I'm looking at buying a Giant Composite 1 with Mavic Elite wheels but would like ot buy a second wheelset for racing.

Can anyone suggest a lightweight wheelset at a reasonable price? I get the impression Mavic are overpriced considering the weight of their lower end wheels.

Any comments about the Composite 1 would be appreciated as well.

Brian

P.S I'm 5'7 and 144lbs, and race on bumpy roads with head and cross winds.

Lightweight - The REAL Deal

Do a little shopping and you can find the Kysriums at reasonable prices. www.totalcycling.com has the SSC SL's for under $600. If you go just on retail they are a little overpriced, but I think they are well worth $600. Also check out Campy Neutrons for $545 and Euros for $560. I had a set of Neucleons (older version of the Neutrons) that I regret getting rid of b/c they had years and years of miles on them and were never touched and still perfiectly true.

Mavic is quite good, but they are quite heavy and a bit expensive.
600 euros for the Ksyrium SLs is too much I think

Does anyone have any comments about Corima (especially the aero) ?

depending on exactly what your priorities are, you might try the nimble fly. Those are really light (1200 gm) and pretty cheap. I've heard good things about them. You might also look at HED alps. They're arounf 1400 gm (don't quote me here) Pretty aero and have an alu rim, so durability and braking (as in slowing down, not misspelled breaking) are not issues. They're about $850 new, which for a wheel like that is pretty reasonable, and you can find them used on ebay or roadbikereview.com under classifieds

i got mine after the discount for 610 bucks shipped. i think ksyrium sl are bomb proof at least the 2003 models were (i have 04 model). 600 bucks for these wheels are great. they look good last long, can take a beating, not the lightest, but what do you want for everyday wheels you can beat on and are still good to race on.

The Mavic SSC SL's are hard to beat as a dependable wheel. They are incredibly stiff (my 03's are) so take that into consideration fo rthe type of racing you are doing.

The new Bontragers are another good price/weight alternative if you don't have the $$$ to go with something like a nimble, Am clas.

The other guy i would really recommend as well is dave thomas speed dream wheels. He will make a custom set for you at a real reasonable price. I have four sets of his wheels on various bikes (all MTB) but they are bulletproof http://www.speeddream.com

I have 3 pairs of Ksyrium wheels that I have bought over the years and got in sales. I use on pair Clincher for commuting training and the like, I commute 240miles a week + training on weekends. This wheelset has been going for 3 seasons of this kind of abuse. The rims have been replaced once, and when this was done one spoke had to be replaced. And the back wheel got stuffed about a month ago when I got hit by a car, side on, which broke my bike, crank, stem, handlebar. The front wheel was allright. The rear wheel was really bent, I took it in and they said they could fix it, but I wanted a new rim on there just for safety sake.

From prior experience there are not many wheels that can handle this kind of abuse, that also perform so well in races

Look at the ksyrium rims, have they eyelets? With eyelets they are the good one. When not its the OEM-wheelset made in Bulgaria- not the best!

The Corimas have good reviews, but you can better buy the wheels for Gilbert Cattoir, same rims and cheaper

so your saying their is 2 version of the ksyrium sl rim one made in france and the other made in bulgaria.

I heard it of a friend (bikedealer) of signore Squinzi (Mapei)

Joel do you have a link?

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Ride lightly!

Joel do you have a link?[/quote

No, he is a Belgian mechanic that works for Lotto-Domo next year and for Sapim. He also makes wheels. It are Corima Aeros, but he drills the spokes hole hemself and does some other threatments too. Here is a pic of Mario De Clercq with this wheels in the Belgian CX Champs