Wheel Upgrade Advice

+1 for DCR wheels. David has just built me a set with his own rims on some nearly new Campag Record hubs I got on Ebay a while back. They're stiff, lively, super smooth because of the excellent hubs, and repairable.

The sad reality of factory wheels like Mavic, Campagnolo Shamal and Zonda and so on, is that matching replacement rims are so expensive that you'll throw the wheels out while the superb, serviceable hubs still have years of life in them.

There is something very nice about talking to someone with many years experience about what you *actually* need and them coming up with a wheel for you - subtle things like spoke count by weight and personal things like if you like loud or quiet hubs, they can recommend tyres too etc.

There are many, rowland, Just Riding Along, DCR, Cycle Clinic plus countless good independent mechanics will build you great wheels. My tip - CX Ray spokes, expensive but top draw

For generic wheels... my current favs are DT Swiss and Fulcrum 5s and up.

£400 will get you a nice set of handbuilt OpenPro USTs on decent hubs - DT Swiss 240s, or similar.  I should add that Kinlin rims are used by many so-called wheel manufacturers.... Hunt, for one.  Hed dont make their own alloy wheels either... In fact, I doubt that its cost effective for any manufacturers apart from the very largest.... Campagnolo, Shimano, Mavic...So dont be worried if the wheelbuilder mentions a few brands that are new to you.  

Go handbuilt. The benefits are manifold; you get the best mix of components, and some tailoring to your needs, plus a better build and a better guarantee usually. Strada are very good.

I'd recommend hand-built wheels.  Harry Rowland (google him) has built 4 pairs for me: the latest being a set of Open Pro USTs (which are sub 1500g) and a set of Kinlin-rimmed wheels with Chris King hubs (both wide rimmed).  He's always honest about what he can deliver, honest about what you need as a rider, and builds very comfortable wheels (no easy task on our roads).  

For those concerned about price, I think I paid 300-odd for the Open Pro USTs (on Miche hubs) and less than 200 to get the Chris King hubs built up on Kinlins (which I haven't tried yet as these are my summer Shimano wheels). 

There are, of course, other considerations - alloy over for carbon for rim brakes and vice versa for disc - but unless I was spending an absolute fortune on something very specific (Hyperons and Boras are my particular genre of veloporn) I wouldn't go anywhere else.

Borg 31s get a very good review (9/10 IIRC) in Cycling Weekly's group test this week. 31mm deep, 24mm wide, disc or rim braked. Malcolm has an excellent reputation.

https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/blogs/news/borg-wheels

Handbuilt every time - Give David a call at DCR Wheels.

I'd seriously recommend looking at the Cero AR24 wheels from cycledivision, mine weigh 1520g and were around £250 with a set of Conti tyres.

I've just done my first bearing change after 9000 UK miles, can't recommend them enough

I've got Vision Team 35s as a set of summer wheels. No complaints here and a fractional performance gain. Clicky-clacky freehub might not be to everyone's taste but obvs it sounds pro...

I've had a range of Mavic wheels over the years - Aksium (the very original! dead due to broken hub/spoke flange), Cosmic Carbone (2006, still going, fairly light use), Ksyrium Elite (retired - rim worn out) and Cosmic Elite (current).

The rears all use essentially the same freehub design which contains one end bearing and an Igus bush instead of a two-bearing design.

The last two wheels have been troublesome, with the freehub 'dragging' when coasting, causing the chain to go very slack and either (a) slap around near whirring spokes when going downhill, cornering etc., or (b) creating a half-revolution of zero resistance fresh air pedalling when low-speed manoeuvring / pulling away. Needless to say both phenomena are very undesirable!

The only solution (short of buying a new freehub) seems to be to crack them open, give the freehub internals and hub shaft a good clean then re-lube with a quality synthetic lube.

I've got that down to around 30 minutes (not rushing) but it's a bit of an annoying job - the Cosmic Elite started doing this after less than 6 months old, the Ksyrium after about a year and a half. They'd go for a few 100 k's before starting to play up again.

So sad to say but I'm probably not going to buy their wheels again. I think their quality has gone down and the prices aren't competitive enough in such a wide open market.

The Novatech hubs are used in loads of 3rd party wheelsets and are generally pretty reliable - it's more or less the same design as a Campag freehub - had a few of both types and they've been great.

I should add that the Mavic front wheels have been fine since the hubs are just a symmetrical twin-bearing design as per everyone elses!

Hey, Behindthebikesheds - they have been looking for you on here - they thought youd dissappeared - have a look at the thread a bit further down.

Hey, Behindthebikesheds - they have been looking for you on here - they thought youd dissappeared - have a look at the thread a bit further down.

as an FYI, Pro Lite freehubs can be directly replaced with Novatec available widely from UK online retailers. I went with the antibite version for my bortola's.

I've got some Pro-life Revo's.  Very happy with them, and tend to run them with wider tyres. They can be a real pain in the 'arris to mount tyres onto though.  In fact some I just gave up on as too difficult. 35mm Vittoria Hyper Voyagers and 37mm Challenge Gravel Grinders fit no problem.  Others wereastruggleand needed a special "tyre wrench"to seat them.

I have done a 1000 miles on the Hunt 4 Seasons since buying a new bike last year.  No problems with the wheels.  They look well made and run nicely with the GPS4000 28s that I am running.  Doubt you will be disappointed. 

Edit - Just had a thought, mine are discs.

One of the best parts of working for road.cc is that I get to test a lot of very fancy wheelsets.

While I can't give any first-hand experience of the wheels that you've listed but I can advise that the biggest performance upgrade that I've seen in wheels in the last 8(ish) years is the width of the rim. 

A nice 19mm internal measurement will give a comfier ride for no speed loss and would be the feature that I'd prioritise over weight saved. They hold speed better and are way better in the corners

The Hunt 4 Season looks like a good option for that.