Carbon wheels

[fat_man_in_lycra]

Who can recommend a set of carbon wheels for my Look 566 for next year? Tight budget of £800 ish
How about these?
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=88034

[Mostyn]

That looks a nice set of wheels; and at only half rrp.

What about these >>>

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/view...091&t=12878213

[fat_man_in_lycra]

But which are the best set?

[Mostyn]

I have NO experience of either set; and to be truthful, I'd be happy with either of them! Fergie is your man for guidance on wheels. He's getting some new American Classic wheelsets shortly? They look very nice and they're lightweight.

[bfergie]

The Pro-lites are for tubulars so I'm assuming you want carbon wheels for time trials or racing more than general/sportive type riding?

A full carbon rim has a couple of drawbacks, one is braking performance even with the correct pads are not quite as predictable as alloy rim and secondly IF you are running a couple of wheelsets, one carbon, one alloy then you NEED to swap the pads every time to swap wheels...not fun!

If going for clinchers under £800 you wont be getting either full carbon rim nor be a lightweight wheel compared to an all alloy wheel for the same cash, For example at £800 you can get the 52mm Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels, stiff, fast once your above 23mph but over 1700g. For the same cash exactly you can get American Classic Road Tubeless(you can run tubes if you like) shallow rim(22mm) but over 1lb lighter in old money at 1179g per pair!!

Having used both lightweight shallow rims and deep rim Mavics in day to day riding, mixed conditions, crosswinds etc I'm most happy with a 30-32mm rim, either fine round or bladed spokes and a weight of 1500g ish...they are less susceptible to crosswinds and since my 100mile ride pace is just on the 20mph mark I don't feel I get any real gain going for a deeper wheel rim. They look lovely on a bike don't get me wrong, sound great too BUT what I'd look for is the performance gain and going for a 50mm rim at that price just doesn't cut it.
Ideally for a fast but rolling terrain I would go for a 30mm rim front wheel and a 50mm rim on the rear, that way your bike keeps a lively feel, accurate steering and less effected by cross winds while you get a big aero advantage with the deep rim on the rear where the air is not "clean". It's the rear wheel that suffers from turbulence and drag the most, hence why testers run a disc even on quite hilly time trials...that's where the gains are made so look for a nice light set of 30mm alloy wheels for your daily use and pop on a single deep rim on the rear for the extra special fast days!

[buzz]

I've had 50mm rim carbon rims and now have Zipp 404's the difference is incredible, Zipps are way way better!

I would go for the shimano wheels personally, cheapo carbon wheels might be pretty poor, you get what you pay for - As a man with discerning taste (you do ride a Look after all, an excellent choice good sir!) you might be better served with a more reputable brand like Shimano.

[Mostyn]

Anyone have any thoughts on SRAM Wheels the 30's or 40's?

[buzz]

Ridden the S80's good wheels.
Sram own Zipp and Hed amongst other brands so apart from being hell-bent on worldwide domination I'd wager a lot of Zipp's techie knowledge will be used by Sram on their own brand wheels.
Sram launched a new improved wheel range in 2011 after buying Zipp, so look out for sites such as Roadbike review or bike radar that might have recent user experiences listed.

[Berlinroads]

Personally, I would go with the Shimanos. I looked at Sram when I bought my last set of wheels. The appeal of Sram wheels was a heavy discount, reading a lot of reviews by users (not magazines), many people had problems with them. I bought Shimano, no regrets.

[Mostyn]

Sram quite a heavy wheel in comparison with Shimano wheels.