Dura ace c24 are awesome. You can get a pair for about $750 shipped online.

Depends on your definition of "climbing." If you're truly only worried about going uphill I would look for something lighter than a flo 30.

Dura Ace C24 is probably the lightest clincher wheel set in that price range. If you want to get really light, you'll have to go tubular.

I have a pair of these, and I love them. They are feather light and feel great. They are on a very light road bike, so it is the total climbing package.

https://www.vueltausa.com/...o-or-campagnolo.html

If you change you mind about clinchers, I have an old set of Reynolds KoM tubular wheels that have been sitting in the garage taking up space. Just under 1kg. Less than 1500 miles on them. Hubs by DT Swiss. PM me if you're interested.

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=113&sid=e0c94b94c8289c1cf8091e2354714c60
General consensus appears to be a custom built a340 rim, sapim spokes, and - I guess - dt240s will run about $500 and 1300g.
Obviously tubies are lighter wheels and tires, compared to heavier wheels, tubes, and heavier tires.


That being said, I love my Tune hubs and would definitely recommend them to anyone. ...but you'd about blow your budget just on hubs.

Where can one get the DT240s hubs cheap? They're $506 at Excel...

Ritchey WCS Zeta?

1444g for the set, seems like a great mix of light and reliable.

Campagnolo Shamal

 I'm wondering though if the wider rim of the flo's would give them an advantage over the Dura Ace, because of the aero edge with a 25mm tire

Affordable alternative: BikeHubStore SL hubs: ~145 bucks for the pair. 71g + 210g. Lighter than DT 240s.

Once you've decided to go with a shallow rim, I'd say aerodynamics are already long gone.

I've done hill repeats switching between 1900 gram Mavic Carbones, and 1200 gram easton EC90 SLX's. I felt I climbed faster with the carbones, go figure (maybe due to the stiffness).
Are you sure you want to give away aerodynamics for light weight? It's been proven over and over that for all but the worst climbs, wheel weight doesn't matter much at all.

probably so..looking for a good combination of both..wider rims with weight under 1500gm

Bitex RAR12 rear hub and the equivalent front laced to Pacenti SL23 (20mm internal width) with CX-Rays ended up around 1360g taped for tubeless. This was a <$500 build and they have been durable and stiff enough.

I'm pretty sure my 14.5 lb R5 with 1250g Reynolds Attacks is as fast as my 18 lb S5 with 404s, within statistics.

Into a solid headwind - say >10mph - sure you can feel it on the R5 - with the almost square tubes, exposed cables, taller headtube - but that same headwind wouldn't be easy on the S5. Conversely, every time the road pitches up greater than ~3% or any time you need to accelerate the bike, you feel the lack of weight. At 5% the difference is night and day and there's no contest above 8%.

I've started thinking of selling the aero road bike since it's a do-nothing-well sitting between my light weight sorta-aero road bike and my streamlined to the max TT bike. Or, obviously upgrade to make it lighter - first world problems.

I second (third?) this. Love these wheels so much, I have two pair.

Don't neglect aerodynamics in your decision making process. Aero trumps weight in all but the most extreme climbs. You'll actually climb faster on heavier but more aero wheels.

---

Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling

You could consider the Select+ wheels from November.

http://www.novemberbicycles.com/select/

The Easton R90SL rims with 20/24 lacing and the Chris King hubs would be under 1,500 grams (I think?) with a 19.5mm internal rim width, although just over budget.

I have the same rims with 20/28 lacing and the White Indistries T11 hubs. I like them a lot and have had no issues. I think they clock just north of 1,500 grams before skewers, rim tape, tubes, and tires.

Or, go with the Kinlin XR31T rims instead. They appear pretty good for aerodynamics and are a little cheaper. They weigh 30g more but that's not enough to notice and I'd take the aerodynamic advantage over that any day.

look into the Stans Alpha 340s they can easily be built around 1400 for a set

also fairwheelbikes has a good set up for light wheels and a blog post too on some killer alloy wheels. Aero does come into play, I am a road racer (climber) but if its a hard steady climb I would use my deeper 300gr heavier wheels, but if will be hard attacks and surging ill ride my light tubulars for accelerations since thats where the weight becomes more important, for many you better off focusing on body weight.

American Classic Road Tubeless - 1180g
American Classic Argent - 1370g

They may have some weight limit, however. They are pretty wide, and tubeless. Argent is a little deeper, I believe.

Both can be had for around your price range.

I would go with some of the aero aluminum rims for a good mix of weight, aero and braking. I am looking at the AL33 rim to rebuild a powertap set. These would be used primarily for long climbs. I am less concerned about the weight and more with heat generation on long descents and potential weather. I have built up several sets with the bikehubstore hubs and haven't had any issues. If you aren't a build them yourself kind of guy then November looks like a good option.

All of this said, I set some of my best climbing PRs using 808s and Enve 6.7s. I just don't want to descent mt. Evans on these!

I get all of my DT stuff from Bike24. $234 for the rear (QR), $120 for the front:

https://www.bike24.de/...8068%5D%5B18072%5D=1

https://www.bike24.de/...8068%5D%5B18072%5D=1

Check out the Boyd Altamount Lites...less than 1000 grams for the set for about the money you are looking to spend. The folks at Boyd offer great customer service to boot.