Are better wheels really a step up ?

[zak3737]

Morning,
I made a couple of calls about buying a new rear wheel to put on a Turbo Trainer tyre, to swap between road & turbo use etc, and someone suggested to me to consider upgrading the wheels on my Roubaix instead, - they are only Axis 4.0's on a 2015 Roubaix. Standard wheels etc, so I guess 'lead-in' & average in every respect.

Cost of another rear Disc wheel is circa £120+, whereas I'm told that a 'good' set of new Aluminium wheels will be circa £400-500, or Carbon at perhaps £800+, which is too much.
Local Specialized dealer suggested some Hope 20Five wheels & Hubs, @ £400, and said they'd be a significant upgrade and ride wayyyy better, but in reality, for a 'climb-hating', non- racing, social kind of rider, is that likely to be money well spent ?

Or stick with my original plan of just getting a cheap Trainer wheel instead ?? *puzzled*

 

[Racing roadkill]

Morning,
I made a couple of calls about buying a new rear wheel to put on a Turbo Trainer tyre, to swap between road & turbo use etc, and someone suggested to me to consider upgrading the wheels on my Robiax instead, - they are only Axis 4.0's on a 2015 Roubaix. Standard wheels etc, so I guess 'lead-in' & average in every respect.

Cost of another rear Disc wheel is circa £120+, whereas I'm told that a 'good' set of new Aluminium wheels will be circa £400-500, or Carbon at perhaps £800+, which is too much.
Local Specialized dealer suggested some Hope 20Five wheels & Hubs, @ £400, and said they'd be a significant upgrade and ride wayyyy better, but in reality, for a 'climb-hating', non- racing, social kind of rider, is that likely to be money well spent ?

Or stick with my original plan of just getting a cheap Trainer wheel instead ?? *puzzled*

I never bother with anything more than mid range off the shelf Alloy wheels at most. I’m not a pro, I don’t ‘need’ expensive super light, expensive wheels. The gains are going to be marginal at best for the vast majority of amateur / clubman riders, and the law of diminishing returns definitely applies. The best wheels I have on any of my bikes, are the Mavic Cosmic Elites, that came with one of my bikes, any replacements I’ve had, have been no more expensive than Mavic Aksium, or equivalent, and to be fair, the Aksiums have performed very well. If you’re only using it in a Turbo trainer, I’d say you really don’t need to bother spending any great sums, on flashy expensive wheels, but you should definitely use a turbo specific tyre. If you want to spend more on expensive wheels, then that’s up to you, but the vast majority of people I personally encounter, tend to suffer delusions about their need for expensive wheels, and what effect they will have.

 

[zak3737]

Thx - yes - if I bought new wheels, they'd be purely for 'on-road', not for Turbo use, I'd simply keep the Axis current wheel for that, with the Turbo tyre as you say. (I made that mistake back in November - shredded my Schwalbe One quickly after not realising a T.Tyre was needed !)

I've heard lots say that to upgrade wheels is the best step up you can make, with significant gains, but in reality, is that the case......
The local bike shop have offered up a set of Carbon wheels to test if I want to, might just take them up, but even if I went with 'just' a set of say £4-500 good Alu wheels and new hubs, he's adamant I'd definitely feel the difference in response and roll..

 

[Blue Hills]

I was at wonderful talk recently by a cambridge academic about the engineering of the bicycle wheel and he pretty much said that expensive wheels were a neat way of parting folk from their money. Seems to me that this would definitely be the case for your sort of riding, which sounds similar to mine. The wheels on my favourite bike were built for around £110 a few years ago onto mavic rims using my old XT hubs that came with another bike. Been fine. I'd go for mid price and spend the savings on other bike stuff, cake, bike ride train fares, post ride beer and wine.

Edit to clarify, built by local bike shop. Take a bow jim at compton cycles.

 

[arch684]

I would stick to the original plan and only replace the wheels when they are worn out

 

[Blue Hills]

Ps
How about these with exal lx17 rims?


Hand built


https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s178p2236/SPA-CYCLES-Handbuilt-Wheelset-Shimano-XT

 

[Heltor Chasca]

A friend has just invested in a smart trainer. Needing a new wheel for this purpose, he took the opportunity to teach himself wheel building. Very cheaply he laced up A new wheel and learned a new skill at the same time. He’s the smart one.

