Hello all, I am new to this forum. I am looking to purchase a road wheelset for the remainder of the season. I am a college student, so most definitely on a strict budget. I currently train/race on a set of 2008 Mavic Aksiums (~1900 grams I believe, 24mm height). I am wondering if anybody has ridden these wheels before?

http://www.yishunbike.com/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=55

FWIW, I am 6'1" and weigh 142#s. I will use this wheelset to race on only, and will be racing crits, road races, and hill climbs with this set. I am still on the fence whether I should order these or not. Will I see a difference in performance? I know it will shave 500 grams of weight off my bike. I know the whole "less rotational weight" argument is a myth, so will a pound of weight be significant on some of these hill climbs? I prefer aerodynamics over weight, and this rim is only 3mm taller than the Aksiums. I was also thinking about saving up for the SRAM S40 wheelset. Much more expensive, but more aerodynamic.

Thanks guys!

i'd say that's a bangin' deal on any wheelset, let alone one that's 1390g. Which brings me to the main issue: is that weight accurate?

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The Chronic

I'd have to agree - that's a great deal on a very light weight clincher wheelset. I doubt you'd notice much difference racing them though unless you are doing a dedicated hill climb or a sustained climb (more than 10 minutes). Any climbs shorter than that in a road race and the difference will be fractions of second to a few seconds - not enough to really matter in most cases as you will just drift back in the pack a few extra feet. In a crit, the extra pound that you have to accelerate out of a turn will only be a few watts extra needed - most likely not the deciding factor in whether or not you get dropped. My vote usually goes for aerodynamics as well so if you could save up another $100 to $300, you could purchase either some new (Chinese/Taiwanese) or used (Sram, Hed, Zipp) clinchers or tubulars. Tubular wheelsets are usually a tad cheaper and would be much more likely to be found for somewhere in the sub $500 price range, but tubulars themselves are a bit more expensive. However, if you are using latex tubes (for the best rolling resistance and weight - rolling resistance alone is on the order of ~2 watts per wheel compared to butyl tubes) in your racing clinchers, then the cost is pretty similar. If you're just going to be racing on them, I would probably go the tubular route as they are lighter and cheaper. If you can't afford the extra few hundred dollars, wait until you can afford them. Another thing with buying a used set of older Zipp/Sram/Hed wheels is that the initial and most drastic depreciation is already factored into the price. A set of 404s that you purchase now for $500 can probably be sold in a few years time for about what you paid for them. Carbon tubulars in the 50-60mm range will probably weight somewhat close to what the Yishun clinchers do as well as being stiffer and more aerodynamic. Check out BikeTechReview for rollings resistance tests for clinchers and tubulars to find which ones are the fastest (but don't blindly purchase the 'fastest' tire as many of the top tires are very fragile and/or narrow TT tires not well suited for the mileage and rigors of RR and crits). The $300 new no-name wheelset will probably be worth $150 as soon as you take them out of the box.

24 to 27mm rim height is almost meaningless - neither depth is enough for aerodynamics benefits to be seen. Spoke count and shape is the more important factor with sub 40mm wheels.

That being said, if you're set on clinchers and set on a new wheelset with a firm $300 budget, I seriously doubt you could find a better deal than the Yishun wheelset that you have found. Kinlin rims are pretty light and well respected and the steel in a no-name spoke has the same properties as the steel in a DT spoke. A hubset is a hubset - I've only seen one hub failure and it was an old front Campy hub that was laced radially.

Thanks for the advice fleshpile. I do have latex tubes that I install for races. There are a 4 more races that have 6-15 mile sustained climbs. I'm just wondering if shaving off a pound of weight on my bike will give me noticeable time results. One of the climbs will be 2300 feet elevation gain in 6.3 miles. It only has one "semi-flat" section that is about 50 meters long; everything else is up. I am not set on the wheelset, as I have no problem racing on the Aksiums for the remainder of this season.

With climbs that long, yes, you would shave a not insignificant number of seconds off your climb. You can go to AnalyticCycling and punch in a bunch of figures for you, your bike, and the climb to figure out what the wheels would save you (I'd be interested in seeing what they are). Whether this makes a difference or not and if the wheels are worth the money depends on you, your race priorities, and hill climbing prowess... If you believe you can win or contest for the win on these climbs, then I think it would be noticeable and worth it (especially if your winnings cover the cost of the wheels!). If you're just going to be sag climbing with the rest of the pack at a decent tempo, I'd save the money and just push yourself a few watts harder.

They recently quoted me 1395g for a set of 50mm carbon tubulars, came in at 1426g.

Not sure if you have got a price through them directly or from their website, but if you contact them through

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/34206 ... cycle.html

then they will do them for around $300 delivered, rather than the $361 on their site.

The components are pretty standard across the board, check other WW threads on here to see if the weights are accurate and plug 'em in to the wheelbuilder calculator (or your Excel sheet, or paper and pencil):

http://www.wheelbuilder.com/store/wheel ... lator.html

blah blah blah.........oh and I forgot to mention I'm a SHILL for Yishun.

Yishun, some of the crappiest crap to ever ship from the Asian continent.

Preachin the truth.

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http://www.zencyclery.com

http://www.wheelbuilder.org

Care to elaborate why?

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'07 Cervelo R3, '10 Lapierre Xelius

Yeah, care to elaborate? I have decided not to purchase them and follow fleshpile's advice instead. And no, I'm not advertising their stuff, just wanted to get some opinions.

Same thing here. If I get some new clinchers, that may be the place to get them from. Seems like they are using pretty standard components so I can't see what could be 'bad' about them other than perhaps being somewhat out of true which I can deal with and resolve myself for not much of a headache, especially considering the price.

They've bollocked my order up.....45 days later....no wheels
(paypal claim in hand.....but what a huge hassle!)

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Used to race....got too wrinkly and old Updated: Racing again! Thought this was unlikely! Eventually, I may even have a decent race!

what's wrong

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yishun bike: cost-effective carbon wheels/frame/bike parts

I bought the wheels metioned by the OP and have had absolutely no problems with either the wheels or the company.

The rear hub is quite noisy when not pedalling, but other than that there are just fine.