Road Wheels & Road Wheel Recommendations?

Deore hubs laced to A319 prebuilds can be got from nearly any bike shop in the UK within a day if they don't have the stock (which would be surprising).

Good to look for a reason not to, but it sounds like you made your decision. I know I would go Enve, if I could. Not that I'd know (pffh) but sounds like the rims are worth their entry fee and the fact these will never get worn through braking, makes them fully justified*

*in my mind, for my future road disc project.

Seems to be a problem with the first iteration of their rims, hence my hesitation to get a set off Superstar -__-

Yeah, that's partially my reason to go all out, I'd never spend that sort of money on a rim that'll get worn out but realistically they should last indefinitely with no pads wearing them away (plz don't crash).

^Enve have a pretty good warranty and crash replacement service, no?

From memory Condor have a 105/Mavic A319 wheelset hanging up and on sale at £136 I think. probably still there.

I'd never spend that sort of money on a rim that'll get worn out but realistically they should last indefinitely with no pads wearing them away

It's a racing product. It's geared up for racing. Not durability. I'm not saying it won't last forever, but that's not what it's designed to do.

This is a good question - will a set of high quality full carbon rims, with disc brakes last for 5+ years without issue. Assuming sensible riding, no crashing and a good initial build. Has there been any evidence that carbon rims fail after a certain period?

Seems like you'd need at least 5 years of service to justify the initial outlay. I'm pretty sure you could build new rims on to hubs several times before matching the cost of carbon rims alone. Still want aero carbonz and disc brakes on next bike tho...

AFAIK it's difficult to predict service life due to crabonz being made up of multiple things stuck together in different ways. To counter, composite product is kinda overbuilt, but as you can tell, composite engineer I am not.

But I can't help think that if you are buying crabonz with an expectation of durability, you may be doing it wrong. Do it for the bling, aeros etc, but like you hint, get some tasty, cheap alu if definable service life is a required thing.

Obviously ride quality and appearance is a large factor in the decision, but I'd say 5 years would defnitely be reasonable on a disc only rim. The main factors in carbon failing are usually brake pad related so realistically they would last indefinitely...

so realistically they would last indefinitely...

If you don't use them, yes :) I'd like to see what happens to a crabon rim after @skinny gets hold of it for five years!

"OH HAI ENVE I RODE YOUR RIM FOR 10,000,000km AND IT WENT ALL FUNNY"

Hmm. Interesting. I'm happy with my £200 3T alloy acceleros - so maybe I'll just grab another pair and rebuild with a disc hub. and sharpie the rim.

I think you'd need someone with deeper knowledge than me on this, like @mdcc_tester or @hoops maybe - I'm just parroting things I've read.

Tester will recommend 15 sets of Shimano R501's. Maybe.
Might have to do some googling or look into companies that make marine crabon - see if they have any long term data. I can imagine a ocean racing yachts would test carbon durability and constant exposure to salt and UV.

That's the thing, it's the balance of cost over value, practicalities over lust, weight/performance over comfort, etc...

I guess you need a few wheel sets, really, just like we need a few bikes. I have handbuilts on all my (road)bikes. CK classic to Hed+ and Royce to Archetype. I'll upgrade hubs if/when I'm 11 speed, but really they're perfect, easily serviceable and re-buildable.
That said and funds allowing, I would still love to have a pair of Dura Ace C24's and Enve's on a disc set up, despite perhaps not being the best bang for buck.

Well, I did recently spend £300+ on a build with CD open pros and mack hubs, just because pretty. My reasoning is flawed. So given time I'm sure there will be justification for some carbon.

I'm sure there's no real reason apart from "they're nice, and I like them" for the average, non pro rider to have fancy hoops.

I'm sure there's no real reason apart from "they're nice, and I like them" for the average, non pro rider to have fancy hoops.

Precisely, even the only reason why I bought some Mavic C40s. I have no other expectation from them other than they look nice.

Fair enough.

Do it for the bling, aeros etc,

This.

And in terms of reliability you obvs need to remember you ll use a winter bike for winter and spring wheels for spring, most of the English summer and probably autumn.

Pretty much all of my road riding is done on alu tubulars / clinchers.

All my road bling stuff sits around gathering dust. The couple of times it comes out someone inevitably ends up 'assisting me' break it. #FML

Or the opposite, ooh, nice wheels I'll throw those on today - and then use them all winter because they are so nice to ride on compared to cheap shimanos...

Ive had none disc carbon wheels that lasted 5 years even with winter so i i think you are setting the bar way to low.

The whole 'measure by time' is a red herring anyway - it's measure by load - kms ridden by your average mamil is a fair proxy I'd say.

Pads on 2015 Meilensteins - safe to use Campagnolo Red?

Dunno, probably is safe but why not get the lightweight pads? Small investment for expensive wheels.. red marks alone even if no damage wouldn't be worth it to me.

Yeah i agree howard. But nice disc hubs on nice carbon rims should last more than 5 years regardless of load.