The search for training wheels...

[Janman]

Goal

Find some descent training wheels! Everyday use (located in Belgium, lots of wet road)

Requirements

- Shimano body
- Clincher wheels
- Black color
- Cheap, +- 200 euro's (It's a training wheel after all)

What I found

- Fulcrum 7
- Fulcrum 5

- DT-Swiss 1800

- Mavic Aksium

- Shimano RS10
- Shimano RS20
- Shimano RS30

Your pick?!

Ps.: Some real life weights of the wheelsets above would be great! It's weightweenies after all!

[btompkins0112]

Why not some Open Pro's with factory (Ultegra) hubs? Can be had for cheap enough and would last forever.....if your list is exhaustive, then I would go with the RS10 or RS20.....I have experience with both and they are smooth and are decent for the money.

[Zitter]

I'd say either the fulcrums or shimanos (highest level you can afford), don't get the aksiums

[jmilliron]

Why not some Open Pro's with factory (Ultegra) hubs? Can be had for cheap enough and would last forever....

*as long as you don't smash through a deep pothole at 30 mph.

[madmole]

The 7's, built up with Veloplugs and conti supersonic tubes(and conti gp4000s). Cheap, bombproof, quiet, easy to service and not too bad on the weight

The 7's that came with my S3 did well over the winter in all sorts of weather, and I'm a mountain biker at heart so I bunny hop speed humps and pot holes and take the odd short cut down canal towpaths (Much to the asmusement of other cyclists). The 7's havnt flinched with that treatment and are still spot on true

Weight 1870g with lube and naked, measured

[Janman]

Weight 1870g with lube and naked, measured

That's not to bad! The Mavic Aksium should be spot on on Mavic's advertised weight of 1800gr. I always thought the Fulcrum 7
are +2000gr wheels. Making hard decisions here!

[madmole]

My experiance of Mavics are that they will be 50 or so grams above what Mavic claim and that spokes will break on the cheaper ones after a couple of years (I get a steady stream of Mavic rebuilds in the workshop, and sourcing spokes for them is an expensive nightmare)

Having said that I'm running the new Cosmic Carbonne SLE with Exalith at the moment 1783 grams naked, softer and more forgiving than the fulcrums, dont feel as alive, but definately hold speed above 20 mph far better and added 2 mph to my top speed on windsor ride. One day I'll be rich enough to get some 303's

The 7's zing and dart and feel good, are not not very damped and you definately feel the road. I'd love a set of racing zero's as hill climbers

[Rick]

Mavic does basically lie about their wheel weights. but I have found them to be virtually indestructible.

For cheap/good: will Neuvation ship to your location ?

[Zitter]

my experience with aksiums is that I have to true the front wheel every time I ride it, but the rear is fine. there are a couple spokes that just keep losing tension no matter what, maybe i just got a bad batch. I weigh 83kg btw

[mr_tim]

I'd suggest open sport rims on ultegra.

The rims difference to open sport is @ 40gr ea & it will last as long.

The braking surface is great & its nice & cheap so you won't care about them on training rides.

The idea of getting a factory wheel with unique spokes & parts just doesn't make sense. Make them serviceable & repairable - they will last & be cheap to maintain at your LBS.

[luckypuncheur]

Fulcrum Racing 5. Indestructable, not too heavy, good freehub body, decent aero performance, looks. THE training wheel. Mine survived Flanders and Roubaix and are still true.

[Bigger Gear]

I vote for a conventional build, something like Ultegra hubs, DT Comp spokes and DT465 or Mavic CXP-33 rims. There is nothing worse on a long training ride than blowing out a spoke on a low spoke count wheel. It pretty much means a phone call and a ride home. I had this exact experience on a Mavic K10 Ksyrium last Saturday, broke a drive side spoke. Fortunately I was pretty close to home but I could not ride the wheel, with a DS spoke on a Ksyrium it goes WAAY out of true and it was hitting at the seat/brake bridge and the chainstay.

[eric]

*as long as you don't smash through a deep pothole at 30 mph.

Or put more than 6000 miles on the wheel.

[Murphs]

Fulcrum 7s are what you need.

[bm0p700f]

Ultegra's are good hub but are weighty. Miche RC2 hubs are cheaper and lighter at 420g (weighed today) for a pair. With skewers they are 550g. I weighed some open pro's today and they came in at 470-480g each depending on the rim. Not 425g as advertised maybe it's my scales but I don't think so. The miche hubs are almost silent on the freewheel whih is nice

I would use the Miche hubs and so far the training builds I have done with them are:
1) Miche 32H F&R with Rigida Chrina rims + sapim race spokes weighs 1930g and but would cost more than F7's. If you do the build your self the cost is less. These wheels are very robust though. I use them myself as my training wheels as they are so strong (85-90kg kitted up depending on the season on a heavy training bike). Flex on these is minimal when putting the power down.
The above build with sapim lasers front/NDS rear and race DS rear would save about 60g.

2) Miche 32 F&R with Mavic Open pro plus sapim laser front, sapim lasers NDS and sapim race DS (3x all round) come in at 1765g. These will cost a fair bit more than fulrum 7's though.

The above use brass nipples. Using alloy nipples on 32H builds would save a further 45g but siezing will likely be an issue. Using coppaslip in the nipples may solve this problem.