Road Wheels & Road Wheel Recommendations?

Cheers, all. Hunt were on the list but like I mentioned - the upper end of my budget.

Is anyone aware of any 650b disc rims / wheelsets aimed at road riding and female riders in particular. I can't find any narrow 650b wheels that are designed to be used with road tyres on small frames. Canyon obviously kit their small women's bikes out with 650b wheels but you can't buy those wheels anywhere as they are OEM.

Wtb KOM i19 or i23 should be okay for 25 wide tyres no?
Wouldn't the 650b narrow tyres itself would be harder to get? Very limited options.

Got some 650b GP 5000s in 28c. Currently they're on 650b DT Swiss 500 rims (22mm internal width) but are leading to a really uncomfortable ride. Isen suggested a narrower rim might help matters

Why would a narrower rim lead to a more comfortable ride?

I think they feel the wheel is overbuilt for a 55kg female and overly stiff and something narrower and lighter (suggested Velocity A23s) would be a better bet.

What psi are you running? Would suggest dropping 5psi would make more difference than any type of wheel build.

Yeah already done the PSI dropping. Had them down to under 40psi. It's left us pretty stumped as to why they're so harsh a ride.

Had them down to under 40psi

How far under? I'm guessing 28C GP5000s on 22m rims are going to be about 32mm actual width. My bag of a fag packet calculator points to 2.5bar (35psi) for a 55kg rider as a starting point, +10% at the back and -10% at the front is not a bad place to start for balance, so 38R/32F.
I think GP5000s can be tad harsh because the casing is coarse, but it's not like there's any much better options in 28-584.
Making the wheels less stiff won't help.

But new wheels?

Probably had them around the 35 psi mark.

First option is to try some 32c G-One Speeds to see the difference

Interested to see where this goes. Was looking at a Canyon for my partner (5ft 2", 55kg) but the 650b although logical for the frame size is putting me off because of the lack of wheel/tyre options

650b although logical for the frame size is putting me off because of the lack of wheel/tyre options

650B options are going up, 650C (probably a better fit for small people) options are going down

Yeah it's really frustrating how limited the choice is for small / female riders wanting smaller road wheels. The wheels that come with the Canyons look great and at least you can now get GP5000s in the 650b size. I hope more manufacturers start to bring out smaller road tyres.

Schwalbe Kojak tyres measure around 32mm. They sit around the regular Durano in speed and durability I think.

A more plush 32mm 650b road tyre would be nice.

The Kojak has a higher rolling resistance than a lot of MTB tyres.

Add to that the fact you'll be paying full retail or more for not your favourite tyre in not your favourite size.

She has 650c on her singlespeed and to go above 23c she's looking at £80+ for a pair of 28c Pasela's from Hartley's

A question: was looking at a new wheelset and checked out the Hunt 4 season. Then compared them to a super budget Shimano RS1000 (these look similar to the RS010 set I have now).

Having no complaints with my current super budget Shimano set (apart from pitted cones, though they have 10,000+ miles on them), I'm wondering if it's worth the jump to the Hunt £300 set or stick with the cheapo Shimano? I ride rim brakes, 23mm-25mm clincher tyres. Question is: would the difference be notable and worth the money or is it mainly marketing nonsense?

is it mainly marketing nonsense?

Yes.

Personally I don't like how Shimano wheels come with cup & cone bearings.
I'm using some cheap Prime wheels and they've been decent enough.
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-peloton-road-wheelset-1/

I don't like how Shimano wheels come with cup & cone bearings

There are good arguments for cup and cone being superior, and other manufacturer's only using cartridge bearings because they don't have the scale or facilities to make bearings so they outsource the capital intensive work.

If you know of a better durable 650b road tyre in 32mm I’m literally all ears 👂🏼

My bag of a fag packet calculator points to 2.5bar (35psi)

Could you elaborate on this?

Could you elaborate

As a starting point for experimentation, I use tyre pressure/bar = 1.3 × vehicle mass/kg ÷ tyre width/mm

For the above case of a 55kg rider and assuming a light unloaded 7kg bike and 28C GP4000s blowing up to 32mm on the wider rims,
1.3×62/32=2.5

You then adjust for front/rear balance and for tyre construction and personal preference for ride and handling and maybe for compromise between comfort and efficiency in some circumstances. As I said, it's just a way of picking a starting point, and it's only for bicycles with tyres of essentially circular cross section and very high casing compliance.

Interesting, thanks! Puts me quite close to what I run on both my road and mountain bike, so should be useful for when I go into uncharted territory.