Should I change my wheels???

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Daninplymouth

Senior Member
Hi, after some opinions here. My new mason I had delivered with hunt 50mm rims, this was my first go on deeper rims.
At first I really didn’t like the feeling but after a few more rides I’m now a lot more confident in them.
Speaking with a colleague who is a very keen cyclist he said I should have gone shallower, however my build was already complete by then.
It’s now got me thinking though should I change them? If it helps I’m around 90kg and it’s fairly hilly around my way and always seems to be wind in some direction. I average about 700-1000ft elevation every 10miles.
My options are leave as it is and build more confidence in them, like today they felt really good and I only noticed one little gust that caught me off guard, however the wind isn’t to strong at the moment so not sure how they’d fair once it picks up a bit more. I will say these roll very well once moving, and I can’t workout if they feel sluggish up the hills or whether I’m jut noticing it more as they feel so fast on the flat.
Option 2, swap to hunt 33mm carbon rims. This wouldn’t really cost anything so that’s a plus. However not sure how confident I’d feel with the 20spokes on the front with the shallower wheel at my weight or am I over thinking this. These are about 150grams lighter so that should help.
Option 3, have a set of venn var37 built with carbon-ti hubs. This what I’m swinging towards although they will cost a fair bit more, however I’d feel more confident with the extra spokes and they are very slightly wider (only 1mm) which should be better on a 28mm tyre. These would be about 100g lighter, and I’m guessing a much better quality hub then the hunt wheels. Will you notice this weight on the hills as it always seemed pretty pointless to me worrying about 100g when I’m 90kg but as it’s rotational mass I know that has a bigger effect on feel.
 
I live where the wind blows all the time. Bang on the west coast. No way would I ride 50mm wheels. Far too much like hard work.
Be careful with carbon rims. They can be PIA to break the bead if/when you have a puncture.
 
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Daninplymouth

Daninplymouth

Senior Member
I live where the wind blows all the time. Bang on the west coast. No way would I ride 50mm wheels. Far too much like hard work.
Be careful with carbon rims. They can be PIA to break the bead if/when you have a puncture.
Don’t want to curse myself but haven’t had a puncture in 2 years 🤫
Trying to find some figures and I reckon the 37s would be about 70grams lighter on the rim just wondered if that would be noticeable with a better hub
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
You could just get some standard alloy Hunt rims built into the same hubs (note hub spacing can be slightly different between makes - may need re-indexing or brake discs re-aligning). Keep the other's for less windy days.

I used to just use my deep section's for racing and occasional nice days (they were tubs)
 
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Daninplymouth

Daninplymouth

Senior Member
What are you hoping to achieve by changing wheels?
My main objective is to increase confidence in windy conditions. I thought being fairly heavy I wouldn’t have noticed it much and although my confidence has grown on them a lot in the last 2weeks I still get the odd gust that catches me out. If they spin up the hills a little easier then I wouldn’t complain although I don’t think these wheels are actually that slow now as iv set a few pr’s going up I think it’s just they feel slow if your sitting and spinning. As I’m planning on using my bike pretty much all year around I think they might be a handful on the not so nice days
 

T4tomo

Guru
50mm carbon rims are for 'not too hilly' racing, still days and posing, they aren't vaguely practical for an everyday wheelset. You haven't said whether its a road or gravel bike, but if latter you defo want a decent spoke count as you aren't a 65kg twiglet. You either want two wheels sets if you want some 50mm rims for the "look" or a practical single wheelset solution.
 

Joffey

Big Dosser
Location
Yorkshire
My main objective is to increase confidence in windy conditions. I thought being fairly heavy I wouldn’t have noticed it much and although my confidence has grown on them a lot in the last 2weeks I still get the odd gust that catches me out. If they spin up the hills a little easier then I wouldn’t complain although I don’t think these wheels are actually that slow now as iv set a few pr’s going up I think it’s just they feel slow if your sitting and spinning. As I’m planning on using my bike pretty much all year around I think they might be a handful on the not so nice days

They will be fine in the wind, unless you are gong out in 30mph winds which is about my limit on my Zipps. After that I have a cheap set of Shimano wheels that were about a £100 but they have really shallow rims so I'll sometimes what the front one out, sometimes both. It's rare I have to do that though.
 
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Daninplymouth

Daninplymouth

Senior Member
50mm carbon rims are for 'not too hilly' racing, still days and posing, they aren't vaguely practical for an everyday wheelset. You haven't said whether its a road or gravel bike, but if latter you defo want a decent spoke count as you aren't a 65kg twiglet. You either want two wheels sets if you want some 50mm rims for the "look" or a practical single wheelset solution.
It’s a road bike. I only want to run one set so if I change it’ll be selling these to fund the new ones.
Do you think there’d be a noticeable difference between 50mm and 37mm regarding stability, from what I can read the VAR rims seem to cope well with crosswinds so that coupled with a shallower depth is swinging me that way.
The only thing is there doesn’t seem to be a massive difference on weight between sets but that could be due to a better hub on the other set, the hunts do seem to be light for their size
 
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