Wheels of fortune.

[Grahame]

Sean,

Being a fellow member of the "more robust" club, I'd go for the hand-built option every time.

I'd look at Ultegra hubs (many, many miles on mine, never needed adjusting) in the DT rims with double butted stainless spokes. Negligable weight difference and repairable, with (relatively) easy to replace rims when they wear out.

For the spare/commuting wheels I'd go for something like 105 hubs in the same rims but with slightly heavier gauge (still BD stainless) spokes. Those would be brilliant for commuting and no brake adjustment issues.

I have a pair of 105 hubs in Mavic MA3 rims that I had built for my old touring and commuting bike. I've ridden it from Lands End to John O'Groats (twice), around europe, and across the USA with no maintenance/adjustment at all. And I got my only ever road race victory (San Francisco city crit, cat 3, 1990) on them .

[Grahame]

Erm, no. I got to race because one of the guys I'd cycled across the states with was flying back before the rest of us, so we went into a bike shop to scrounge a bike box for him.

The shop guys asked where we'd cycled from, so we told the "New York"

They then said one of their team for the race the next Saturday had crashed and broken his wrist, and did one of us fancy a race?

I volunteered, was given a shop team shirt (which I still have, about 5 sizes too small these days ) and told that my name for the race was "Brad Winterman"*.

"Brad" was racing on a US licence, so he earned a few US points that day. I got the jersey. And BC got no money, so I kept my integrity


*Name changed to protect the guilty

[Dr Frigo]

Have you got pics you want me to put online Grahame?

[Jon H]

Looks like a useful conclusion to Sean's poll - three options each with 33% of the vote.

P.S. where's the missing 1% ?

[Andrew G]

Was it the [url=http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/UAN/2114/v/1/sp/]Golden Nipples[/url] that caught your eye, if you'll pardon the expression.

[Ian A4size]

I think I have just tipped the scales .
I have the zondas and can vouch that they are good wheels, they have stayed true for the last 3 years, unlike 2 pairs of open pro /chorus and ultegra which have to be constantly trued, i dislike them so much and have lost faith in them and no longer use one set and the other set is on my turbo bike.
I have seen Zondas for about £270 a pair.
Keep your old wheels for another winter and just use the new ones for best.
It takes less than 5 mins to change a cassette over, with the money you have saved buy some new tyres and tubes.

[Mike I]

[quote]I tip the scales at about 14 st