 

[Vantage]

To be frank, your lbs is talking bollocks.
If you were upgrading from say a £10 wheel on your Halfords Apollo bike to a Hope hubbed carbon rimmed super lightweight wonder of science and you were a semi or pro tt rider then maybe you'd notice a difference...mostly in weight.
Different rims will vary in weight by a matter of grams and some may have a better finish or be stronger when built but I doubt you'd see a difference in ride quality.
Where you may see a difference is in the hubs themselves. Better smoother bearings if set correctly, but until your old hubs start grinding and self destructing, it's a pointless upgrade. Unless they're really really crap, new ball bearings for a couple pennies will solve that issue too.
Lighter more supple tyres is money better spent. That's where you will see a difference.

 

[zak3737]

To be frank, your lbs is talking bollocks.
If you were upgrading from say a £10 wheel on your Halfords Apollo bike to a Hope hubbed carbon rimmed super lightweight wonder of science and you were a semi or pro tt rider then maybe you'd notice a difference...mostly in weight.
Different rims will vary in weight by a matter of grams and some may have a better finish or be stronger when built but I doubt you'd see a difference in ride quality.
Where you may see a difference is in the hubs themselves. Better smoother bearings if set correctly, but until your old hubs start grinding and self destructing, it's a pointless upgrade. Unless they're really really crap, new ball bearings for a couple pennies will solve that issue too.
Lighter more supple tyres is money better spent. That's where you will see a difference.

That what I'm suspicious about !
I'm running Schwalbe One 28 tyres, so pretty good I believe, I've certainly liked them, and there is nothing wrong with the Hubs currently. Strangely, I seem to freewheel downhill faster than some of my 'same weight/build' friends, on similar spec bikes, or newer bikes in fact, -something I've never understood, as I have the aero properties of a breeze block !

Hmm........

 

[si_c]

I do think that there can be a significant difference between different sets of wheels, the wheels I built myself are definitely stiffer and the bike feels livelier than the stock wheels. But I don't think that I'd get anything extra from buying wheels in the ~£400-£500 range, they're not going to be any lighter (~1900g for disc wheels with a dynamo front), nor noticeably stiffer.

If you were going to replace your existing wheels, I'd suggest to get something you will notice, and will feel like a worthwhile investment, then either go for some aerodynamically profiled (i.e. expensive carbon) rims or don't bother.

The alternative would be some very nice handbuilt wheels from someone like DCR. They'll be stiff, reasonably light, and very durable, plus, handbuilts.

 

[confusedcyclist]

As with most components on bikes, or anything else for that matter, the benefit gained vs the price paid usually falls under the law of diminishing returns. Once you reach decent mid range wheels, there's very little benefit to be had spending more. Very often you are paying for a name, or simply shaving off a few grams. You want to work out where that S curve levels out, and buy there, that's the sweet spot if you are concerned about getting value for money.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

My 157 Botswana Pula’s worth: As with any hobby, your choice will never ‘make a profit’. Additionally, you can’t argue, that it’s nice to have wheels that LOOK nice.

 

[zak3737]

My 157 Botswana Pula’s worth: As with any hobby, your choice will never ‘make a profit’. Additionally, you can’t argue, that it’s nice to have wheels that LOOK nice.

Oh I'm not bothered about looks, and tbh, putting some swanky Carbon rims on would make me look like an 'all the gear and no idea' kind of cyclist, and I'm keen to avoid that.
But, on the basis that I need to buy either a new Rear Wheel for my Turbo tyre at least,(£100-120?) i'm just trying to establish whether an extra £250+ (£400 Total) would show me an improved ride on the road with new Wheels entirely, - & using the current Axis for the Turbo.

A friend is admaant that his new wheels made his GIant 'much better', but then I guess anyone who's done the upgrade is always keen to justify the upfgrade to themselves anyway !

 

[derrick]

If you want to upgrade your wheels, it's worth looking at Hunt wheels.https://www.huntbikewheels.com/coll...season-aero-road-wheelset-1420g-28deep-22wide
These are all the wheels you will ever need. have just put these on my wifes bike, the bike feels so much more alive, if you are a bit on the heavier side you might want to go for the ones with a higher spoke count. https://www.huntbikewheels.com/coll...o-superdura-road-wheelset-1595g-31deep-24wide
We swapped them from her Mavic Ksyrium Elites. I would put them in front of mavics at the moment but time will tell.

 

[T4tomo]

As with most components on bikes, or anything else for that matter, the benefit gained vs the price paid usually falls under the law of diminishing returns. Once you reach decent mid range wheels, there's very little benefit to be had spending more. Very often you are paying for a name, or simply shaving off a few grams. You want to work out where that S curve levels out, and buy there, that's the sweet spot if you are concerned about getting value for money.

^^This. You don't need to go £400-500, have a look at say Fulcrum Racing 5s. You will notice an improvement over your stock wheels.