Road Wheels & Road Wheel Recommendations?

Fifty dorrah.

One pound.

^ walked into that didn't I!

Looking for some new wheels for my roadie Donohue. Currently using some slightly knackered Dura-Ace C24s, but their braking surface is pretty much shot, & I don't trust them for touring. The wheelset I used to use (Cero AR24s) I broke the front touring (cattle grid in Spain, broke some teeth too) & the rear has so much play in the hub it's not worth using (got my money's worth though). After something suitable for both fast riding & touring.

Ideal criteria:

• 11 speed Shimano freehub.
  
• Rim brake.
  
• > ~20 spokes.
  
• Relatively shallow section.
  
• < ~1.6kg.
  
• < ~£300.
  
  
  

Am thinking it would probably be best to look into building my own from parts, don't really know where to start though. Anyone got any suggestions?

^ Ultegra hubs, Kinlin XR22 32h rims, Sapim race spokes, brass nips, 3 x lacing. There’s an asymmetric version of the rear rim that might be a good idea.

Will probably weigh about 1750g.

You could use lasers on the front perhaps.

The Kinlins on this classified should do the job, no?

I’ve found Fulcrum absolutely bomb proof and the hubs are easy to service. Racing 5 are about £200 which are ~1650g. Not sure whether £300 would get you the lighter Racing 3.

Hed Ardennes? If you can find some in good shape on eBay. 1600g wide rims, 11 speed

Disc (6 bolt) tubeless Shimano.
For single speed arkose.
Currently commuter bike.

Not too pricey.
What are my options?
(Lighter than 2kg would be very nice, 1.7 ideal)

Novatec D791/2 or similar, ACI Alpina, whatever <450g tubeless rims you can find (e.g. WTB KOM on PlanetX for £8 might do), will come in at 1700g and under £150 if you build them yourself

That kom rim looks good, only 26 or 27.5 though.
Happy with 700c ATM.

Oh, sorry, thought they had it 700c. There's a bunch of other tubeless rims on PX as well so have a poke about and see if anything fits the bill. If you can spend more than £100-and-a-bit spend it on the rims, think you'll get better value that way rather than getting different spokes or hubs. (I got the same hubs off AliExpress, only £60-something for the pair, but you can buy them in the UK for £70-£80)

If you're in London and don't feel confident about wheelbuilding there are people on here who've offered to build wheels for free. I find it quite zen and enjoy the process and I'm sure others do too.

Also PX have Fulcrum Red Power for £89 which looks like a great deal to me, but pretty hefty at 1900g

Ta

@miro_o @Lolo @PhilDAS

Cheers for the suggestions, will look into them. Was also thinking, since it's the braking surface which is really shot on my DA C24s & I don't want to just throw them away, I could get the rather lovely hubs rebuilt into some different wheels - though I've never seen a 16H rim available online. Using a 32H could work? Might be a silly idea.

I've thought about picking up a worn pair of c24s on eBay for exactly this purpose but didn't know if the hub required proprietary spokes. Will any regular straight pull spoke work with them?

Fwiw you can get 16h carbon rims from Lightbicycle.

That reminds me, I have a set of very well looked after DA C24s 9000 that I should really get rid of. Have owned from new - bought in April 2014. Have done 100's of kms, but probably less than 1000 - almost entirely in the dry. Any advice on what I should ask for them?

I'm popping into my local bike shop (Woodrup) after work today to see about getting a stuck seatpost sorted out. If I remember I'll ask if they know. Looks like fairly regular straight pull spokes.

Cheers, hadn't looked at Chinese availability yet. Will have to investigate.

I got mine in a Manchester velodrome bike jumble a few years ago. Were well looked after, but the braking surface already had at least 3k miles in it. Got them for £300 after a bit of a haggle.

I've never seen a 16H rim available online

https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/collections/rims/products/kinlin-xr31t-rim

Cheers. I'll offer up a ruler to the rims when posting pictures. I don't think they're that worn at all. For £300 did you get the original DA skewers? I think I'm going to keep those, although will be selling with some generic ones.

I obviously didn't look as hard as I thought! Taa.

I got some absolutely awful titanium QRs by a brand called Spin with them . They're really light, but do not keep a wheel in very effectively at all.

Talked to one of the mechanics in Woodrup yesterday & he really wasn't keen on the idea of rebuilding the hubs onto different rims, especially with the slightly unusual shape spoke heads & the fact that the tension needs to be really quite high for a 16 spoke wheel to stay true. Were I a competent wheel builder, I'd maybe give it a shot with one of these to see if it were possible, but I'd probably be too scared to ride it anyway. Urgh, propriety components!

My C24s are worn out too so I'd like to know if it's possible.

@broken_777 and @thecycleclinic any experience/opinion you'd like to share?