fa63

+1. What goes up must come down, and carbon clincher rims are not as good as alloy rims at the moment when it comes to braking, especially when you throw rain and big descents in the mix.

FogVilleLad

For durability and increased stiffness for climbing you could just increase the spoke count on hand built alu's - particularly the rear wheel. Perfect Wheels in Seattle has some good reviews on the web. Maybe check with the owner re the cost of building you a set.

You might want to ask the guys you ride with about their experience with braking in the rain on carbons.

neneboricua

This would be my only set of wheels on this bike, but I do have a second bike that I use in the winter and for commuting. This second bike is a Novara Divano. It rains here even in the summer sometimes but it's not as totally crappy as the dead of winter. So I'd use the winter bike if the weather is really bad.

merlin55

Shimano Ultegra CL24 wheels, light, fairly aero and under $600 from PBK. Aluminum brake tracks, and carbon wrapped rim, and low count aero spokes, plus the hubs have adjustable ball and cone bearings. Very nice ride

FogVilleLad

Now you tell us;-)

CCrew

I'm riding these..https://www.planet-x-usa.com/pPC50CL/...-Wheelset.aspx

They're all (including your link) made by Gigantec and rebadged, so the prices are all pretty similar. While I would have liked Zipps or similar I couldn't bring myself to daily ride a $2k set of wheels.and I don't race.

fastbub

Wut?

neneboricua

The Planet-X wheels look good, but they're pretty heavy at 1740g... Look like a good choice for areas that are flatter or riders with more muscle mass than me.

I'm looking for aero carbon wheelset that is still relatively light weight. Since no one has said differently, I assume deeper rims don't adversely affect climbing other than by potentially weighing more. So far, these seem to be the best options for what I'm looking for:
Soul C4.0 - 40mm depth, 1390g - $1000
Soul C5.0 - 49mm depth, 1365g - $1270
Williams 38 - 38mm depth, 1463g - $1000
// The more I look at the Reynolds, the less it seems they give a good value...
Reynolds Attack - 32mm depth, 1498g - $800 (Nashbar closeout)
Reynolds Assault - 46mm depth, 1598g - $1000 (LBS closeout)

I contacted PSIMET around a week ago for a quote but I'm waiting for him to get back to me. Being the holidays it might take him some time to get back to me though

Bob Dopolina 

I've built and raced these wheels. By that I mean these EXACT rims, hubs and spokes. They were solid as all heck but you're right, better for a bigger guy than you. A great crit wheel.


I'm sure Rob is busy as all get out at the moment. He has a family and is probably all Santa'd up the ying yang.

It seems like you've sorted out what you are after and now it is about price. My suggestion would be to keep the alloy wheels for training and swap in the carbon for the fast days or for races. That's when you'll really feel the difference and you could extend the life of your carbon wheel considerably.

Since you wouldn't be training on these wheels you could go with tubulars. This will let you get the weight down on the wheels and save a few bucks to boot (carbon or carbon/alloy clinchers are more expensive than their tubular counterparts).

Whatever you decide, enjoy. Just don't let this happen to you.

av8torjim

+6 on Assaults.

FogVilleLad

40 does seem to be a significant number. RouesArtisianales occasionally tests wheels. Here's a link to the introduction to their 2008 test:
https://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-15441821.html

The table on the next page shows how many watts are absorbed. I don't really understand the data, but think that a lower number is better. https://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-15505311.html The 40 and up wheels seem to do better. Ambrosio's 2005 X-Carbos are an exception, so design is also probably important.

The rear wheel is the significant one for climbing. A deeper rim should be stiffer, if for no other reason than that it will have shorter spokes. (The air is so dirty back there that unless you're using a disk, there's probably very little if any aerodynamic advantage or disadvantage to a deeper rim, when riding at climbing speeds.)

Psimet2001 

Been busy for sure, but was under the impression that I had responded to all requests over the last few weeks. pm me your email address and I'll go digging.

