WHY WOULD YOU UPGRADE?
A good set of wheels is one of the most important upgrades you can make to your bike.
The main reason for this is that while all weight is important, weight on your wheels is doubly so. Every time you accelerate, turn or brake, you have to spin them back up to speed, so less weight means less effort and faster responses. They also need to be able to deal with a whole load of punishment, so strength is vital. They’ll also need to give your tyre a good profile to maximise control and grip.
Balancing all these demands is no easy task, you’ll notice the difference immediately. If you switch to a tubeless ready wheelset you also stand to lose even more weight and add in puncture proofing by ditching your inner tubes too.
IS IT BETTER TO REFURBISH?
It’s totally possible to breathe life into a tired wheelset. Make sure that the bearings are running smoothly and that the rim is straight and true. Broken or bent spokes are easy for a home mechanic to fix as well.
However, if the rim is more than 3-4mm out of true or the hub can’t be fixed with spare parts you’ll need to get it rebuilt. Often this can be more expensive than replacing a wheel due to labour charges, but if you’re willing to have a go yourself it makes better financial sense, though it’s not an easy task by any means. It also gives you the opportunity to upgrade parts of your wheel without a huge outlay of cash all at one time.
Another easy upgrade is a tubeless conversion kit which uses special tape to seal the rim bed.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR?
You need to make sure you’re getting not just the right diameter wheelset, but the right one for you and your riding style. As ever, the maxim of ‘strong, light, cheap: pick two’ applies. If you’re a harder or heavier rider, a super light wheelset is unlikely to last unless you hand over some serious cash.
Wider rims are inevitably heavier than narrower ones, but they give a good profile to higher volume tyres, making them better suited to longer travel bikes. Anything with an internal width of around 23-30mm will work well for tyres over 2.35in. It’s also worth ensuring that the rims are tubeless ready. Quality, branded spokes and durable brass nipples are a must. Cartridge bearing equipped hubs need less maintenance too.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
You can spend anywhere from 82$ for a basic but functional single wheel and up to a staggering 3900$ for a pair of top end, carbon wheels. As the price goes up, weight goes down and the quality of materials and construction increases. Once you get past the 1050$ mark, the returns tend to diminish in terms of weight loss, though carbon hoops do definitely add stiffness.
Rims become more durable and they’re more likely to be ready to go tubeless from the box. Most achieve this using a special rimstrip and valves, but some, such as Mavic, use a ‘UST’ design which doesn’t have any holes in the spoke bed. This system tends to be the most foolproof to inflate, but there’s not much in it.
More expensive hubs tend to use higher quality bearings, but this has a relatively small impact on performance, though their lifespan will be increased. A real performance improvement can come from using a freehub with a faster engagement. This means you have less of a dead spot between you pedalling and the hub enaging and driving you forwards. Some of the fastest (and most expensive) require just 5 degrees of movement before they pick up.
Overall, 450$ will get you a very good pair of wheels at a decent weight for the intended use. 1050$ or so will get you an excellent set and spending more is down to you.
WHAT DOES THE JARGON MEAN?
Engagement angle: The angle of movement required for the freehub body to engage when you start pedalling.
Internal width: How wide the area where the tyre seats onto the rim is. When used with high volume tyres, a wider rim can give a better profile to your tyre.
Spoke count: The number of spokes used to lace the wheel together. Varying from 24-36, higher numbers tend to be stronger but add weight.
Straight pull: Spokes that don’t have a bend at the end. They require special hubs but give claimed benefits in strength and compliance.
Tubeless Ready: A wheelset that has the spoke bed sealed so that it is airtight to enable tube free use.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR?
The main thing you need to consider before buying your next set of wheels is weight. Generally you’ll find that less is almost always better but it’s worth making sure that they’re still strong enough for you and the main type of riding you’ll be doing.
Good indicators of a quality build are that the wheel builder has used quality spokes and nipples from a reputable brand such as DT Swiss or Sapim and that tensioning has been finished by hand.
A tubeless ready rim makes it easy to save additional weight, because you’re ditching your inner tubes, while sealed cartridge bearings require very little maintenance and are easy to replace when they do wear out.