# Which new wheels?



## Brock (3 Oct 2007)

I need a new pair of 700c wheels for my old tourer/commuter/hack. I'm expecting to pay in the region of a hunnerd quids for something fairly decent. Strength and reliability is probably more important than speed (I'm heavy, and I carry heavy loads), and I'd need them to accept 25 to 32 tyres.

I've been looking here but don't really know what would be best for me.
Any clues knowledgeable experienced ones?


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## ash68 (3 Oct 2007)

bought a pair of endeavours on deore hubs a few years ago from Spa cycles.did general commuting,a bit touring with rear panniers etc on and off road through Kielder forrest etc.The wheels stood up really well. The only fault I had was the front hub bearings needed regreasing regularly.I don't think the deore hubs are sealed too well, I have been advised since to go for the xt hubs in future(rightly or wrongly i don't know) Looks like the sputnik rims have superceded the endeavours.I weight about 12 stones,don't know if you would class that as heavy or not.


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## domtyler (3 Oct 2007)

Just get Easton Ascents, **** the cost.


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## Fab Foodie (3 Oct 2007)

Talk to Paul Hewitt or Pete Mathews and see what they suggest.


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## vernon (3 Oct 2007)

Brock said:


> I need a new pair of 700c wheels for my old tourer/commuter/hack. I'm expecting to pay in the region of a hunnerd quids for something fairly decent. Strength and reliability is probably more important than speed (I'm heavy, and I carry heavy loads), and I'd need them to accept 25 to 32 tyres.
> 
> I've been looking here but don't really know what would be best for me.
> Any clues knowledgeable experienced ones?



Ring Spacycles and talk to them. They are very helpful and I've yet to see a poor review of their wheelsets unlike one of the other wheel builders suggested here.


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## starseven (4 Oct 2007)

Brock

I recently had a pair of 700c wheels made, they were made by my local bike shop, I imagine most "proper" bike shops have someone able to string a wheel together. 
They used Deore LX disc hubs, you wouldnt need the disc type but these are a good compromise of price and quality. Simano hubs can also be tightened as they wear unlike (expensive) sealed bearing types which are shot once worn.
For rims they used Mavic A719 rims which have welded seams and are very strong. Spokes are stainless types.

All in they were about £100 maybe £120 tops, very nice wheels probably outlast me!!


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## john59 (4 Oct 2007)

A good range of touring wheels can be found at 'Spa Cycles'. http://www.spacycles.co.uk

John


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## simoncc (4 Oct 2007)

I used to go to Spa cycles but I had a couple of bad experiences with them, which was a bit of a shock as they are usually very good. What I do now is look what Spa are advertising and go to my local LBS and ask for the same. I can get below Spa prices if I haggle a bit, and the more you buy from an LBS the more they let you haggle. Most LBSs can build good wheels.


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## twowheelsgood (5 Oct 2007)

Actually brock, this type of wheel is more difficult to get than you'd think. You ideally need a 17-19mm (internal) rim for those tyres and this used to be easy to get.

Nowadays, most makers, notably the ubiquitous Mavic have a huge gap between their 15mm race rim and the 20-22mm general purpose or touring rims.

I have shimano XT with mavic A719 rims. They are really too wide for 25mm tyres. They are very strong, but heavy.

The only ones I'm aware of that are ideal for you are made by an Italian company called DRC. I really wish I'd tried some instea of my mavics - I ride the same range of tyres on my commuter 25-28-32, certainly don't need to be able to fit up to 42mm tyres!!

http://withingtoncycles.co.uk/browse.php?node_id=1937


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## Brock (5 Oct 2007)

Interesting twowheelsgood, thanks for the link and advice.
So now I'm thinking XT hubs are probably a good bet and those DRC ST touring rims look ideal. I will give Spacycles a ring though, and see what they can offer me, I've been impressed with their service in the past. Care to elaborate on your bad experiences with them SimonCC? Unfortunately I don't have a lot of faith in my LBSs.


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## twowheelsgood (5 Oct 2007)

Small caveat here. I haven't actually tried these rims, they just came up when I did some research a while back. I'd love to hear peoples opinions of them.

Seems daft there is no mid-sized mavic these days.


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## User482 (5 Oct 2007)

I have mavic open pros on shimano XT hubs. Built by my LBS. Survived my recent LEJOG with panniers & 28mm tyres with no problems at all - stayed absolutely true.


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## simoncc (5 Oct 2007)

Brock said:


> Interesting twowheelsgood, thanks for the link and advice.
> So now I'm thinking XT hubs are probably a good bet and those DRC ST touring rims look ideal. I will give Spacycles a ring though, and see what they can offer me, I've been impressed with their service in the past. Care to elaborate on your bad experiences with them SimonCC? Unfortunately I don't have a lot of faith in my LBSs.