FWIW - categorizing weight and pricing on any of my builds is a little "unfair" in that I don't build a set standard. I don't use just 1 hub or just 1 type of spoke, or 1 lacing or even 1 rims for that matter.

neneboricua

Wow, very cool article. Some if it is a bit over my head but I do have an engineering background so some of it is familiar. I get the same sense about the data that you did. Seems like >40mm provides good performance as long as the wheel is well designed. >50mm provides a little more but not as much as you would think. Seems that at those depths, the quality of the design starts to matter more than sheer depth (i.e. Zipp).
PM sent. I'm sure it just slipped through the cracks. Thanks for taking a look

neneboricua

Hida Yanra

hey - I'm local to you, and I recently bought some wheels so I've been thinking along the lines you probably are.

Weight - it is important, but unless you are doing repeats on Cougar Mtn or driving to Wenatchee, we don't have any climbing around here worth the name... it's life.
Braking - I race from March through September, so the need for all-weather braking is paramount in my mind for 'nice' wheels. Carbon rims can brake well, but Alloy is a better bet. While there are carbon rims that do brake about as well as alloy, they are all pretty pricey still (the updated Reynolds brake track, the new HED brake track.... all in the spendy category)... Go with Alloy, you'll be thankful you did on the steep down-hills around here.
Aero - I don't know what your riding/racing routes and groups are, but aero trumps weigh except on long climbs, and since there are no long climbs around here... go deep. The other issue in many people's minds is cross-wind, and while that can be an issue in some places, the wind here doesn't tend to be bad enough to really make an issue of it. Be careful while riding across I90 & Deception Pass, other than that, I haven't found any spots that worry me yet.

Even though I'm a light guy, and plan to climb at a bunch of races this coming year, I choose a HED Jet 60 C2, deep enough to make a difference at high speed, corners well, the front wheel is plenty light for the climb at Walla-Walla & really anything short of Mt Hood & Cascade Classic.

PM me if you want to ride about a bit and talk wheels - I'll be riding up your way at least once this weekend!

Hida Yanra

oh - and FWIW, go with PSIMET - he'll send you 100% amazing wheels, perfect for what you need in the wheels and what you want to spend.

FogVilleLad

There's at least one page on HED's site which talks about which of their wheels are best for elite athletes vs others. Maybe you can make some sense out of it;-) https://www.hedcycling.com/wheels/ Try the "Wheels" page.

Hida Yanra

the short version of that page states:
Unless you tend to win stuff, don't ride the 90mm deep wheels - ride 40s & 60s.

good advice

patentcad

If you look at that Frog aero test from a couple of years ago, the Zipp 404's and 808's are about as aero as it gets, and the 404's are very close to the 808's while being considerably lighter.

FogVilleLad

The Zipps did well on RouesArtisinales test, too.

Part three of that test includes testing lateral stiffness. Again, Zipps did well.

patentcad

Why what a coincidence, that is the very Frog test I was referring to.

teterider

Good to hear. Mine are in the box waiting for spring and a local tiny shop has Continental Sprinters for $45 each which isn't much different than the 4000s. I've read people getting around 500 more miles on the Sprinters than the 4000 or PR3. No reason not to use them all the time from what I can see. I mentioned this before, but they came in at 1315 grams under published weight.

ildiddy

I use the Edge/ENVE 45's with Chris King R45 hubs... really nice set of carbon clinchers that are strong, easy to maintain, and aero. They're about as deep as I feel comfortable with in most wind conditions. And for carbon clinchers, they come out very light.... sub 1400g for the set. So good for speed and climbing!

Now only if the engine for my wheels could be upgraded as easily..... *sigh*

neneboricua

Those seem great, only problem is they're almost 2x the price of the wheels I was looking at. But if you've got the $$ more power to you!

Armenian

I picked up a brand new set of 2010 Zipp 808 Clinchers last week on ebay for $1,500 to put on my 2010 Specialized Roubaix. Plan on riding the piss out of them too. I weigh about 180ish @ 5'10". Not concerned at all about a few hundred more grams per wheel. That just means my quads will be a lot bigger then yours

StanSeven

What's the spoke count on those? I don't think CK hubs come fewer than 28. Does the builder just use a pattern with less than 28/32?