Cheap Racing wheels

Caroline_ie

Hi people -

I have a incontrollable urge to buy me wheels for racing ... cheap wheels.

One of my team mates told me at last sunday race after I showed him my broken wheel 'That's why I race on cheap stuff'

I know some of you have these wheels (Planet X Model B wheelset - 20h/24h)

What do you think?

Billy Whizz

Can't go wrong with Fulcrum 5's. I've put mine through some abuse and they've never needed servicing.

lyders

Just bought these:

http://www.cyclesuperstore.ie/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=16968

Many thanks to Dirk for the link They are £162 on Wiggle and CRC.

Nietzschean

if you want to get nice wheels mavic do their mp3 thing where they will replaced ones damaged for anything other than normal wear and tear for 2 years. think it costs about 70euro...

DirkVoodoo

Aksiums are 125 a pair in CSS at the moment.

IM0

Whats a racing wheel?

DirkVoodoo

me@ucd wrote: »

Whats a racing wheel?

A wheel that you can blame for any poor performances, I had a list prepared for when I buy some Carbones:

"I think they are taking on water"

"The noise alerted everyone to my break"

"I really should have gone with a carbon braking surface, these are holding me back"

DirkVoodoo

Speaking of race wheels, just saw these on PBK. Anyone know anything about them? Not mad on the holographic decals, at least until I see them in the flesh.

Prorace Shooters Tubular Wheelset

Lumen

Not sure this is helpful, but FYI Mr Skeffington just rebuilt the rear wheel from my Planet-X A57 wheelset with an Open Pro rim (original rim was damaged by my own clumsiness).

Weight with 105 12-25 cassette and rim tape (but no skewer) is now 1230g. Weight weenies says cassette is 252g, so the wheel weighs 978g with rim tape.

This compares to the claimed weight of 1015g for the original.

The existing spokes were compatible, so the Open Pro is basically a drop in replacement for the A57 rim.

He also replaced a couple of bent spokes on my crashed front Open Pro.

Recycling FTW, thanks Skeff.

Point being, there are several approaches to "cheap", one of which is "cheaply and easily fixable". I don't have much experience of getting factory wheels (e.g. Askiums or Fulcrums) fixed, maybe those are easy too. I've heard Fulcrum parts are expensive though.

I still half-regret not buying some 7800 CLs, but at £250 a rim they're more expensive to replace than to fix.

Quigs Snr

I agree with your teammate, I would mostly tend to race on cheaper stuff saving the good gear for special occasions and it doesn't slow me down either. I have had both the Askiums and the Fulcrum 5's and can honestly say that I noticed no difference in performance as long as I put the same tyres on both and thats the key I think, just put decent tyres on and you will be hard pressed to notice a difference I reckon.

The Fulcrums are lighter, but the askiums are amazing value on cyclesuperstore. I am a planet X fan but not a fan of the wheels so much. I have only ever had their carbon wheels and I did like them but never had the confidence in them that I would have in a bigger brand and they had niggling reliability issues (that being said if they would sell me a pro carbon 82 for the front of my TT bike that would be great and because it would be lightly used reliability would not be an issue but they don't have them). I can't comment on the aluminium wheelsets though, they are getting mixed but largely ok reviews.

dave2pvd

I second the Aksium recommendation. Not too heavy. Not too slow. Plenty strong. Very affordable. Plus, they Come with pretty Mavic graphics.

I use them for CX racing, general training and as pit wheels.

Raam

dave2pvd wrote: »

I use them for CX racing, general training and as pit wheels.

pit wheels?

tunney

dave2pvd wrote: »

I second the Aksium recommendation. Not too heavy. Not too slow. Plenty strong. Very affordable. Plus, they Come with pretty Mavic graphics.

I use them for CX racing, general training and as pit wheels.

No way the aksium is a race wheel, a roboust, bomb proof training wheel that could be even too heavy for that yes, race wheel no.

blorg

Raam wrote: »

pit wheels?

Common in cyclocross, it is a short repeated loop with a pit area. Many have a pit bike. I suspect he may also be referring to criteriums.

tunney wrote: »

No way the aksium is a race wheel, a roboust, bomb proof training wheel that could be even too heavy for that yes, race wheel no.

Sort of depends, I have certainly seen people racing on them in road races and similarly heavy wheels and in most road races they would be unlikely to be the limiting factor. I'd imagine they would be fine for CX racing too, my own CX wheels certainly are not ultra-lightweight. Cross racing you will just destroy your equipment so unless you are heavily sponsored...

The context of "race wheel" the OP posted about was "cheap, disposable equipment I can race on" due to the high risk of destroying expensive stuff in a crash. Crashes don't happen so much in triathlon so you can use your best stuff without so much worry...

dave2pvd

Yep, pit wheels for CX and crits.

The Aksium is not that heavy. My how standards have changed!

My CX wheel requirements include affordable replacement.

Based on the thread title, I think they are an appropriate suggestion. The first word up there is: cheap.

Quigs Snr

I would tend to think of the askium as a training wheel. My teammate came top 10 in the Shay Elliot on a pair though (and riding an 800 euro bike to boot!)

dave2pvd

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