Weight Weenies

Ok , so here's my situation I am relatively new to road biking, with this forum seeing me move from a Bianchi Via nirone ( now sold ) , to Ribble Evo Carbon ( now winter bike ) and now a Cervelo S1 ( fair weather bike ) I am in a quandry. I want to move my old Pro lite Bracciano's to my Ribble for winter and get new wheels for the cervelo. I ride my Cervelo on rolling countryside with the steepest hills being Burrington Coombe and Cheddar Gorge and lasting no more than 2 miles.

Typically I ride 25-40 mile evening rides but on a 60 mile ride on this type of terrain I average 17-18 mph. So by no means a speed demon. I weigh 200lbs.

I am sold on either another pair of Pro Lite's at 1400g (£320) as I have been pleased with them , or for aesthetics 50mm Farsports Carbon Clinchers c, 1350g. (£400) I have no concerns particularly of overheating brake tracks, the most braking I do is for junctions and not alpine passes.

What's the consensus?

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I don't know why you would want a set of pro-lites for "aesthetic reasons". Cheap carbon looks crap and is crap. "Wow, awesome pro-lites!" is not something that I have ever heard before.

If you can't afford it, get a good set of alloy clinchers, such as fulcrum racing zeros. If you must have carbon, and don't have money for something sweet, atleast get something that is decent, from a reputable brand. Mavic Cosmic Carbone's or Shimano RS-80 c50s come to mind.

mmmm, not what I actually wrote, I wrote the 50mm farsports for aesthetics i.e being deep rim and would look 'better' with an aero ride. Respect your thinking though re reputable brand....

Save you money and ride your bike more, you'll be happier in the end

Some of the cheap chinese carbon rims arent crap. In fact most of them are not. The ones from hongfu are pretty good. Go to bikehubstore.com and buy the hubs & spokes. You could build up a set of wheels at a more than reasonable price.

I have also seen some decent cheap carbon wheels, light as well. But about the same money you could have a pair of stans alphas (28H) lased to ambrosio zenith hubs with sapim race DS and lasers everywehere else and have a built that come in at ~1500g with skewers. You could loose more weight with lighter spokes drive side as well.

Stans Alphas 22.6mm vs Farsports 50mm- one of those is going to have a significant aero advantage over the other.

stiffer as well. I've 'heard', not confirmed for myself, that thhey arent stiff and that they dent easily...that I have seen.

There adavnatges and disadvantages to everything. If you are averaging 17-18mph I would suspect, in a normal riding position, the areo advantage of 50mm V section rims is minimal. It should help a little in short sprints though (how much I could not say). However with an absence of data over a range of speeds it is difficult to draw firm conclusions. I have never riden with 50mm rims in cross winds yet (as I don't own any) but the extra area can cause extra bike wobble as has been reported so many times. This may however be of no cocern to the OP though.

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