Experience with Planet X wheels?

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montage

God Almighty
Location
Bethlehem
For £99 for a 1600g set of wheels, to £450ish of Aero wheels, what experience do people have of these? Seem like excellent £ for lb deals, but are they reliable, do they lack stiffness?
I'm currently running shimano RS10s so considering an upgrade/ a pair of racing wheels and keeping the RS10s for training
 

Radius

SHREDDER
Location
London
They're probably fine. The real point is THANK GOD PLANET X FINALLY HAS A DECENT WEBSITE!
 

dodgy

Guest
I have some Model B wheels, they're light and strong ish, except the rear of mine split at the base of a few spokes, so much that the nipple pulled out of the rim with a piece of rim attached to it. Planet X replaced it, no drama.
 

buddha

Veteran
I've some model B's (and the A57's, which they don't seem to have anymore). No complaints so far. Nice and rigid when climbing, and they've stayed true despite my clumsy bunnyhop over a pothole yesterday.
The only issue (some people have had) is with the alu freehub. It has 'short' splines to accept 8?/9/10 spd cassettes. So sprockets have eaten into the splines, mainly with shimano cassettes with deep splines. I use sram cassettes for this reason and haven't had an issue, so far.
 

brockers

Senior Member
Planet X model Bs are great, and for the money unbelievable. Stiffer than my OpenPro/Records ( I could wind the tension up if I wanted), although the hub doesn't feel quite as smooth. Planet X used to sell Reynolds Alta Comps, but were plagued with spoke breakage claims so stopped doing so. These are effectively Reynolds Alta Comps (the box actually says Alta Comp - so I'm guessing they're made in the same factory), with the spoke issue addressed, and with an improved Novatec hub. The rims, suspiciously, have the same dimensions and weight as the Taiwanese KinLin 30mm (from which I deduce that they are in fact KinLin rims) which the experienced wheelbuilders on Weightweenies rave about (retailing at £50 each, too). Having spoken to all thirteen stone of Ian Cammish (planet X's tech advisor) about them before I ordered mine, he reckons they really should be selling them for a lot more (Hmmm He's bound to say that though!). As Buddha said, the shallow Shimano splined freehubs get chewed up, but can be replaced for £20 or so. These are the Novatec hubs - rebranded as 'Planet X superlight' - used in their wheels

Rear

Front

Planet X use the well respected Gigantex rims in their 50mm carbon wheels.
 

Chris James

Über Member
Location
Huddersfield
buddha said:
The only issue (some people have had) is with the alu freehub. It has 'short' splines to accept 8?/9/10 spd cassettes. So sprockets have eaten into the splines, mainly with shimano cassettes with deep splines. I use sram cassettes for this reason and haven't had an issue, so far.

I believe the new ones have 10 speed only freehubs to avoid this problem. If you are running 8 or 9 speed they can also supply them, might be worth asking the question.

I have no experience of the wheels, only what I have read (as I am half interested in getting a set myself!). Would they really be much of an upgrade on RS10s though?
 

rusky

CC Addict
Location
Hove
Radius said:
They're probably fine. The real point is THANK GOD PLANET X FINALLY HAS A DECENT WEBSITE!

I didn't like the new site, I was after a set of 29er wheels but the page didn't have any details about them. I sent them an email asking for details & pointing out that the old site had loads of info & looked just now & details are now there"

Glad to hear people have good experiences with them, I'm after a set of 29er disc wheels.
 

brockers

Senior Member
..and the £99 includes postage!
 
OP
OP
montage

montage

God Almighty
Location
Bethlehem
What priced wheels would they be equivilent to?
The model Bs do look great....about 1750g for the pair which doesn't seem all that light, but lighter than most at that price. So are they much of a step up from the RS10s?
 

brockers

Senior Member
Are you actually going to race on them, or do you actually mean the odd sportive? If you are, then what sort of races? Personally I'd have no problem using them as entry level race wheels in a 3/4th cat crit where there's a reasonable chance of crashing, and your wheels might be toast. At £99, they're virtually disposable as that's almost the cost of having a wheel rebuilt. Why not try your RS10's at first and see if you like racing? If you do get into it, then you'll probably find a way to justify spending much more than £99!

As to whether they're better than RS10's - if you mean will they make you go faster, then the answer is probably not. I know a guy who splashed out on a pair of Corima Winiums for the local Tuesday night crits in an effort to stay with the bunch. He admitted that it made absolutely no difference, and he regretted his purchase.


My model Bs come in at 1650g, but I wouldn't get too hung up on a 100g difference here or there. Still, it's nice to have more than one set of wheels, shod with different tyres to suit what kind of ride you intend doing that day.

Why not just buy a pair and stick em on eBay if you don't like? I can't see you losing that much.
 

MadoneRider1991

Über Member
Location
Dorset
i run the aero planet x wheels, and they are awesome value for money!!

£435 for 1500g carbon 50mm wheels :ohmy:

there so gdd have great late braking and have no flex at all, so they are well worth looking at!
 

beatleandrew

New Member
I recently bought Planet-X Model Bs after doing a bit of research and have found them to be light and fast, nice to ride on.

But before I'd done 300 km on them a rear spoke snapped and went into the chain bending the rear mech out of shape. Planet-X repaired the wheel free of charge, which is nice of them, but I had to buy a new rear mech.

Just tried to fit it last night and it now looks like the incident may have damaged the shifter too, need to get it checked out by LBS to be sure (it could be that I just can't follow installation instructions properly). So, it might be bad luck, but a snapped spoke after a short distance in normal riding conditions doesn't impress me too much, especially as it's costing me a whole lot more than a new spoke and a truing to get back to riding.

Sorry to rant, but I haven't been able to use the bike for the last couple of weeks and it's giving me withdrawl symptoms.
 

schuk

New Member
I bought a pair of A57's and I was a bit surprised how untrue they were, i needed to true them before I could really use them. As it happends I didn't realise that my canondale rear stays were 135mm and the 130mm A57's didn't fit. The rear one's for sale if anyone want's it.



What priced wheels would they be equivilent to?
The model Bs do look great....about 1750g for the pair which doesn't seem all that light, but lighter than most at that price. So are they much of a step up from the RS10s?
 
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