New Wheels (for the dry days when they come)

it kind of depends

I guess it depends what you’re going to be doing with those wheels. Are you going to be racking up the sportive/training miles or d’you think they’ll get a bit less time outside?

I’ve hand built wheels too – it’s not the black art everyone seems to think it is – but generally speaking you won’t save much money. you will get a nice, unique wheelset though. Chris Kings are super-nice, the lightweight Hope hubs build into excellent road wheels too, though the freewheel is a bit noisy.

If you’re building your own, don’t use Aluminium nippes. They round off too easily and save about 2g for a wheel, just not worth it. Good spokes *really* make a difference to the feel, my favourites are Sapim’s CX-Ray though they ain’t cheap.

If you’ve got £500-600 to spend then you’re spoilt for choice, again it depends on both the riding you’ll be doing and your own weight. Some are lighter, some are stiffer. I’m the wrong side of 100kg so I tend to favour stiff over light, though a good compromise is best. We tested Shimano’s RS80 which I really rate as an all-round wheel, although it’s Shimano/SRAM only. Then there’s Fulcrum Racing 1s which are super stiff and better for racier riding, as well as your Campys and Mavics which are all good performers.