spoke pattern question
 

I am in the process of buying my first halfway decent set of road wheels, the Xero wheel received some rave reviews in C+ based on it being virtually as light and reliable as a Mavic Kysrium SL at about half the money. The two models that I was choosing between is the Centauri XCR-1 and the Xero lite XR1, Both are the same price and the same weight give or take a few grams.
The rim is the same I believe and the hub is the same, the only difference is the spoke pattern. As I dont yet understand the science of spoke patterns then I would be very grateful of any advice on which is the better wheel for me.

I am a relative lightwight at 10.5 Stone, (149 lbs) and I intend to use the wheel for summer training and occassional local competitions (not too serious)

The wheel specs can be seen here

www.xerowheel.com

Damn flash site takes a friggin hour to load, sheesh!! Screw it, I'm tired of waiting. I wouldn't buy anything from these idiots. I'm on a cable connection and it's still loading. Besides there little Xero emblem looks like a swastika. Good luck on your wheelset purchase and at 149lbs you should be able to ride just about anything.

Sorry about that, you are right the site takes an age, its much quicker to see the comparison on a UK sales website as follows : -


http://www.parker-international.co.u...8-bc3a1547ae05

and


http://www.parker-international.co.u...8-bc3a1547ae05

Sorry to pick up and oldish thread, but how are the XCR-1 Centauri wheelset? Am thinking of changing the stock selects to these wheels. Can they hold up a 180lb guy? :eek:

Anyone?

Does it say what gauge spokes they use? I ran a 16-spoke front and 24-spoke rear wheel combo with 14-gauge spokes for about 6-months when I weighed 160lbs without any problems. That was with a weak single-section Araya 27" rim too. Did lots of kerb-hopping and jumping. Rear-ended a parked car and destroyed the front wheel.. :(

I'd say with a deep section aero-rim (stronger vertically), you shouldn't have any problems. But again we really need to know how thick the spokes are and what tension they use.