Pro Lite Allein XC Wheels

[jethro10]

Well a set of Pro Lite Allein XC wheels arrived this morning for my Wife's bike.

I'm nearly 50 and have build a super bike, nice and light.
Wife is 44 and is 5' 2" quite light and has a Downhill bike, not because she uses it as such, but because we were in a reasonably bad car crash approx. 20 years ago, and the geomotry of the bike suited a more upright position for her.

We live in the lakes, and mostly do simple XC stuff with the odd blue route, but she squeals like a pig if she goes too fast and a 200mm jump is like reaching the stratosphere for her. THe point being we use it properly off road, but not overly stressed.

I have Easton XC one wheels which are approx 1560g and £350 according to Chain reaction, although I'm sure they were a bit less last year. These are the only comparison I can give you.

We've been looking for wheels for a while, no rush - waiting for bargains ;-) and in a Magazine this month, there was a review of wheels, and these were one of them. got a sensible above average raiting, but for me the price £175 plus a few pence delivered, with a "Trip7" discount code, from here :-

http://www.ribblecyc...olt/PROLWHFM200

the quality of the review and the weight of 1600g made it a sensible choice.
Ok, possibly not as strong as my Easton, but she is smaller, lighter, and less brave.

So they arrived this morning.
Only weighed the front one and it comes in at 736g, quoted at 742g
Quality looks excellent, my wifes comment "they look more expensive than your wheels", and build wise they do.

My Easton's are straight pull spokes, these arnt.
The finish is a shot peened black with no visible signs of the weld joint on the rim join, the rim tape is branded with their logo and is a nice touch adding to the feel of quality.
The branding on the outside of the wheels is a paint finish, my Eastons are stickers, again a nice touch which adds to the feel of quality. There is a sticker as well, a serial number, quoting it was hand built! Presumably this is traceable back if there ia a fault.

The spokes are flat, which might help a bit with aerodynamics?
The rim is a little narrow, maximum tyre size as the Magazine article stated will be approx 2.25" but this is fine for an XC wheel, my wife runs Maxxis Wormdrive 2.0"
Tortional stiffness, by hand, I don't have the equipment to measure, is very stiff feels way stiffer than the original wheel, a Xero Session XED which weigh 2.2Kg per pair and as far as I can tell were approx £90 pair a few years ago if you bought them seperatley.

So tonight she fits them, with my supervision, and we will try them this weekend. I'll write the road test up in a few days.
THere are generic pictures on the manufacturers site, but if anyone wants specific closeups of certain parts, just ask, it may take a few days though.


Jeff

 

[jethro10]

 

[jethro10]

Ive copied this from another post in the general Know How forum I made about how she was getting along with them. Just for posterity sake incase the original get's lost in the midst of time.


The wheels weighed in at 1592g her original ones were 2183g,
She also changed her 203mm Front rotor to 160, saving this weight and the caliper spacer weight. She's quite light, and doesn't push like a professional, so probably the disk was over specced for her needs. This gave a saving of 119g also giving a total benefit of 710g
So Rear was 335g lighter, front with disk, 375g

right, she is 43, I'm 49 - so not kids, and not too adventerous, not got the strength anymore!
Her bike was about £700, mine a self build which seems comparable to approx £1800 bikes I see advertised, both hardtail mountain bikes.

For me not too familiar with the bike, it felt less "heavy", more nimble, it felt closer to my bike, less cheap. Less clumsy perhaps is a word that comes to mind. That's about all I can say.

My wife was over the moon though, massive difference she says.
On the flats, just easier she says more manouverable as well. More responsive. On the hills a lot easier. I did notice on one hill we often do, she always is in 1'st gear, she did it in 2nd this weekend. I did comment to her, and she said "I thought I was in 1'st" was it the wheels?

One big benefit I never anticipated was suspension quality. I have rockshock, Reba dual air, really light and good quality. Her's are Manitou Black Comp coil spring shocks. She's a bit of a chicken and often says "I doesn't feel safe" on fast downhills in the woods. Now she says it feels safer and smoother. Especially noticed over tree roots. I have to assume the suspension can track better with less unsprung weight, ie. it can control the lighter weight underneath it better? seems so. She was a lot braver and faster anyhow.

Curiously, she says the 160 rotor brakes, brake better than the factory fitted 203mm one, anyone any thoughts?

Anyhow, for her, she says it's massivley better and well worth the £175, plus £10 for the disk, transformed the bike she says - feels more expensive and more responsive. Mind I suppose it depends on how much you can afford that much.