Road Wheels & Road Wheel Recommendations?

On the way to Sam at LMNH for the build.

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These are cheap, not light, but are they strong?

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPSHOEM501/shimano-r501-c24-clincher-wheelset

Strong enough for me at 100kg to ride the predecessor R500 on unpaved roads. Never gave me any trouble.

Perfect.

These are cheap, not light, but are they strong?

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPSHOEM501/shimano-r501-c24-clincher-wheelset

They are incredibly good value and they are 90% as good as anything else out there at 10% of the retail price.
If I can find one fault, they could have gone for a 24/28 construction to suit all riders.
The most remarkable feature is that they can actually be repaired, unlike the rest of the Shimano range, which requires exotic, unreasonably priced and often impossible to find spokes and rims.
If 90% is good enough and you don't have to carry 15 Kg of panniers, look no further!

If I can find one fault...

If you were going to be really fussy, you'd ask for butted spokes rather than the plain gauge ones on the bog standard R501

For £20 extra, you can get them with 30mm deep rims and oval butted spokes, that's the version I'd choose.

I'm looking for Shimano 11 speed wheels, budget of under £120, does anyone have any recommendations? They're to go on my new build a titanium road/audax frame. I've seen these that look alright but no idea if they're a good deal: http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-track-bike/wheels-factory-built-wheels-factory-road-tri-shimano-rs11-clincher-wheels-pair/shimwhfr366

RS11s are fine, but with the low spoke count it's probably even more worthwhile to spend the extra for deeper rims and butted spokes, http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-track-bike/wheels-factory-built-wheels-factory-road-tri-shimano-rs31-clincher-wheels-pair/shimwhfr379

^^ yeah, RS11 / RS21 / RS31s are probably going to be the best bet. I just recommended them to a friend, unfortunately you just missed the extra 10% off Ribble were doing on Shimano stuff.

Edit: beaten by tester.

Perfect, thanks. Damn missed a bigger bargain!

Nope, scratch that, just got the discount, RS31s £106 delivered, bargain!

Oh nice, I thought that code expired earlier this week. Good stuff.

Recommendation for classic, simple wheelset, possibly box section, up to £100? Appreciate this may be unrealistic. Aesthetics > performance.

Tiagra hubs, ACI spokes, Mavic A119, under £100 if you build them yourself, a bit over if you have to pay somebody else to do it.

Tiagra hubs, ACI spokes, Mavic A119, under £100 if you build them yourself, a bit over if you have to pay somebody else to do it.

Cheers - likely cost of getting a real man to do it?

if London then between £40 and £50 for a wheelset from a bike shop

Hmm, that's going well past my £100 then... damn real men charging for their skills.

It's an ideal first build for the novice wheel builder

It's an ideal first build for the novice wheel builder

And this is high on my list of bike-related skills to acquire, but I think my first wheel build probably shouldn't go on a mate's new bike! Not sure I want the liability...

it's not as hard as it sound, once you finished building the wheel, you can ask your LBS to true it which should cost you a tenner (or £20 if it take longer).

it's not as hard as it sound, once you finished building the wheel, you can ask your LBS to true it which should cost you a tenner (or £20 if it take longer).

Hmm, what tools/equipment would we need? Got some spoke keys I think... presumably some sort of stand?

Or use your fork and brake block as a truing stand.

owl... http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

...and reading this thread may help.

owl... http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

...and reading this thread may help.

Gotcha, thanks, had actually already sidled over to the wheel building thread and was looking nervously in from the outside wondering if this actually might be the time to give it a go... anyone care to estimate how long it might take a cack-handed amateur to get a wheel built (at least up to a standard that could then take it to a real man to finish off)?

Ain't Nobody Got Time For That - YouTube