[alex.glenorchy]

Hi All,

I recently got my first carbon bike after riding a £300 aluminium job for a few years. Absolutely love it – night and day difference! It’s a nice bike but had been told it came with “budget wheels”. I had heard this was often done with bikes so have been considering upgrading them. But I’m not sure if in my price considerations it’s worth it?
 

The bike is rim brake, currently sitting on a pair of Fulcrum Racing 4s. After doing more internet reading it appears these are actually quite good value for money? If I was to replace them I was considering something like racing zeros I found for £650. Or pacenti Forza custom built with hope hubs at around £500. Having done some more reading about the internet (and other people’s similar questions) it seems some people suggest to leave it unless you upgrade to deep carbon wheels. Thing is I don’t want to spend that kind of money on wheels.

 

So to conclude – is upgrading to high end aluminium wheels (for similar prices mentioned, found a Eurus set for £500 as well), going to make an appreciable difference on the bike? Would you do it yourself?

 

Many thanks!

Topic

[alex.glenorchy]

Thanks – intriguing! I’ll

Thanks – intriguing! I’ll take a look.

[alex.glenorchy]

I’m 62kg at the moment. Still

I’m 62kg at the moment. Still working on fitness. Been cycling regularily (I.e. with intent to improve) for about two months on the new bike. Currently I cycle about 110-120 miles a week. Ride high 30s to 40 miles normally, but started mixing in 60 mile rides recently. 
 

For an example I recently did a 37 mile ride, 2100ft elevation change, 18mph average. That’s a good example of my current trips. Starva estimated 180w average power (but I don’t have a power meter so I imagine this is not accurate). I’m still seeing steady improvements at the moment so I’ll how things go.

 

You first point is more my question – I was told it’s a nice bike (got a good deal on it) but that I’d want to upgrade the wheels. I know riders with similar frames to mine but with expensive wheels. What do I hope to gain? I’m not sure what I will gain without going deep aero (which I don’t want to spend). So my question is whether it’s worth upgrading the wheels to “quality” aluminium so to speak. And by extension what I’m really asking is am I going to gain anything? 
 

I gather by your response, not much!

[OnYerBike]

As you say, Fulcrum Racing 4s

As you say, Fulcrum Racing 4s are actually pretty good value wheels. Whilst not exactly high-end wheels, they are decent all-rounders and already significantly better than the unbranded stock wheels you get with many entry level road bikes. As such, I don’t think upgrading them now makes a huge amount of sense – I don’t think the improvement in performance will be noticeable enough to justify the cost.

Being rim brake, they will need replacing eventually anyway – you could always consider going up a level at that point.

[FlyingPenguin]

You can get carbon wheels

You can get carbon wheels from UK builders for ~£600 without resorting to far east sellers (that can be somewhat pot luck).

I’ve personally used Mark Pollard (https://www.spokesmanwheels.co.uk/) for a couple of sets, one alloy, one carbon.  Good, solid, no nonsense wheels and substantially better than any value wheels (previously I had Kysrium Elites).  Obviously his website could use a little work(!), but he’s solid and pretty quick.

38mm carbon, £585, 50mm carbon, £650.  I speced DT Swiss hubs on mine so they were a bit more expensive, but they’re very true, have taken substantial abuse and there is a very noticeable performance advantage.

Obviously other builders exist, but the point remains that you can get very good carbon wheels substantially cheaper than the Hunts and Zipps of this world which are not far off your stated budget.

[Anonymous]

By changing wheels, what

By changing wheels, what gains are you hoping to make?

In my opinion I’d save your money and concentrate on increasing your fitness, while decreasing your weight, neither of which you have mentioned, but both far more relevant to going further, faster, than any spangly new wheels.

[Author]

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