Wide rim road wheels

[TheJDog]

I'm building a new aluminium road bike, and shopping around for a new set of wheels, budget < £600. Looking at the usual suspects - Campy Neutrons, Shamals, etc., but the wide rims of the HED C2, Pacenti SL23 etc., sound like the give exactly the ride I'm after.

Anyone any idea what hubs wheelsmith build their Race23 £450 set with? Are they decent? I can get a set of C2s on Hope Pro 3s for around the same price, but the Hed builds are fairly suspect by some accounts, and Wheelsmith seem to get nothing but glowing praise.

Getting a set of the Pacenti's for £450 is on Novatec Superlight hubs, from dcrwheels, and I'm not sure about those hubs. Frankly, hubs seem to get ludicrously expensive very quickly.

Basically, has anyone ridden C2s, Archetype, SL23s or Race23s, and what do they recommend?

Or should I just get a pair of Fulcrum Racing Zeroes?

 

[Andrew Br]

I'm running Velocity A23s on my audax bike.
They're a wider rim like the Pacentis that you mention above (I'm not familiar with the other rims).
The A23s replaced some Mavic CXP33s which are fairly narrow rims.
I initially used the tyres from the CXPs (24mm Vittoria Pave) and the bike felt much more planted.
Sadly, I couldn't detect any reduction in drag or rolling resistance.
When it was time to replace the Paves (I found that they cut up very easily) I went for 28mm GP 4 Seasons and the grip seems even higher.
These tyres come up quite small, even on the wider rims; I've measured 26mm when fully inflated albeit I run them at 80-90psi.

I'm definitely a fan of wider rims for road bikes.

I can't help with the hubs; all my bikes have discs and I'm running Hope Evo 3s with A23s.

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[TheJDog]

Do you find the wheels to be more comfortable for similar drag levels? I have Ksyrium Elites, and while I think they were fine on a carbon bike, on aluminium I am finding them quite harsh (running with 25mm GP4000s). Will probably not go radially spoked for the front wheel this time, either...

 

[mattobrien]

I have got some H Plus Son Achetype rims on Hope Evo 2 hubs, laced with Sapim spokes, 28 per wheel. These are running on my commuter / wet weather bike.

The wheels were built with this purpose in mind and are not designed to be as light as some, but aren't overly heavy. They are running Michelin Pro 4 Endurance, which again isn't the fastest rolling tyre, but only one puncture in 2,000 miles.

My LBS are putting together a lot of wheels on H Plus Son Archetype rims currently and they rate them highly.

Hard to compare with Ksyrium Elites as I had these on a different bike, which I think was a touch faster / more racey than the commuter. I also had the wheels on different tyres too.

Again hard to compare to Racing Zero's as these were also on a different bike and shod with different tyres.

The wheels / bike aren't too shoddy speed wise, I think the best ave. I have managed was 20.6mph, and I expect this could be bettered by removing my guards and fitting faster rubber.

If I were in the market for buying some factory built wheels for around the £500 mark, I would probably go with Campag Zonda and pocket the difference. From what I understand they are extremely similar to Fulcrum 3's, but differently branded and laced. I wouldn't necessarily spend the extra to get the Racing Zero's over the Ksyrium Elites, but as I said, I would get the Zondas.

All IMHO though, so do buy what will put the biggest smile on your face.

Happy to help if you have any specific questions.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

If dcrwheels sells something it is ok. If dcrwheels recommends something it is excellent.

 

[TheJDog]

If I were in the market for buying some factory built wheels for around the £500 mark, I would probably go with Campag Zonda and pocket the difference. From what I understand they are extremely similar to Fulcrum 3's, but differently branded and laced. I wouldn't necessarily spend the extra to get the Racing Zero's over the Ksyrium Elites, but as I said, I would get the Zondas.

I had a pair of Zondas (stolen), and I compared them with friends' Racing 3s, and they were identical apart from the greater spacing between the sets of 3 spokes. I liked them, but saying that, I wouldn't get them again because the Mega G3 or whatever they call that pattern just looks too odd (Racing 3s slightly less odd, but still a little odd). But the £250 that wiggle are doing these for right now is spectacularly good vfm, I would say. Spending more is a bit painful, but hopefully will get me something I really like.

 

[mattobrien]

I had a pair of Zondas (stolen), and I compared them with friends' Racing 3s, and they were identical apart from the greater spacing between the sets of 3 spokes. I liked them, but saying that, I wouldn't get them again because the Mega G3 or whatever they call that pattern just looks too odd (Racing 3s slightly less odd, but still a little odd). But the £250 that wiggle are doing these for right now is spectacularly good vfm, I would say. Spending more is a bit painful, but hopefully will get me something I really like.

