I have no experience with the spinergy's but I do have a set of Excel Sport built CXP-33 w/ultegra. I was in the same situation as you, on a budget and only able to get one set of wheels. Mine are bombproof, I have hit some big potholes and been riding the wheels for about a year and they are still true as day one. Excel has great prices, great service, and builds a great wheel. I say go for #2

A

you could also check out dave thomas at speeddream.com(or some really similar derivation of that). builds custom wheels for around $500. very light, decently aero and very fast. they also seem to be realtively bombproof as well. excellent wheels.

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f/k/a mclamb6

Tripoet, My opinion is that the CXP-33 rims are not worth buying. They aren't deep enough to be of any real aero benefit, and you give up a significant amount of weight (50g) per wheel over the Open rims. 38-40mm is the rim depth needed to provide any significant aero advantage. I'd probably go for a set of Mavic Opens, 28hole, Revolution spokes, and the CK hubs. The resulting wheelset will be fairly lightweight and strong enough for you at 175lbs. For an even cheaper and lighter wheelset, get the Mavic MA2s at 50g per rim lighter than the Opens. Of course they're tubulars so you'll have to deal with that, but they'll be lighter than most of the mid-dollar wheelsets (like Ksyriums) out there. Unless you can buy a truly aero wheel, weight is more of a concern.

OTOH, the Spinergys are a great wheel, but the hubs aren't as dependable/rebuildable as the CKs. That's not to say they break, though. I currently have the Xaero-lites on my tri-bike. I love them...for training. But they aren't very aero with their PBO spokes stirring up the air.

Why would you train on the new wheels? If you got the stock set that came with your Felt why wouldn't you continue to train on those. The only reason I say this, is that toughness becomes less of a factor if you only use them for races.

I might suggest you check out the line of Velomax wheels. They've got some fairly deep, light, reasonably aero wheels that fit your budget. Even though these would make excellent training wheels I wouldn't train on them if I had a lesser set to ride. Save the good stuff for the races, regardless of what your definition of "good" is.

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Justin in Austin, get it? :)

Cool races:
- Redman
- Desoto American Triple T