Dear world of slowtwitch,
I was wondering if anyone here has used the american classic aero 420s before and what are your thoughts on it. I was considering a set of wheels for the road bike and came across these.
They look sharp (to me) and the weight seems good.
Any reviews?
Good wheels - very stout. Nice hubs. Good to build a powertap into if you want. What are you looking for? Couple on my roadie team have used them for training wheels for a long time.
Fantastic wheel. I have a couple of thousand miles on my pair and I have never once had a problem or had to true them. I have run them off into ditches (unintentionally), jumped curbs, and crashed. and they still spin as true and smooth as the day I got them. They are light and spin up very quickly. I would look at 2009 or newer as the hub was redesigned. I have several training wheelsets but they are all hanging in the garage. These stay on my bike unless I am racing! Best of Luck
I raced on a set from 2005-2009 and thought they were good wheels (stiff, light and fairly aero) until I managed to break a spoke on the front one during an IM distance tri - The Forestman in the New Forest, UK. I’m fairly light ~150lbs but there were a lot of cattlegrids on that race, I guess that can happen to most wheels. Ended up dnf as I couldn’t get the wheel true enough to continue. Replaced the spoke and still use them for training though.
I have an older set and like them ok, so far I have only trained on them but I would race them in a sec if I had to.
The rear hub mechanicalism is a bit nutty, whomever desigend it had an engineering degree and a lot of time on his hands.
Had a set of Aero 3’s. Very good wheels on the flats but the brake track was very narrow (almost exactly the width of a koolstop salmon…aligning brakes was a pain) and braking was a bit iffy on descents (I do a fair amount of climbing). Mounting tires was also a pain in the ass due to the narrow 18mm rim width.
But they were very smooth, fairly light weight, semi aero. If they made the brake track a bit wider and had a 20-21 mm rim width, they’d be perfect - and probably a bit heavier.
I have them on my new Blue AC1. So far they work and look great. Highly recommended.
They’re solid wheels. I have a slightly different set of AC wheels, and the look, fit/finish, and especially hub quality are all excellent. That being said, I have popped a couple of spokes. AC makes pretty light aluminum clinchers. Just remember that weight savings has to come from somewhere, and in their case it’s from very narrow rims with relatively thin sidewalls. They recommend using the KoolStop salmon pads because they are less abrasive to the rims over standard Shimano. Just keep an eye on your brake track thickness over the lifetime, because they won’t last as long as your beater Mavics.