Have you considered the Reynolds AR41X rim brake wheelset?

1. Wouldn't be a consideration for me. I'd buy the wheels I want and assume that if I have any sort of warranty issue I can deal directly with the manufacturer.
2. Yes, but if you're not planning to buy a new bike soon it doesn't matter.
3. Yes

Re: tubeless, you can run tubes in tubeless or tubeless-ready wheels but not the other way around. The opinions seem to be pretty split on road tubeless - I run tubeless on my gravel and mountain bikes but not road yet, although my wheels are tubeless ready. I don't tend to flat very often and I've heard enough stories about tubeless not working well for others to convince me not to switch yet.

I suspect the DT Swiss dealer locator isn't working properly. I can't recall which other website I've experienced this on, but it was another European brand, and the website didn't seem to pull up US dealers properly. Personally, I'm seeing DT Swiss' prebuilt wheels, spokes, and standalone hubs on my local bike store, which is a small chain in the Midwest. I don't know if they get DT Swiss through QBP or some other distributor, but it seems likely that they could get any necessary replacement small parts. You could just check with your LBS for that if you're set on DT Swiss wheels. If it's the bearings that need replacement, those things will be a standard size anyway, so you could get any decent quality sealed bearing (e.g. buy through Enduro).

And if you were considering carbon wheels for everyday purposes, maybe consider putting the Hed Jets on your radar. Those are an alloy rim with a carbon aero fairing bonded on. They're fast wheels!! The only downside is that sometimes the fairing can get some cracks in it. I assume this is because the spokes sometimes hit the fairing as you ride over bumps. This is a cosmetic thing only. The fairing isn't structural. The Black version (textured brake surface) is like braking on steroids and EPO, I tell you. Hed recently dropped its retail prices, so the standard Jets are $1200, and the Jet Blacks are $1500. I know that Bontrager's Aeolus Comp is a similar design, but only 50mm depth (I think). I think Flo has several depths in this design. Shimano had some of this type of wheel also, but I'm not sure if they're still selling these.

No comments on rim brakes vs disc. I believe full carbon wheels these days are pretty durable, even for rim brakes. I personally would prefer not to deal with carbon rim brake tracks, but that's a personal preference. If you're mainly riding in the dry then I think with the latest wheels braking is pretty close to aluminum. I think there was a recent thread on that.

I've been running a set of Zipp 303's on my road bike (my only bike until I got a gravel bike in late 2018) since Spring 2013 without any issues. I long ago lost track of the number of pot holes I've hit, time spent off-road with them, etc. They have been bomb-proof.

I have not, didn't know there's a rim-brake version. thanks. As a carbon wheel, how's your experience been in terms of durability? And also for a carbon wheel, does the brake track require special brake pads?

Maybe flip it around and start with your requirements and needs first. For example:

1. Is aero important?
2. Are these everyday wheels or race-only wheels?
3. What bike will they be on (might impact width considerations)?
4. Do you plan on running tubeless or tubular?
5. What tires do you plan to use (for example, some tires are incompatible with Enve clinchers)?
6. How important is braking? Wet vs. dry? Descents? (Some major rides, like the Greenville Hincapie Fondo, do not allow carbon rim brake wheels.)
   

Good to hear. However Zipp 303's are also about ~$1k per wheel vs. about $750 for a pair of the particular DT Swiss model. Although price is a consideration, the $$ : Quality ratio needs to hold up as well.

If you've got a shortlist of recommendations from these, happy to use it.

1. Aero important? Not where it results in a weight or wind-handling penalties. Seems sweet spot of light+aero (enough) is about <=40mm profiles. Aero wheels do look "more pro" though which is a plus.

2. Everyday wheels. Want to put them on, forget about 'em, and just ride.

3. Cervelo R3 (bike has squoval tubes - so it's not an aero frame, related to Q1, but it is light).

4. Not tubular. May experiment w/tubeless, depending. Happy to continue using clinchers w/tubes for the time being.

5. Usual go to's have been Conti 5000's; Currently using Michelins Pro something. Not sure I like the idea of being locked into a specific tire/rim combination if the tire's not a "good" one. Also, the wider rim/tires for tubeless options can't be too wide for an rim brake / R3 setup.

6. Braking - very important, yes. :-) Am a conservative descender - ok scrubbing off speed so I'm done w/braking well before I take the curves. Taking an apex smoothly is more important than fast for me. I do like riding fast on the flats though, and I do like climbing. If it's raining I usually go run or use another bike and not the R3, unless I get caught out in the rain. So this wheelset will be mostly dry.

I would get HED Jet Black wheels in the depth of your liking. HED is one of the biggest and most ubiquitous brands out there. Good braking pretty much rules out full carbon, and HED’s Blacks are the best rim brake wheels on the earth. HEDs are also economical relative to others, and they are among the fastest. So, win-win-win.

I have been selling Reynolds carbon wheels on my bikes for about 15 years and have never seen a defect/failure.

Yes, all carbon rim brake wheels should be used with the manufacturer's suggested brake pads.

I have had really good experiences with my Reynolds Strikes. Also with Wheelscience. Excellent performance and incredible value.

https://www.wheelscience.com/

Note: I don't work for them, just love the wheels.

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My wife has them and they are great. But it does ignore two things.

