industries (?) hubs on them and they're fine.

For aero, don't know.

You may snicker at the idea of a rim lasting 5 or 10 years, but it's very possible. I had a Zipp 440 rear wheel in 1994 or 1995. It's raced all over (I lent it to a poor National Team member and he raced it in various places, over lots of terrain including a lot of dirt roads in South America - the Pan Am games circuit had a few km of dirt that year). I rebuilt it as a front wheel and am now using it as my primary race wheel, about 15 years later.

As far as climbing - light wheels help a bit when you're starting a climb. But trust me, once you get to the limit aerobically, weight on the wheel doesn't matter. In the above picture I'd just lost enough weight to cover my whole BIKE, and I'd go on to lose another 15 pounds (almost my bike again). Losing a tire or two's worth of weight on the bike isn't major when you have the potential to lose a bike or two worth of weight. Light wheels accelerate better, they psych you up, but that's it. Climbing? Forget it, they're of no use to a non-climber.

Buy whatever floats your boat. It'll be fine.

cdr

cooleric1234

I currently have some Veulta XRP Pro wheels that are paired spoke aero shape. As I said, I've only weighed the front wheel but it came in at 920 grams.