Low spoke count is absolutely fine even for heavy riders if the rim and build is right, particularly up-front.

It's an old wheelbuilders' myth that you need dozens of spokes on all wheels, probably originating with poor bulding/ poor quality/limited range of parts from which to build.

I think for the 400g clincher arena the options are:

Sub 400g:
Stans alpha 340
Kinlin xr200

Around or above 400g:
Reynolds thirty two
M5 28mm carbon rim with aluminum brake track

Those would be my picks.

I wonder how the Kinlin xr200 compares against the alpha340 now. Considering the alpha340 gained weight and is close to the Kinlin.

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http://www.hackracer.com/

I have found that the XR200 feels slightly stiffer when stress relieving when compared to the 340 (same spoke count, hubs, tension, etc). However, they seem to have very similar ride qualities. With that said, I think the XR200 is a much better bang for your buck clincher, where as the added price of the Stans only gets you a slightly more cohesive interface to setup tubeless.

-Roland

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http://www.zencyclery.com

http://www.wheelbuilder.org

The 340 is stiffer than the XR200... even when it weighed 350g.

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formerly rruff...

i guess your going to have to include the new xentis 2.5 @ 1242g a wheel set. they also come with Full ceramic bearings. i would say the rims are anywhere between 360-375g depending on how much the hubs weigh.

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/arti ... 012-35143/

Xentis currently produce my #1 and #2 dream clincher wheels. Their 2013 range made them even better.

I need to find myself in a better financial position to have a larger spending budget.

*sigh*

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Exp001

i would love to see a Ax-lightness srt24 clincher. any sub 300g clincher would be nice. tune is also working on clincher version of their new rim. maybe a clincher version of this could be it.

It's the braking surface technology of Xentis that has me yearning.
Wet? No problem.
Any brake pad? No problem.
Over heating? Nope.

Hmmm... I need to see about landing clients with bigger budgets.

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Exp001

Tune has a new 235gr 650B MTB clincher wheel so they have the ability to build light rims

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BIKE DESIGN AND +

http://cds-0.blogspot.com/

That is disc only, and 650B is smaller hoop than a 700c wheel.

the new tune tubulars can use any brake pad. they have a patent on it, which allows them to brake very well - so they say.

What about taking some RS80 wheels on discount (particularly when everone moves to Shimano 11 speed) and rebuilding onto lighter, e.g. Tune hubs? Would be pricey, but I think you'd have a more robust rim which must build into a stiffer wheelset than than some of the aluminium only wheels. I have the Dura Ace C24s and I have to say they are great in the mountains and for general training. Since they ride nicely you soon forget about the weight.

However if I'm not one for taking a knife to a gunfight, so I ride my Mavic CCUs if it's going to get competitive. Second hand they are quite reasonable and while a bit behind the lightest wheels out there, they are stiff, brake well and don't require fiddly maintenance. I would recommend these for mountainous use as they are great all-round wheels - probably why a lot of the Mavic sponsored riders ride them for everything apart from bad cobbles and time trials.

It is a very nice rim, though I wonder what you'd lose vs. the factory build. Shimano and Campagnolo for that matter are phenomenally good at making low spoke count wheels, and have machinery to help them do so, which no wheelbuilder has access to.

these have probably Ultegra- class hubs so there's a room for weight gains. only problem is, would you gain or feel anything? for me it's all about light rims (rotating mass) and stiffness

as for building custom wheels - i had aplha 340 rims built for me with CX and Extralite hubs (cant remember which one) but they rode like crap (i'm only 65 kg) and had to sell them.. guess my wheel builder didnt do a great job...