Which Wheelset?

Equipment
1

Morning All,

So, I’m planning to slowly upgrade my all round bike (I’ve made a post about building and i’m narrowing in on what i’m actually after) But instead of jumping into a full new bike, I’m intending to upgrade my present bike, then when the time comes to get the frame, I’ll just move all the new gear onto that.

So first thing on my list - wheels.

I’m a little lost on what to choose, I don’t want to simply buy expensive and assume that’s the best wheel to go for, so hoped I could grab some experience from you lot.

My ribble currently runs on Mavic Aksium wheels, which, to me at least, are “OK” nothing amazing but nothing to really complain about.

The bike i’m aiming to achieve will simply be a good all round bike, i’m intending for it to be a “gravel bike” but I won’t be riding it off road, I’ve a mountain bike for that, and I don’t do much gravel riding aside from that, my riding buddy is purely road so, for this bike at least, it’ll be ridden purely on the road. So why gravel focus? simply comfort and gear range. I’m not a strong climber, I’m getting better, but I live in the flattest part of the country, so hills (when I find them) are a challenge! So I want a big gear so when I bring the bike with me on holidays I can still go up some hills that I’m not used to and be able to spin up should I want to. But other than that, I’m keen to do more miles in one day, so having an easier gearing allows me to go easy on more hills.

so, gravel focus.

Back to the wheels.

I’ll be running tubes. I’ve tried tubeless, I got a flat, which didn’t seal, all air out, couldn’t re-inflate. Luckily this was at an event so the mechanics on hand had the correct pump to get me rolling again, but it made me lose confidence of being able to sort myself out on a ride (sure I can just take tubes with me in the worst case but then i’m covered in sealant etc).

So, Tubes

I’m currently running GRX on my gravel bike. I’d like to move to electronic shifting, but not sure which route to take here, I love the old SRAM red setup i’ve got on my race bike, but again, I want to gear range on this bike, so I’m not sure if I’ll go GRX Di2, or use GRX shifters (comfy) on an ultegra groupset… assume I need to decide on that for the correct hubs?

Tyres - 30mm seems to be my sweetspot, comfy and fast enough for my riding. Might up to 32 but that’s what the wheel needs to take.

Aero - I’m not looking for massive deep wheels, Don’t want to take off in a crosswind :smiley:

HUNT 32 Aerodynamicist UD Carbon Spoke Disc Wheelset – Hunt Bike Wheels

This is what I’ve been considering.

Any thoughts? anything else you’d recommend? I’m hoping around £1000 as a budget, simply as I don’t think my abilities warrant spending more, improvements in my own strength and fitness will give me more benefit than spending another £1000, I simply want a decent wheelset to increase comfort, which some extra benefits to performance - I’m not an especially quick rider, but i’d like the bike to feel quick if i’m trying to go quick (if that makes sense! more responsive I guess is what i’m after)

so:

Tubes
30-32mm tyre
gravel groupset compatible ideally but road is fine if that’s the better choice
Lightweight over full aero.

2

They are not deep enough. There is a reason why the current goldi locks depth is 40–50 mm: they provide an aero advantage, are very stable and reasonably light.

Also, I’d definitely opt for wider, high-quality tires. Rubber compound and construction have much more impact on rolling resistance than depth. Since you don’t seem to be interested in winning races, I’d try out 35 mm. With those, you can ride tame gravel, too.

I live in a region where cobbles are common. On my aero road bikes, I either have to slow down (I got an unfixable puncture already) or turn around. With wider tires, I wouldn’t have to turn around.

3

yeah no interest in winning races at all, cycling is simply something I enjoy and is helping me lose weight (3 stone gone so far since august last year)
I enjoy cycling events but those are purely a “see if I can do it” rather than “see how fast I can do it”
Me and my bud generally just focus on getting to the end in relative comfort rather than racing to the end as quick as possible - in 5 years time, maybe this will change, but likely my goals with the bike will have changed by then too so 5 years of comfort would be lovely

I’ve had 40s on my ribble and they felt ok really but man am I loving my 30mm GP5000s, just seem to tick everybox I could ask of them

so these would be a better choice?
HUNT 44 UD Carbon Spoke Disc Wheelset – Hunt Bike Wheels

4

They make GP5ks in 35 mm as well.

Yes, but at 20 mm the internal width is a tad narrow. I’d rather have something like 25 mm. I’d consider Zipp 303S wheels or Swissside Gravon 500 wheels.

Swissside are heavier, but their wheels are historically aerodynamically excellent.

5

I do have a fondness for the 303 but I thought they had very limited tyre options?

6

Just a note, 303 ≠ 303S. The former are much more expensive. If you want to stick with GP5000s (which are great tires), you are in luck, they are officially compatible.

7

Check out the Reserve 40/44 wheels currently 30% off at Merlin cycles. The list price is higher, but I believe the sale price would be within your budget.

Rim height is 40/44 mm, rim internal width 25 mm. The Merlin sale models have DT Swiss 350 hubs.

Edit: the Shimano version seems to be out of stock

1 Like
8

If you are looking at different GRX options, pick a wheelset with hubs that can theoretically run an MS12 freehub.

I get all my wheels, well mostly rims from https://www.lightbicycle.com/ into the UK (tax pre-paid) and use a local wheel builder to finish. Have had no issues with the one wheelset that came fully built.

1 Like
9

I recently had a wheel built up when a rim cracked. It’s not all that expensive. That’s definitely an option if you have e. g. a good hub (in my case XTR M9000) and want to reuse it.

10

A 1200g wheelset with carbon spokes is bleeding edge light.

Personally, I’d go for more reliability and steel spokes.

Zipp 303S I wouldn’t touch those as they are hookless and designed for tubeless tires.

If you wanted Hunt, I’d look at something like this:

50mm is not going to blow you around, and the performance gain from aero is very real.

2 Likes
11

Look at the ICAN 700 G25. Hooked rims, steel spokes, 50mm depth, 25mm internal and I found my set to be very easy to set up tubeless. There are a bunch of good reviews with money off codes on YouTube but I found they gave me a better discount code by emailing them a few questions first.
Two caveats N=1 mine arrived a few days ago straight and round and not ridden yet which i intend to do in the next few days. And like one of the reviews says you have to grease the bearings, which is dead easy as they arrive fairly dry. They do look good on my road bike with 32mm tyres. Took 15 days from ordering to delivery in the UK.
I will edit this once ridden (may spin around the block later) if anything negative occurs.
As you said pounds in your price range I’m assuming you’re UK based too. I also got a SRAM freehub to put them on the all road bike when I upgrade the groupset later tjis year. Well within your budget.
Just a suggestion.
Look up jon the rbble valley cyclist on you tube as he tested a load of chinese made wheels which is what essentially Hunt wheels seem to be.