Road wheels for my adventure bike?

[Charliegordon]

Hi all,

I have an adventure bike with 700c 40mm disc wheels and I am keen to get a set of road wheels. Will any 700c road wheels work? Is there anything I need to look out for?

 

[vickster]

Just put narrower slicker tyres on your existing wheels?
Not sure what the difference between an adventure wheel and a road wheel is otherwise?
what wheels and tyres do you have currently?
what are you trying to achieve?
What’s your budget?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

As above just fit different tyres to your existing wheels

 

[I like Skol]

Spare tyres are the easiest & cheapest answer.

I do this with my adventure/gravel[sic] bike, running 35mm slicks for normal road use and 35mm knobblies for rough stuff. Having said that, the smooth tyres do most rough stuff perfectly well until wet grass or mud is encountered.
Swapping the tyres takes hardly any time longer than actually swapping wheels, especially if you are going to need to swap the cassette each time and possibly adjust gear indexing and brake alignment.
Depending on your rims you could go smaller on the smooth tyres, maybe 32mm or 28mm?

 

[wafter]

I've considered similar; the argument being that dedicated road wheels should have fewer spokes, less rim width and a lighter construction... trading some strength and durability for a reduction in mass and suitability for skinnier tyres - although with the current trend towards fatter offerings you might do just as well with some slicks of similar size to your current tyres.

Personally I'd want the most convenient solution - so a replacement set of rims complete with fitted discs and cassette. You might still have to re-align the calipers post-swap to avoid rubbing, while the cassette will likely need to be the same size (or comparable to) the original one to ensure correct derailleur function.

Not too clued-up on aftermarket rims themselves, but the important things to look out for are hub width, fixing type (QR or through-axle) and disc mounting type (bolt-on or centre-lock).

If you're looking for a hot-swappable solution a 2nd set of rims makes some sense if you're prepared to spend the money; however if you're just looking for a more permanent switch to lower rolling resistance / more road-friendly tyres, I'd stick some fat slicks on your existing rims tbh.

 

[Elybazza61]

Does the bike have thru-axles? If so it should be easy to run two sets of wheels and have both rears with the same cassette on.

Will be doing the same for my Ridley Kanzo when I decide what wheels to go for; probably some hand builts with deep-ish carbon rims.

Just make sure that the rims will take fatter tyres if you are thinking of running fat slicks like WTB Horizzons or Teravail Ramparts as some road rims won't take a wider tyre or you'll get a light bulb effect which will negate the point of wide slicks.