Wheels of fortune.

[Andrew G]

Ultegra / DT Swiss and spare winter/commuting wheels for me.

Don't know much about the standard of that Japanese stuff( ) but from what I've read the Ultegra stuff is excellent. If that gives you the budget to also get a spare/commuting set of wheels I think it's probably worth it over a DA hub upgrade. Always useful to have spare wheels so you can continue to ride if you need a repair.

Or if you still have your FR5s in decent fettle, use them for commuting and get the DA hubs.

Although I've got the Racing 3's (which are very nice, and light) they aren't the strongest of wheels. Commuting and grotty weather I will always stick the bombproof Ventos on.

[Graham O]

Sean,

I'm no expert but this is what I would do !!

1) Keep your fulcrums and use for training and winter riding.

2) Buy a set of easton ascents from GB's or a set of fulcrum 3's. The eastons look better and at 1400 grams are as light as they come. The eastons are £384 from GB's. With the club discount, this is bang on £350.

I'd be careful about buying 2 sets of wheels as you might end up buying something which is similar to your fulcrums. Then all you have is a shinier set of entry level wheels.....

[Elliot M]

how about another option - the DT Swiss rims and spokes on sealed bearing unit hubs (I use Hope for MTB, not often used for road but they have the Mono model in 28 hole) so you don't have the hassle of worn bearing races on Shimano hubs?

[Jon H]

At risk of being accused of stating the obvious, if you're thinking of 2 sets of wheels don't forget that you also need to budget for two extra tyres & tubes and another cassette.

[Dr Frigo]

Also with two different sets of rims you might have to micro-adjust the brakes each time you swap wheels, not to mention rear mech with different hubs, although less likely.

Re Shimano hubs, my Dura Ace have more than 4000 miles and not have never needed adjusting, still super smooth too. I wouldn't have a problem with cup/cone bearings if they are Shimano (I think I read somewhere the bearings are 50% rounder than anyone, but then again Zipp says theirs are something like 15,000 times rounder!).

I would go for DA + DT (but then again I'm sure the quality of Ultegra is almost as good), and then hunt for a cheap-ish second hand pair with similar rims for commuting at around £60.

[Phil S]

Can I throw a couple more options into the mix?

Xero's new wheel, the Airy, is very light and Velomax are the cheapest for them in the country at £340
[url]http://www.velomax.co.uk/displaydetail.php?product_id=695[/url]

Or buy a set of totally pimped out DT Swiss Mon Chasseral in white from All Terrain Cycles for a little more (£445) on finance:
[url]http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/p.php?make=dt+swiss[/url]

Or even more pimped, off Ebay:
[url]http://tinyurl.com/2lgd5f[/url]

[Gavin]

Sean,

I have had Easton Ascents for 2 years. I don't look after my bike and roder it through a hard winter and it just needed cleaned out and GBs shouted at me because I don't look after my bike.

Anyway they are good wheels and probably lighter now aswell.

[Steve B]

Hi Sean,
spend as much as you can on one set of wheels (fulcrum 3s) and worry about a cheaper pair of commuting wheels in a couple of months. If you comprimise you will only regret it later on.

cyclesuperstore ; fulcrum racing 3s £275 all in
or this is tempting racing 1s £438

Go on, you know you want to!

Steve

[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