You've got to get something that makes you happy. And new wheels make you faster, it is a fact, i wrote e whole thread about it :-)

 

[RedRider]

If dcrwheels sells something it is ok. If dcrwheels recommends something it is excellent.

I followed a similar bit of advice from yerself on another thread, spoke to David Hunt and I'm now the proud owner of a great, confidence-inspiring wheelset. Archetype rims, 32 Sapim race spokes in the rear and 32 Sapim laser in the front with formula track hubs (it's a singlespeed). Talked through my needs with him - long rides, gear I'm running, light touring, was a toss-up between 32 or 28 on the front but pleased I went with 32 every time I hit a hole in the road.

Basically, has anyone ridden C2s, Archetype, SL23s or Race23s,

It's difficult for me to make a fair comparison between the wide archetypes and my previous rims as the dcr build is clearly so much stiffer and better than the factory one. The advertised advantages are the tyre profile is less squidgy, the tyres ride more like tubulars and so on. Well I take corners faster with a greater degree of leaning on these wheels, it's true. The rims may well play a part in that.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

I'm building a new aluminium road bike, and shopping around for a new set of wheels, budget < £600. Looking at the usual suspects - Campy Neutrons, Shamals, etc., but the wide rims of the HED C2, Pacenti SL23 etc., sound like the give exactly the ride I'm after.

Anyone any idea what hubs wheelsmith build their Race23 £450 set with? Are they decent? I can get a set of C2s on Hope Pro 3s for around the same price, but the Hed builds are fairly suspect by some accounts, and Wheelsmith seem to get nothing but glowing praise.

Getting a set of the Pacenti's for £450 is on Novatec Superlight hubs, from dcrwheels, and I'm not sure about those hubs. Frankly, hubs seem to get ludicrously expensive very quickly.

Basically, has anyone ridden C2s, Archetype, SL23s or Race23s, and what do they recommend?

Or should I just get a pair of Fulcrum Racing Zeroes?

I run a set of H Plus Son Archetype. 24F and 32R, on Novatec A171 and F272. At the time I built them I was a bit over 17 stones and I thought I would go down to 13.5 stones within months, well that was the plan anyway. Instead I went up to 18.5 I thought I was going to destroy the hubs but since I built the wheels myself I could always rebuilt them so I carried on riding They have not given me one problem, nothing at all and I have clocked nearly 2 and 1/2 thousand miles. Absolutely brilliant rims that I highly recommend. Now that I'm back to 15 stones and going down I'm planning to build myself another set but I will use the Archetype again, different colour though

About these "Novatec Superlight hubs" I know a wheel builder that stopped using them as they kept failing with bearings failure. The hubs I'm using sell under the name of Ambrosio too but with a bigger price tag. Very impressed with the hubs too.

The Archetypes are becoming so popular that sometimes is difficult to source them in the colour / drilling combination I need so when that happens I recommend Velocity A23 but I don't think they are as good.

 

[TheJDog]

Maybe I'll try building my own

 

[Spoked Wheels]

Maybe I'll try building my own

And why not? You can figure that you are on the wrong track half way through the building process and set everything back in a couple of minutes and start again how good is that? But if you are impatient then maybe you'll grow frustrated very quickly I'm not particularly patient and there is nothing in the world that annoys me more than waiting for people to get ready to go out but when it comes to wheel building I relax and if something is not working as it should then I walk away and come back another day. If you are planning to build the odd wheel then I'd suggest to start with the bike fork to see if you can build a wheel and then take it from there.

You can use your bike fork as a wheel stand, perfectly doable. I like tools so I never considered a bike fork I just went and bought the Park TS2.2 - I find it very satisfying doing the job with good tools, equally satisfying is making your own tools.

The other good thing about Archetype rims is that they feel rigid. I have built some popular Mavic rims for other people that didn't feel so good and in all honesty I knew I had done a good built but I didn't feel as confident on the wheels as I feel with the Archetype.... all in my head I guess cause these people have gone to do 1000's of miles without any issues. The point here is that, depending on your weight and riding style, you can use the Archetype with lighter spokes ie Laser or revolution for the rear wheel too and save weight something I would not do with some other rims.

 

[Andrew Br]

I'm running Velocity A23s on my audax bike.

When it was time to replace the Paves (I found that they cut up very easily) I went for 28mm GP 4 Seasons and the grip seems even higher.
These tyres come up quite small, even on the wider rims; I've measured 26mm when fully inflated albeit I run them at 80-90psi.


.

Let me correct that: my newly arrived calipers give the GP4 S width as 28mm.
I used a (plastic) ruler last time I measured them .

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