Wheel Upgrade Options

JMcL

Despite the fact they appear to be very fine wheels, I'd be very wary of buying anything at the minute from Wiggle/CRC. I'd certainly make sure of choosing a payment method that was most likely to reimburse be

harringtonp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121284197#Comment_121284197

AW 50-D Carbon Wheelset (1,438g) -- 20% off (Discontinued) × 1

Scribe have had so many wheelsets but basically slightly narrower (by scribe standards), 50mm deep toroidal shaped carbon hoops. Great set of wheels, no problems after a full summer/autumn of use. I wanted something that would also fit on a disc frame race bike with narrower clearance.

Changed the 1x chainring from 40 to 46 too and 46-10 gives plenty of top end speed, cadence felt comfortable on faster sections of club league races

wersal gummage

Thanks Harrington P

I'm weighing up between the cheaper scribe /prime wheels for around 6/700, or else go for the zipp 303 firecrest, the hunt or scribes for about a thousand are too close to the price of the Zipps for me, but could probably make do with the compromises involved in the cheaper wheels given the significant price difference.

JMcL

I posted this in the bargain alerts thread a day or two ago - Hunt have fairly decent discounts on their wheels at the minute https://eu.huntbikewheels.com/, though they're still mostly up the grand mark

CramCycle

Love my Hunts, anyone I know with Scribe are very happy. I'd certainly pick either over Wiggle both in the current climate and in general. All have parts that are easier to service and replace than many cheaper wheelsets I have had the false economy of buying.

harringtonp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314585#Comment_121314585

Have never owned the likes of Zipps but would love to know what exactly the difference between them and Scribe is.

Only other wheels I got at this level was a set of carbonals from

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166012470809?hash=item26a71d4619:g:P-AAAOSwE-lZ8u-D

in 2017 when the UK was a much more attractive option for purchases. 6 years on they still work great, I was also never able to figure the difference between these and the more expensive Zipps.

Scribe often sell older carbon models for 800 (reduced from 1000) so if you are prepared to wait you will eventually pick up something. And worth noting that you get all the bits and pieces with the wheelset too.

wersal gummage

My comment re zipp etc isn't really based on much, some thoughts which I'm not suggesting are valid or good ones, just my thinking :

Scribe /prime /hunt : not really wheel makers as such, out source production, possibly out source elements of design, varying degrees of R&D etc, prob varying degrees of big marketing spend to generate brand, probably limited difference to many unbranded wheels,

Would I buy them? Yes, no problem.

Do I think they'd be noticeably different to a more expensive wheel, no, certainly not for me anyway

My comment was simply when I get into the thousand euro range, I'm within (what I regard) as touching distance to a set of zipps (or dt Swiss or campagnolo etc),

Are those better wheels? I don't know, maybe not. But they are designed by companies who actually build wheels and hubs etc (eg what hubs are in scribe /hunt /prime?). OK they also put source production most likely too, but they have a history and what not as making, designing wheels and parts are likely widely available.

At 600 /800 quid absolutely I'd buy the hunt or prime wheels no question and would be happy with them.

That is all no doubt full of holes, not meant to be any kind of convincing argument, just my own thoughts so not really looking to get into a back and forth on it, just elaborating slightly on what I meant by buying the more expensive wheel (eg the zipp firecrest 303 are under 1400gms, very highly rated and are 1299 delivered with a lifetime warranty which they seem to honour better than other companies).

wersal gummage

Ps, I had a set of zipp 404 back over a decade ago, maybe 15, years ago, can't say there was anything special I noticed about them, nice wheels and they worked, not qualified to compare them to anything else

Mr. Cats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331535#Comment_121331535

I saw this explanation of differences between manufacturers & made a lot of sense to me.

https://intheknowcycling.com/best-wheelset-for-the-money/

The article goes through the business model of each of the above categories, showing that Hunt, Prime etc focus on price and service but, as you say, not innovation or design, whilst Zipp etc focus on innovation and service, but not price, and ICAN etc on price but not service or innovation.

Its probably something similar in lots of industries I guess but was new to me.