1. External width is only 25mm. Thats not very wide by today's standard if you want to stick to the 105% rule.
2. They are heavy. The Jet 60mm set weighs 1740g. Compare that to Roval CLX 64mm at 1540g while being 4mm deeper and 4mm wider at the brake track. Granted thats one of the lighter carbon wheels

Since the HED fairing is light, the comparative weight difference is greater at 40mm and smaller at 90mm.

If HED made them 28-30mm wide and dropped 100g, they'd be perfect.

However if you're comparing them to carbon wheels that are 25mm wide and similar weight, get the HED. 100% on board.

This sounds like the HED Jet RC4 is the wheel you want. 40mm deep, good aerodynamics across a wide selection of different tires, reasonably light at sub 1600g, stable in cross winds, tubeless ready, super durable, quality construction and smooth bearings, wide internal rim width. If you get the Black version with the turbine brake track it is pretty much all the stopping power and modulation of a disc brake wheel with none of the hassle in both wet and dry conditions.

On the occasion you're caught in the rain and being able to stop is high on your list...do not buy anything with a carbon brake track. I've had Reynolds and Zipp wheels and for as good as they are in dry conditions I wouldn't ride them if you gave them to me. My last wheelset before I went to disc brakes was a HED black wheelset and would highly recommend them

I've owned the "R32" (prior naming scheme) disc version of these for years. These are bulletproof wheels. I'm 200lb, hit potholes all the time, and I've destroyed a number of wheelsets. As you go deeper with the rim, the wheelsets get a lot stronger. These also use a bigger than normal spoke (and the ones I had on my older wheelset), so when DT Swiss rates they for a 130kg total weight, i believe it. These also use the best spokes and hubs you can get (in terms of quality/general performance/reliability). At the prices listed below, if you wanted to build a set of custom wheels, you might be inclined to buy these wheels, disassemble them, selling the rims, and use the spokes ($150) and hubs ($300).

If you're looking at sub-$500 wheels, this is the way to go unless you're climbing steep hills all the time. Fulcrum also offers a few choices at this price point worth looking at too. I'm going to post some links from Merlin, a company that sells OEM wheelset (meant for production line), meaning they don't come with all the little things or packaging you'd get on the retail model. They're half the price of the retail, so therefore you don't need the warranty :-)

Both of these wheels will be faster with 23c tires in front and might look silly with a 28c or something.They are both fairly narrow for modern tires, as do most of their piers. Given their depth, they are going to move around a bit in gusty winds (like one side of the road stripe to the other side of the road stripe, but not scary)

The case for the Fulcrum (Campy) is that it is wider and deeper than the DT Swiss; case against is they are strong, but not as strong as the DT Swiss. The case against is that It'll work better with 25c tires. (Note these are also called the Racing 4 and Campy Scirocco)
https://www.merlincycles.com/...wheelset-124714.html

The difference between these two models is that the 1800 uses a louder "Pawl" style rear hub, while the 1600 uses a quieter "Ratchet" / "Star" rear hub. The 1600 also has nicer graphics. Some of the ratchet hubs can be basically silent if you are lucky enough to get a quiet one. Having a silent rear hub is definitely worth the extra $125. The P1800 and Fulcrums above are comparable.
https://www.merlincycles.com/...set-700c-108395.html
https://www.merlincycles.com/...set-700c-125746.html

Up on the next tier of wheels are no-name carbon wheelsets, fancier aluminum wheels, and Bontragers Aeolus Comp wheelset. You're looking at $800. Those are all good options, but they are 2x the cost. The benefit to those wheels is they well be better behaved in gusty crosswinds and give you that extra .25mph with a wider, more comfortable front tire. .

Thanks for the info and feedback on wheels. Appreciate it. I did not know about the merlin site, and the prices are surprisingly good! Can you elaborate on part above? What am I not getting vs. retail model/pricing? Are you saying they're not warrantied?

My "if it's too good to be true" and "you get what you pay for" cautionary flag is up.

I think they are saying that since the wheels are so cheap, you should consider them to be a "consumable". When you wear out tires, you simply buy more.

Usually the warranty is through the dealer, so it'd be a hassle.

I've ordered a few wheelsets through Merlin (and a ton of other stuff), the only gotcha I ever had were missing adapters for the DT Swiss wheels that the Retail version came with, but the OEM didn't. I was just going to resell these anyway.


In any case, I don't see you ever needing to warranty a DT Swiss wheelset. They're pretty overbuilt. The only problem I've ever had was that a hub has a pretty loose Centerlock disc interface. I just tried a bunch of discs till I found one that it wasn't as big of an issue on.

As a quick update, I opted for the HED RC4 Performance wheelset. Thanks to several of you that recommended HED RC's, and others' for input/considerations.

Some follow up question(s) the piqued my interest along the way:

HED's deeper rims (e.g. RC9 at 90mm) have an external width of 32mm (21mm internally) and a recommended optimal tire width of 25mm. When the tire width is less than the external width, doesn't that result in an 'odd' tire/rim profile -- i.e. The rim is wider than the tire?

Cervelo has an article on max size tire/rim combos at: https://www.cervelo.com/...ty-on-tire-clearance.

In that article, there's a requirement to have 4mm of clearance to the frame (on each side, so +8mm needed). So if the an RC9 is 32mm wide you need 40mm of max width. Only the Caledonia and Aspero models are designed with greater than 40mm clearance. So, wouldn't all other Cervelo bikes not be able to accommodate a HED RC9? But I'm sure there's a bunch of you with P, R, S, C series bikes rolling along on HED's deep RC9's without stuff rubbing the frames. What am I missing?