A generous friend of mine is letting me use/borrow his powertap for training over the winter. Super cool move on his part. If I like it, is it possible to buy a used aero wheel and have it built in (like a hed) or does it need to be already assembled from the factory or cyclops themselves?
I know most well tell me to run an Aero jacket, but my bike (specialized transition) is on the naughty list for not working.
Thanks.
yes, you can certainly buy a used aero wheel, disassemble it and then rebuild it with the powertap ( providing same umber of hholes rim and hub wise of course.) . lots of options like that exist. you can even buy HEDS/zipps that have ben built with powertaps, which would be more economical .
if you go down that route, make sure you get a carbon wheel in good condition…
this is the path I took but not one I would recommend. I bought a new-old-stock Jet 60 from HED (off ebay - they used to, and maybe still do, sell off wheels used by pros and old stock). it was $280, and probably another $30 or so for shipping. After about 3 years I had a powertap pro installed. this was before the price of powertaps came down and if I recall correctly it was about $800 for the powertap, maybe $3-4 per sapim spoke and another $100 or so for labor. The costs may be a bit off, but you can see how they add up relative to the cost of a used aero wheel with a powertap installed.
Having said that, it has worked flawlessly for 3 years and was the best investment I have made in terms of improving my cycling.
It may be difficult with a HED wheel because the spokes go through the fairing and the new hub may not have nearly the same flange sizes as the older hub.
The G3 PT hubs have much smaller flanges than the Gen 2 does so they may be close though.
jaretj
wheelbuilder will do exactly that for you.
Give them a call or e mail they are great people. They will let you know what your options are and what wheel will work.