Road Wheels & Road Wheel Recommendations?

Not very well then !

I know naff all about wheels.

On my Croix de Fer I have some Kinesis CX Crosslight wheels which are a lot lighter than the stock wheels and I pop them on when I'm doing long road rides, rather than commuting/touring.

Thinking of doing similar for my partners Croix De Fer but baulking at the price of the new Crosslights wheelset.

Can someone tell me why these are rubbish? Same weight as the Crosslights, but hugely cheaper:

https://www.merlincycles.com/pro-build-chosen-hub-alex-cx28-road-cx-disc-wheel-700c-81721.html

These are my training wheels, ridden through a LOT of rain, gritty muddy roads etc. Yes the anno has come off, but no other rim that I have experience of would have performed differently.

Keep them for sunny days and I reckon it'd last very well.

@Brookly_Bay Kinesis wheels are great for about 5 minutes, you definitely want to steer clear...

Something happened to one of the bearings in my R24's, creaking like a mouse stuck in rear wheel this morning.
Anybody know what type bearings they take? Same as 240's?
SKF replacement number would be even better, can just get these out of the shop at work. :)

edit: So it seems you can just swap out the internals of the DT 350/240 hubs with the DT 370 hubs used in the R24s. Thus switching from a pawl system to a ratchet system. Putting the unused 350 I have in my parts bin to good use.

Like @Brookly_Bay I have (well, soon will have) a Croix de Fer and I'm after some fairly light, tubeless ready disc wheels with wider (25mm+) rims.

I'd prefer hand built really and am thinking about Pacenti SL25's or CL25's and Novatec hubs.

But this groupset on Planet X is stupidly cheap and has the CL25 rims:
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WBPACL25X9/pacenti-cl25-32-hole-rims-on-sram-x9-hubs

I know SRAM X9's are MTB hubs, but for £150 could these be that much of a bad idea?

Ryde Sprint disc rims on Novatec SL no good? Tubeless, light, not that pricey either.

stans crest to novatec sl?

you mean grail? Crest are limited to cyclocross tyre pressures no?

Crest are limited to cyclocross tyre pressures no?

No. Iron Cross are limited. Crest will do road pressures.

I know SRAM X9's are MTB hubs, but for £150 could these be that much of a bad idea?

X9 hubs are 'OK' - they are reliable. They don't have the best pick-up despite being MTB hubs and they have a weird design that makes pre-load adjustment difficult. The freehubs are steel though and can be replaced.

What's hot in factory wheels for about £500 these days. For a 72kg guy who likes climbing but still wants normal club run durability.

And yes, I've already explained the myriad of things you're better off spending money on. Humor me.

Stan's ZTR Alpha 340 comp?

Are you running 10 or 11 speed?

If 11 speed, the X9 only go up to 10 speed, not much choices in the MTB section unless you go for something like the Hope hubs whose freehub body can be changed for 11 speed (or go for a road/cx disc wheelset, like the Hunt, or Kinesis).

IMHO, the Crest/Hope wheelset is the best bang for weight and durability, especially on a featherweight such as yourself, min tyres I recommend is 28mm which look exactly a 23mm tyres on a wide road rims.

I probably wouldn't spend much more than the monies for Campag Zonda/Fulcrum 3 (they're the same wheel more or less). If you really want to spend more then Shamal/Fulcrum 0.
Shimano RS81 24/35/50 seem to also get good reviews

Recently bought a pair of Zondas and pleased with my purchase - they're quite light and seem to be strong. They're probably due an update for a wider rim in the near future though.

Dunno about tubeless. What non-tubeless options are there?

Any tubeless wheel will work fine with tubes

Doesn't it make the installation of tubes more painful? Isn't there less room or something?

Doesn't it make the installation of tubes more painful? Isn't there less room or something?

No. There's really very little difference in the rim profile which is down to tubelessness, if anything the profile makes pinching a tube during tyre mounting less likely.

A couple of people I know have said that the lip on tubeless-ready rims makes installing and removing their tyres a real pain.

That is the wrong tubeless ready rims.

But yes the HED Ardennes Plus are ever so less easy to get a Continenal GP4000 on.

But then.

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So, we're running 50/50... anyone want to come in and seal the deal for "are tubeless rims more annoying/painful for installing normal tubes/tyres on?"

I have Belgium+ rims and they are a pain in the ass to get tyres on. Especially on the side of the road in Febuary when your hands are freezing and numb before you took your gloves off.