A lot of us have light bikes, but is everyone on here a light rider? I weigh between 160-170 depending on the season, I'm a very aggressive rider, and my bikes are setup accordingly. My largest concern right now is wheels. I am building a new set of CX wheels after christmas and I am stuck on rim choices. I will be using Chris King Hubs (32 hole and 3x because I want these to last underneath me) and lacing them to tubular rims.

Choices are as follows:
Mavic Reflex
Ambrosio Nemesis
Hed C2 Tubular
Major Tom Tubular

Also, DT Aerolite or DT Rev? Are the Revs as weak as they look?

If you have ridden these and can give me feedback besides "Yeah these rims are sick, get them," I would really appreciate it. If nothing else, please post what you weigh and what wheels you ride for cross. I can extrapolate data from there.

Thanks.

FWIW, have run front DT Revs with no problem, but on 32 hole rims so YMMV on lower spoke count. Can't speak to the rims you're asking about or DT Revs on rear, although (just opinion), I'd avoid them on drive side for cross. I weigh 170. My current wheels are Revolution WW (small Philadelphia builder - Kinlin/Sapim/generic but good Taiwanese hub also used by Reynolds, etc) that weigh 1500 g - 24/28 spokes, 23 mm rims.

On a note very important to your cyclocross experience/performance but not contained in your question, the biggest improvement in wheels I've experienced in years is rim width. 23 mm clincher rims with good tires and latex tubes can be run at very low pressures (I have run them at 28R/26F PSI without pinch flats) compared to 'standard' 19 mm road rims. They give close to tubular performance with a lot more convenience. Worth some thought.

Happy hunting............Lou D'Amelio

Duh - just smacked myself - I re-read your question and saw that you're looking at tubulars. My comments are still valid but only the ones regarding the spokes are relevant to your question. I can add that I've run Reflex clinchers and they've held up well over several cross seasons and are now retired to pit bike.
Lou D.

If you want a bomb-proof set-up, run the Ambrosio Nemesis 32's laced to 'factory' hubs (Shimano or Campagnolo) with CX. If you want a really stiff set, run Sapim CX-Rays on the drive-side. I run those wheels as my pave set-up. Truly invincible. Better braking than on carbon, too. as alternatives, if you can find old Mavic SSC's or Ambrosio Synthesis, those would be good options, too.

As a warning, the choice of wheels is very course-dependent. in the mud and sand, they are going to be really slow.

As above I use Ambrosio Nemesis rims built on Kings. Had reflex's proir but the rear in particular did not survive to well. The Nemesis builds a far stiffer wheel.

Use 2 cross on the drive side to stiffeen wheel up a bit.

I'd personally love a set of Zipp 303cx wheels for next season but concerned that braking will be compramised.


I also built a set of Alpha 340s on kings and those are nowhere near as stiff as the Nemesis. Its possible to flex the wheel so it touches the rear mech under hard efforts. You have to make a conscious effort to make sure you do not use certain gears!!

_________________
Tester for PMR@cing / www.Biketart.com

For durable reasonably priced cross wheels, the Maj. Tom rim laced 32 3x rear (ds comps, nds revs), 28 2x front (revs) cannot be beat. This fall I built 6 sets of cross tubulars using a variety of hubs, a variety of spokes and the Hed c2 tubular and Maj Tom rims. The wheels were ridden by myself (205 lbs) and my 12 yo 120 lbs son and my 15 y.o 145lb son. After some expiramentation I settled on the above build. The Hed tubular rim is nice and quite strong, but it is really designed for a 23 mm road tire. The tire bed is quite deep, and the edges rise out of the bed at a fairly sharp angle. This reqires one to use more glue (or belgian tape) and the sharper rim edge increases risk of pinch flats. Also the hed tubular rim is really 22mm at brake track and costs nearly twice as much. The major tom tire bed is flatter with a more rounded edge and fits a cross tubular perfectly. However the tom does not work with 23mm road tire and is a poor match for 25mm tires. So for cross the Maj Tom performs better in several respects and is nearly half the price. I built some on dura ace and some on Bike Hub Store taiwaneese rims. Both worked well but Dura ace 5-6 times as expensive. At 205 lbs I had no problems with 24 2x CX-rays or revs but settled on 28 2x for a little extra durability. using BHS hubs and alloy nips I can build above wheels at 1525g for less than $300. So my son has three sets of shimano carbon tubulars (mud, all-arounder, file tread) for "a" bike and thee sets of Alu Major Toms for "B" bike. King makes nice hubs but for the same price you can have 2-3 sets of wheels with Bike hub store hubs. Having a variety of tire choices is a real advantage plus if you flat you just switch wheels, Have not built on mavic rflex but tire bed width is a huge advantage and theese rims are 21mm and have a bed shaped to work best with 25-27mm Roubaix type tires. To me several sets of inexpensive Maj Toms is clearly best option.

Thanks for all of the great responses, especially DAnderson.

To follow up on my original post:
I've decided to build a few sets instead of one do it all set that I have to take special care of. I will be using velocity rims and cheap ebay (dati, circus monkey, super lights, novatec, etc.) using a mixture of DT Swiss Comps and Revs, and allow spoke nipples on all wheels.

Wheelset One: Mud/Soft (Tubular)
Front: Major Tom, DT Revs laced 28 2x, Chinese Hub, Alloy Nips
Rear: Major Tom, DT Comps Laced 32 3x, Chinese hub, Alloy Nips
Price: ~$300
Estimated Weight: Sub 1600g

Wheelset Two: Hardpack/Gravel (Tubular)
Front: Major Tom, DT Revs laced 28 2x, Chinese Hub, Alloy Nips
Rear: Major Tom, DT Comps Laced 32 3x, Chinese hub, Alloy Nips
Price: ~$300
Estimated Weight: Sub 1600g

Wheelset Three: Commuting (Clincher)
Front: HED C2 Clincher, DT Comps 32 3x, Ultegra Hub, Brass Nips
Front: HED C2 Clincher, DT Comps 32 3x, Ultegra Hub, Brass Nips
Price: ~$400
Estimated Weight: 1800g
Bonus: These will last forever and can be shared across multiple bikes.

The 2x pattern up front should provide a stiffer front end and only a nominally weaker wheel than a 3x pattern. The extra butting of the Revolution 2.0/1.5 spokes will hopefully add a bit of suspension up front, along with the obvious weight savings over a 2.0/1.8 spoke.


N.B.: My choices here are a bit skewed because I have access to a QBP discount. This means that Mavic Reflexes and Ambrosio Rims are still options and I considered them thoroughly, but I decided that to pay retail for these rims instead of the discounted price of HED and velocity rims would not be cost-effective.

what chinese hubs do you use? i need some 32 hole road hubs for some of my reflex builds.. sorry to thread hop , Bruce

I will be using Rotaz for this build. They are about $115 USD online at most places. I read that they are identical to American Classic hubs other than the free hub mechanism. However, I am building the commuting wheelset first because that's what I need right now. I will probably build up the tubular wheels later this winter. Right now, I need ultra-durable training wheels for the ice-skating course on my way to work.

nearly 13 stone ,,,wheels [clinchers] weigh 1182 grms

I've got a set of Maj Tom, 28h, 2x, White Ind hubs, DT Comp spokes: they are about 1550

nice wheels

I'm about a buck thirty-five and I'm running TB-25s to alchemy hubs w/ CX-Rays and alloy nipples. 24h rear, 18h front. IIRC, the build was a little under 1300 (1280-ish?) w/o skewers or cassette.