I'm looking to buy a new wheelset for my Giant Defy Alliance. This is a road bike i bought 3 years ago for 1300$. I've put about 4200 miles on it and i think i'm ready for my first upgrade on the bike. I think that a wheelset could be the best upgrade for me. The wheelset that i have now are the Mavic CXP22. I don't hate this wheelset they have been very nice wheels for me but an upgrade would be cool as well. I don't have any information about the Mavic wheels and could not find anything online really that was from 2009 (i'm not quite sure if they have changed since then in weight and so forth). I am looking to spend under 600 but could maybe squeak it out to 700. I don't even know if i can upgrade for that cost so i guess that's my first question and my second question i guess is, what wheelset does everyone recommend as the best wheels at this price point. I would prefer maybe a 30 mm with some bladded aero spokes. Hopefully that's not a pipe dream. Thanks

Weight?

I'm on my 3rd set of Mavic wheels, 2 equipe & now trying Elites. 1st sets of equipe had problems & the elites will "bump at the seam when it rolls thru the brake pad. Proceed with caution on Mavic wheels & don't even think about contacting them with a problem, you can't. I'm looking into the Boyd's.

160 is how much i weight hopefully that is what you were asking lol

160 is relatively light, pretty much any wheelset will put up with you Based on your requirements the Soul 3.0 wheels seem like a great fit. They come well within your budget ($380 - $500 shipped) and are well-regarded on this forum.

https://www.bikesoul.com/2009/index.p...id=3&Itemid=11

I bought a lightly used set of Soul 3.0 SL's off of eBay. Awesome wheel set. It made a huge improvement in performance for me.

I just bought a brand new set of 2012 shimano ultegra (tubeless) wheels for my new build and just put a set of bontgrager race lite wheels on my Tomasso.
The Tomasso had neuvation m28's with over 7k miles and just died........blasted out of true and bearings seem to have seized up. Could rebuild but both the race lites and ultegra's are better wheels.

These will work, too:

https://www.novemberbicycles.com/fsw-23/

I paid about your price range for some custom wheels from PSIMET. Turnaround time is not instant, but he builds awesome wheels. Since you're current wheels are treating you well, why not get some customs.

I bought a pair of Rol Wheels (model: D'Huez) 2 yrs ago. They are 1490gms/pr and cost $650. Suitable for riders up to 190lbs. I weigh 160.

Absolutely zero problems. As true now as they were out of the box. Rol includes a couple of spare spokes, but I don't expect to need these for some time.

For a combination of quality, weight and cost, hard to beat. Their website has other options, as well.

williams 30
soul 3.0
boyd vitesse

HED Ardennes GP. 23mm wide

https://www.realcyclist.com/hed-arden...-clincher-2011

At your weight, you are in the sweet spot, as any wheel should work well for you. There are LOADS of choices at that price point.
The CXP are generally around 22-2300 grams, according to the hubs and spokes. Even an inexpensive set of Aksium Race will save you 5-600 grams which is nothing to sneeze at for a $300 price range.

My vote is for used Campy Shamals from a friend/teammate who didn't ride them into the ground. That's just my inclination tho... No warranty could be a problem for some people.

Edit: Those Hed Ardennes are tempting too at that price...

wow great help guys i have been reading up on some of these wheelsets and they are what i'm looking for. I guess i didn't realize how much my Mavic CXP 22 rims weighed but i'm not really surprised. I have been able to go up hills pretty fast with the bike the way it is set up right now i'm looking to go faster though because, aren't we all! Anyway, i guess what i'm looking at right now is doesn't the rim height matter much? Let's say 27mm vs 30 mm. Also i'm looking for bladed aero spokes, on one of the wheelsets there was a 2.3 or a 3.2 mm spoke. What difference does that make am i looking for something that is bigger or thinner? The last thing is spoke count, im guessing i want something that is on the lower side like 20 F 24 R? Or maybe even lower. Thanks for the continued help everyone.

+1

The Rol Wheels (D'Huez model) use the Sapim CX-Ray bladed spokes which are described in this link. These wheels are 20 spoke F, 24 R.

https://www.wheelbuilder.com/sapim-cx-ray-spoke.html

I have a set of ROL Race SL's and have nothing but good things to say about them. They also have the Sapim CX-Ray spokes and 30mm rim depth. Just another option.

+1 for Psimet. I'm lovin my WI hub wheels.

Neuvation makes a great wheel for about $300. It's not the greatest wheel ever built, but I got about 70k miles out of a set of R28sl2 wheels before the braking area was worn thin.

Also a good one.

OP - What speed do you ride at? The reason for the question is that aero-anything has no measurable benefit other than looks until your rides average somewhere over 20 mph. OTOH, if you just like the way aero wheels look, get aero wheels. It's your money and your bike.

My vote would be for the HED Ardennes GPs on sale at Realcyclist. Then take the wheels that came with your bike to a good wheelbuilder in your area and have them re-tensioned and re-trued. After 4200 miles, they're probably ready for it anyway, and they'll be a good set of backup wheels.

Thanks everyone i'm currently looking at all of the previous mentioned wheel sets. i'm hoping not to "overspend" on my 1300$ Giant but i can honestly say with cycling equipment it may not be better to overspend but you are never really disappointed haha. Anyway any of the guys who mentioned the PSIMET wheels, how much did you guys pay for them? Again anymore help would be appreciated on this topic because there are things i'm still learning about the sport i've only been into it really hard for the past 3 years. I hope to get some sort of performance out of these wheels as well and i think the ones you guys mentioned will help in the long run. Someone mentioned if you aren't going over 20 mph bladded aero spokes won't help which is a thought, last year i did a 56 mile bike leg of a triathlon with my Giant and aero bars in 2:42, i am hoping with this upgrade and of course harder training this year to get under 2:30. Thanks again everyone