I don't think carbon wheels suit it tho. Also word of caution with bladed spoked wheels. I have a pair of fulcrum 3's that have been great through nearly 17000 km of grim roads and weathers but a point of caution with them and other bladed spoke wheels is that if anything goes wrong with them when out in the wilds you are stranded. I had 4 rear spokes go (out of 24 on rear) at once on a fast bumpy descent and it was unrideable. This was in a place with no phone reception, I was wearing spd-sl uber impossible to walk in disco slippers and the first two phone boxes i walked to in socks had been vandalised. In the end i knocked up a pub that was closed and the owner kindly poured me a pint whilst I phoned for rescue. When i finally got to the local bike shops they did'nt have any bladed spokes in as they were special order. I ended up having to train and walk it back to London in a massive hump about the whole experience. CSB, but just the kind of thing that could happen on an audax.
If it was me. which it isn't, and for the reasons above I'd get some simple hubs like royce or hope with low or medium depth rims. Your super lightweight means you can easily get away with a much less spoke count even for audax so they should still come out pretty light. Hope's are noisy but amazingly bombproof, I have a pair of mtb ones that are 10 years old and have been utterly abused, all I've done to them in that time is add grease to the bearings once. I've just spent all weekend thrashing round coed y brenin with them and they are still great, arguably the best value bike product I've ever brought. For me I'd get them or royce, but last i heard royce dont do black hubs as Cliff didnt like the finish, and silver ones won't looks as nice, so Hope it is, see, simple really...hahaha.
This looks a good project Pete.
I don't think carbon wheels suit it tho. Also word of caution with bladed spoked wheels. I have a pair of fulcrum 3's that have been great through nearly 17000 km of grim roads and weathers but a point of caution with them and other bladed spoke wheels is that if anything goes wrong with them when out in the wilds you are stranded. I had 4 rear spokes go (out of 24 on rear) at once on a fast bumpy descent and it was unrideable. This was in a place with no phone reception, I was wearing spd-sl uber impossible to walk in disco slippers and the first two phone boxes i walked to in socks had been vandalised. In the end i knocked up a pub that was closed and the owner kindly poured me a pint whilst I phoned for rescue. When i finally got to the local bike shops they did'nt have any bladed spokes in as they were special order. I ended up having to train and walk it back to London in a massive hump about the whole experience. CSB, but just the kind of thing that could happen on an audax.
If it was me. which it isn't, and for the reasons above I'd get some simple hubs like royce or hope with low or medium depth rims. Your super lightweight means you can easily get away with a much less spoke count even for audax so they should still come out pretty light. Hope's are noisy but amazingly bombproof, I have a pair of mtb ones that are 10 years old and have been utterly abused, all I've done to them in that time is add grease to the bearings once. I've just spent all weekend thrashing round coed y brenin with them and they are still great, arguably the best value bike product I've ever brought. For me I'd get them or royce, but last i heard royce dont do black hubs as Cliff didnt like the finish, and silver ones won't looks as nice, so Hope it is, see, simple really...hahaha.