Winter wheels

[fossyant]

I think it's down to the sort of rides you're doing - if it's shortish weekend rides then it's easier to avoid wet muddy conditions and to clean your rims/brake pads, so there's probably not going to be a lot more wear. But if you're riding every day in all conditions then the chances are higher that you will end up riding with gritty rims/pads, and you can wear out your rims in a very short time.

The OP has said commuting wheels. Yup if you are a weekend warrior you are unlikely to wear out rims. Even if commuting every day and cleaning rims after a wet ride, I still go through rims in 18 months.

The decision is can you afford to replace a £300 set or a £100 set every 18 months.

You weekend warriors don't need to worry about that.

 

[KneesUp]

OK - perhaps "winter wheels" is the wrong phrase - it's just quicker than typing "wheels for use when the weather and road conditions are likely to be at their worse"

I'm just after knowing how resistant the Zondas are to rain, road grit, etc as I'm tempted to leave them on.

edited to add: For the really bad conditions I do have a Kona Jake CX which will be used instead.

I'm with @blazed on this. If you have a £1,000 bike just in case the conditions are worse than the 'bad conditions' that caused you to change your wheels, then you surely are flush enough not to worry about the cost of slightly more rim wear on your wheels? Why not just ride the Jake all winter?

 

[Arjimlad]

I find it more important to pay attention to the quality of the brake blocks, and to keep them, and the rims, as clean as possible. I bought some Lifeline blocks which attracted all sorts of muck and ended up binning them as they became embedded with bits of rim metal. Back to Koolstop Salmons and no further problems of that nature. I am still expecting to buy some new wheels for my Defy next year though. And a disc-braked commuter bike this time next year too, to keep the Defy for best/summer etc.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

£2k bike before adding wheelsets.

£500 Ribble winter bike

Theres no argument here