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
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.