The Tester Approves thread (see first post)

factory built wheel - aero performance / £ spent - mavic aksium

yes, mdcc_tester?

RS31 is cheaper and faster, Aksium has the advantage of better sealed (cartridge) bearings but the disadvantage of FTS-L freehub. On balance, pulling the Mavic freehub off every time it gets wet is probably easier than regreasing the bearings on the Shimano wheels under the same circumstances, so I'd take Aksiums for all weather riding, but for a fair weather racer the Shimano wheels have it.

If you want something stiffer/stronger/cheaper and only slightly slower, R501-C30 does essentially the same thing as RS31 with 4 extra spokes per wheel.

You need to spend £550 on Zipp 30s (which is 4 times the price of RS31s) to make a worthwhile step up from budget wheels.

Slightly different question but from AQA last week:

Whats the best value (sub £100) training wheel set for my road bike? (700c, sram/shimano 10speed)

CRC had some R501-C30s at £75 but it seems they are gone.
Planet X has R501-C24s and R501-C30s at £80, as well as RS10 and RS11s below £100.

Are these the best value I'm going to get? What's the main difference between the C24 and C30s and are the R10/R11s worth the extra? Any other options?

Rim depth, but the 24s also come in 2 versions, bladed spokes or round ones.

RS11 is necessary if you have 11s, but if you're on 10s the R501 is better for training as it has conventional spokes and more of them, so it's a bit stronger and easier to fix.

I may be putting words into his mouth but I seem to remember the R105-30 being the aero wheel of choice until you are spending lots of monies.

For sheer cheapness, R501 can't be beaten. The extra £30-£40 for RS31s is well spent in terms of buying speed.

Fast but tough tyre: The Continental GP4000s

23c or 25c tyres?: 25c

What makes them better than hardshells?

They're fast?

↑What he said

Tester what kind of solution would you approve as cheap 1x10 cross setup?

sram type 2 x7 with narrow-wide raceface @ front, and try to find a bargain levers?

Clincher rims... what Passes The Tester™?

Would like to know some options for traditional width and 23mm width with the emphasis on track training, but also some road riding.

Also, do American Classic track wheels Pass the Tester™?

Tester what kind of solution would you approve as cheap 1x10 cross setup?

sram type 2 x7 with narrow-wide raceface @ front, and try to find a bargain levers?

I haz X7 on my MTB, so it is Tester approved :-) Actually the non-clutch short cage, and no fat teeth on the chainring, but with a Gusset Lil Chap chain device. I'm sure the clutch mech and funny chainring would be just as effective at preventing chain drop, so take your pick based on whichever set up is cheaper.

Apex right lever, can't find single S500 brake levers at the mo, but £46 a pair and you should easily be able to get £20 back for a right lever, so about £120 for a pair of levers is your baseline, if you can find some Force cheap from somebody upgrading to Force22 they would be a minor benefit, but you get all the function and freshness from new Apex so I'd probably give the second hand market a swerve unless they are super cheap.

i love this thread...its like lfgss' version of Dear Deidre

I can do this negaatio, i thought about it for a while:

Shifters - Sram Rival, good enough for cx, you can find them in singles on ebay and if you find a left for spairs or repair that you can gut it for weight and money saving

Cranks - you can do this bit

Ring - absolouteblack, apparently quite good, get some british on your bike :)

Rear mech - sram x9 type 2, basically anything sram mtb type 2, these have a roller clutch which is what you need, get long cage

Cassette - shimano mtb 11-32

thanks guys!

Sram levers do seem a bit prone to failure so as sirbikealot says, finding a left lever that's shat its guts to use just as a brake could be a winner if the right of the pair is still in good nick.

The concept of BB30? A self evidently good idea, with the scope (not yet exploited by anybody commercially, afaik) to combine a fat axle with narrow Q. PF30 is a cop out by frame manufacturers who can't be arsed to prepare their BB shell properly, BB86 is a dead end

As for the bearings to stuff into it, take your pick, it's just a standard 6806-2RS industrial cartridge.

+/- 0.05mm for PF30, +/- 0.025mm for BB30 IIRC

Clincher rims... what *Passes The Tester*™?

Would like to know some options for traditional width and 23mm width with the emphasis on track training, but also some road riding.

Skinny rims to lace to 24H track hubs (see below) - Halo Mercury/Caliber, Kinlin XR300/380 or DT R585

Wider rims - dunno. On paper, Flo30 would be my first choice, but I've never seen one in the flesh. People seem to like H+Son Archetypes. What I actually have on my own fixed road bike is Salsa Delgado X, but they have stopped making rims.

Also, do American Classic track wheels *Pass the Tester*™?

Last time I looked, they were still putting undersized bearings in them to keep the weight down. They seem pointless when you can choose your own rims and lace them to £34 Novatecs

get long cage

Don't do this. The short cage works with sprockets to 36T, you only need the long cage for 3×10.

Please could I have a recommendation for a 'true 28' tyre to mount on an Open Pro for general road duties. I have schwalbe ultremo zlx's which ride lovely, but they have fattened up to nearly 30mm!

^^^ I thought you might recommend the Kinlin 279 for wide rim, but I guess there isn't much difference between them and Archetypes.

+/- 0.05mm for PF30, +/- 0.025mm for BB30 IIRC

Correct, but it's not just about the tolerances, the BB30 shell is a more complex shape as it has circlip grooves to provide inboard axial constraint for the bearing cartridges, PF30 is just a straight 46mm bore all the way through, no grooves. Between the coarser tolerance and the single step machining, PF30 probably saves the frame manufacturer $5, and the end user gets BB bearings set in soft plastic sleeves instead of directly fixed into the frame.

Please could I have a recommendation for a 'true 28' tyre to mount on an Open Pro

No. If you want 28mm tyres, you also want rims wider than Open Pro.

Oh, alright then, try Vittoria Rubino Pro Tech, they have a good mix of attributes at a low price, and they are a bit under 28mm on skinny rims.

If you want to spend twice as much, I expect Open Pave Evo CG III 700×27 is probably 28mm, based on the way the 23 and 25 come up slightly over the spec size.

Thanks very much. I was already leaning towards a challenge or FMB tyre as a posher possibility.

As for this:

No. If you want 28mm tyres, you also want rims wider than Open Pro.

I know, I know. When I eventually get round to ordering a posh new frame with grown up Audax clearance, I'll get some new wheels to go with it.

At the posh end, Conti GP4000S2 700×28 is obviously a contender, but I don't know how big they are. My 700×25 GP4000s are about 26.5mm wide on 23mm rims, and GP4000s tend to be quite tall for their width, which I'm guessing is where the clearance is a problem on your current bike.

11 speed Shimano hub, for a "Grizzly + Alpine III + Raltech" build?

Novatech?

11 speed Shimano hub, for a "Grizzly + Alpine III + Raltech" build?

Novatech?

There's no such manufacturer. You could try Novatec, or you could wait for Shimano FH-5800 to arrive in the shops.

Are you building a geared TT bike now?