Well, they fitted a bottom bracket and a chainset to a bike I bought from them and it came loose after 15 miles. Then I bought a road wheel from them that completely failed 30 miles into its second ride. I thought I'd got a puncture, but the all the spokes had beome very loose. All the touring wheels I've had from them have been good though.


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## P.H (5 Oct 2007)

Brock said:


> So now I'm thinking XT hubs are probably a good bet and those DRC ST touring rims look ideal.


That's Paul hewitt's favourite combination for his touring bikes. It's what came on my Cheviot and they are the only wheels I've had that remained true until the rims wore out. I've had a Spa dynohub wheel which was very poorly built, broke two spokes in the first thousand miles and took several attempts to get it true.


> I've yet to see a poor review of their wheelsets unlike one of the other wheel builders suggested here.


What an odd comment. If you've heard bad things about one of them, let's hear it. Your comment seems a bit unfair to the other!


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## twowheelsgood (10 Oct 2007)

Thanks P.H. only makes me wish more I didn't go with those Mavics....


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## Brock (13 Oct 2007)

Following the helpful advice on this thread I've just ordered the DRC ST touring / Shimano XT build from Mr Hewitt. Just what I wanted from a reputable wheel builder. Thanks folks, although I know who you are if they taco when I do the weekend offlicense pannier run.


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## friedel (14 Oct 2007)

I would definitely consider a hand built wheel if you plan to do any amount of touring with any amount of load. We are not travelling light and yet our wheels have yet to break a spoke and as far as we can tell they still run true after 17000km. When we meet other tourers on the road the most common complaint seems to be broken spokes, even more than flat tyres.

Our bikes and wheels were built by Robin Mather. He's a really nice guy so I am sure you could give him a ring just to see what he says. Google for his site.... robinmathercycles.co.uk or something like that


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## twowheelsgood (16 Oct 2007)

Hi Brock, let us know how you get on. 

One word of warning though. I found when my XT/Mavic wheels were brand-new that they felt VERY slow at first but loosened-up over a couple 100kms.

Now all wheels have bearings that "bed in" over a bit but these were something else. My best guess it that the XT hubs, even for MTB-specific hubs are very well sealed, which of course is also excellent news for touring. I believe it's this seal that causes this to start with until it wears in nicely.


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## User482 (17 Oct 2007)

twowheelsgood said:


> Hi Brock, let us know how you get on.
> 
> One word of warning though. I found when my XT/Mavic wheels were brand-new that they felt VERY slow at first but loosened-up over a couple 100kms.
> 
> Now all wheels have bearings that "bed in" over a bit but these were something else. My best guess it that the XT hubs, even for MTB-specific hubs are very well sealed, which of course is also excellent news for touring. I believe it's this seal that causes this to start with until it wears in nicely.



The seals on XT hubs are much better than Deore, in my experience. Well worth the extra dosh.


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## Brock (23 Oct 2007)

twowheelsgood said:


> Hi Brock, let us know how you get on.
> 
> One word of warning though. I found when my XT/Mavic wheels were brand-new that they felt VERY slow at first but loosened-up over a couple 100kms.



Wheels came, and very smart they are too. They don't seem to be suffering the slowness you describe, both run beautifully.
Was a little disappointed that I had to provide my own rim tape, Kind of assumed they'd fit that before sending them out... Maybe I should've asked.
For some reason it's pretty hard to get the rear to slot into the dropouts, very tight fit.. Perhaps I should polish some of the rust off or something.
So far so good though, lighter, faster, safer and cleaner than my old ones.


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## Kirstie (24 Oct 2007)

Just had an interesting experience with Spa Cycles. I ordered some Rigida Chrina on XT in July. They eventually turned up after the delivery company made several attempts to deliver them, but when I got them out of the box they were far from true. I think this is probably because the delivery company mishandled them.

Anyway, on contacting Spa Cycles, they said they'd ring me back to arrange a pick up time and send me a new set of wheels. They never rang back. When I rang again to remind them they once more promised to ring back to pick up the wheels and then once again didn't call back.

So I thought 'sod it' and took my wheels to my LBS who trued them up in no time. I paid about 15 quid for them to be trued. I was a little miffed, but the wheels are bombproof and work fine now, and I accepted that they probably got mashed up on their way to me from Spa Cycles. This all happened in July/August.

About three weeks ago the phone rang, and it was Spa Cycles, saying that they had a spare set of wheels for me and when would I like them delivered. I told them I'd had the original wheels fixed two months previously. They immediately offered to pay for the cost of having them trued, but as I couldn't find the receipt, they sent me a load of inner tubes instead. This is fair enough IMO.

So, I don't think that Spa Cycles are bad quality wise, but they're not very organized!


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## Brock (24 Oct 2007)

Well it's always nice to get things sorted to your satisfaction, even if it's no more than you should expect.
I wonder about the wheels arriving out of true though, surely they'd have to be pretty seriously mistreated by the couriers for a properly built wheel to come out of the box warped?


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