I have ridden the HED plus for several years and have no issues with braking compared to my nearly 40 year biking history. Don't have to mess with changing brake pads. Some of your questions may also relate to how thick is your wallet. Can't help you with the bike racing questions as I don't know the rules or scene.

Maybe under 1.5k, do you have HED 6s? If so why did you choose them?

Aside from the directional Turbine brake track on the Black series, other differences are as follows:

-Black rear wheel has straight-pull spokes whereas Plus series uses traditional j-bend spokes
-Black series wheels come with titanium wheel skewers; Plus wheels come with steel skewers
-Black series front wheel uses alloy / carbon shell hub; Plus has all alloy

So the j-band saves weight since the spike doesn't have the lip of the J and alloy/carbon? Is there more of a structural integrity with the Black series?

There is a lot of stress at the bend in a spoke so straight pull is inherently stronger. Of course this assumes the j-bend isnt up to the task, which it generally is as long as you aren't 220 lbs.

Functionally the only real difference is going to be improved braking performance. The other improvements will just be very marginal. I won't comment n the fashion aspect of the black rims. Your choice on that one.

I would say your decision comes down to price. You can get 2 sets of Plus 6s for the cost of a 6/9 black set. A disc cover will be faster than a 9 and you could probably pick up a used Jet disc and a pair of 6s for the same price. Disc wheels are a great used buy because they rarely have many miles.

I splurged on the Jet Black when I got my set this year, and I am glad I did. First, I love the way they look. Second, I really like excellent braking. I do not have a braking comparison, because I was coming from carbon clinchers, so the braking was massively better regardless. The incremental cost was not that huge, so I would vote to go for the Black if they fit in your budget.

My next set of wheels will be Ardennes Black for my road bike. I like the Black wheels that much.

What size of HED Blacks did you buy?

I got a Jet 9 Black up front and a Jet Disc Black in back.

Before that, I was rolling a set of FLO Carbon Clincher 60/90. I loved those, but I did the size upgrade when the sales were running strong.

It looks like you got most of your questions answered. For me, I ended up picking a 6/9 for training and use a disc for training but the set of 6s with aero cover works as well.

---

---

Save: $50 on Speed Hound Recovery Boots | $20 on Air Relax| $100 on Normatec| 15% on Most Absorbable Magnesium

Blogs: Best CHEAP Zwift / Bike Trainer Desk | Theragun G3 vs $140 Bivi Percussive Massager | Normatec Pulse 2.0 vs Normatec Pulse | Speed Hound vs Normatec | Air Relax vs Normatec | Q1 2018 Blood Test Results | | Why HED JET+ Is The BEST value wheelset

Why did you decide to leave the 6/9 for the 9/disc? Price? How much speed did you gain? Did you end up keeping the flos to have two sets of wheels?

I went from 6/9 to 9/disc purely for speed. And, I like the look of a 90mm wheel up front much more.

When I originally bought the 60/90 set, I had never ridden deep wheels of any kind. So, I was a bit concerned about handling. I chose the 60 to be conservative on the handling side, and the 60 gives up very little in aerodynamics to the 90. However, after riding on them for more than a year, I had no handling issues at all, and I was wishing that I had a 90 up front for the looks & performance.

Along the way, I decided that I want a disc for the back. It was a blue sky purchase situation. I decided to go with HED wheels because of their design around internal width, the promise of better braking, and the fact that HEDs seem to test extremely well for most people and bikes. I only use one set of wheels for racing and training, so I sold the FLO CC 60/90 set.

I am not sure how much speed I gained from just the wheels. I did the upgrade over the winter while I also upgraded a few aero parts on my bike and lowered my front end about 20mm. Post upgrade, I am consistently riding the same courses about 25W faster than last season. I am sure a part is from the wheels, and I am absolutely loving them. I rode my winter HIM 0.2 MPH slower than my last HIM in 2017 on 35W less avg. power. Both were super flat courses with little wind.

For what its worth I am running HED JET 5/9. Bought them separately and spent just about $800 after shipping and all. Front is a JET Black rear is not. Just look for slick deals on eBay.

I have a set of HED jet black 4s on my road bike. I recently upgraded my race wheels to the HED jet black disc and jet black 9 front. The braking is awesome. You should get the HED jet black 5s from mybikeshop.com. They have them for $1299 as an MBs exclusive. Just my thoughts.

PerfBike has the HED Plus 5s on a permanent sale, pretty much always.

Gotta say though - I have the model of HED 6s right before the Plus model came out. The braking on those is scary good, not sure how much better you can realistically get with these wheels. In other words, paying the premium for the Blacks might be unnecessary.

---

Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I have the ardennes black as my main non carbon clincher... very nice wheelset indeed.

Yea I haven’t ridden the regular jets but I’ve heard the braking is good as well. I bought the blacks pretty much cuz I loved the black brake track. Looks better with skin wall tires 😄

I'm riding the HED 6+ on my road bike. Great wheels and they stop awesome. I like the Blacks too but came across a deal I couldn't pass up... no complaints on the regular 6+ wheels.