Hey, I’m looking at getting a wheelset upgrade for my gravel bike, that will cover it’s use as a winter/endurance bike (I’ll be doing the NC500 on it) but also for use on British Gravel (for those who read In the Know Cycling Class 2 gravel). It’ll be about a 70/30 split road to off road. I’ve looked at some of the hunt alloy gravel wheels, the vision trimax 30 (a bit over budget) but am struggling for other good options. Any tire suggestions also appreciated, particularly if they’re tubeless and have tan walls.
I have two sets of Hunt aluminum gravel wheels and two sets of their carbon road bike wheels. No issues and very fairly priced. I’d recommend them.
If you are considering Hunt you might want to have a look at Scribe wheels. I don’t have any but they’ve been under consideration, and discussed in the other thread about ratchet drive freehub technology. Pretty reasonable.
Light Bicycle WR38 (Falcon Pro). Their black Friday sale gave me a price of £588 from the Global warehouse.
Light, Carbon, aero. 25mm internal width.
https://www.lightbicycle.com/
You might be able to get a bit cheaper with different options. The regular “Falcon” wheels usually come in a bit cheaper but just don’t have as nice of finish.
I have two sets of the WR Falcon Pro series wheels and they are fantastic.
Hey, I’m looking at getting a wheelset upgrade for my gravel bike, that will cover it’s use as a winter/endurance bike (I’ll be doing the NC500 on it) but also for use on British Gravel (for those who read In the Know Cycling Class 2 gravel). It’ll be about a 70/30 split road to off road. I’ve looked at some of the hunt alloy gravel wheels, the vision trimax 30 (a bit over budget) but am struggling for other good options. Any tire suggestions also appreciated, particularly if they’re tubeless and have tan walls.
What do you have now? for 500, you may not find something much better than what you have…
alexrims gd26 rims on novatec hubs, weigh a remarkable amount of weight. The main aim is to get a wheelset that bit lighter to make climbing on the road slightly more bearable that won’t break the bank and that will survive gravel when I occasionally venture onto it (though honestly some of the lanes I venture down are more challenging on wheels with the potholes you can’t help but hit)
If you’re after value, get a kit from BDOP and build them yourself. (or if you’re not confident building, buy the kit and pay someone else to build it, you’ll still be under budget)
Zipp 303 firecrest or Zipp 303s
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HED Emporia (formerly the Eroica) alloy. You can either go with their prebuilt option or there are some wheelbuilders who will build them up with DT Swiss 350 hubs.
I had the latter built about 2 years ago and they’ve been a great set. DT Swiss hubs are top notch, the HED Emporia rims have a good internal width to make for a nice tire profile. It was the first time I ever set up a wheel as tubeless and it was super easy and created a great seal with Conti Terra Speed tires
Assuming you’re also UK, so some of the options put up here will be over your budget (Hed emporias for example start at £750).
Most of the UK house brands seem to use the same bitex or novatec type hubs, sapim or pillar spokes, and are all similar in price. So you have hunt, scribe, cero, jra to name just a few.
The DT Swiss gr1600 get good reviews and come in under £500, if you can find some in stock. That would be my pick.
Gravel tyres in the UK are a compromise as most of us face a mix of tarmac and then rougher sections of off road, so there isn’t really a perfect tyre as you have to favour one over the other. Gravel king SK, schwalbe bite, Goodyear connector. Pirelli and Conti are pricey. The newer Goodyear Peak looks interesting, more like a rounded xc race tyre, can’t find any reviews yet.
The DT Swiss gr1600 get good reviews and come in under £500, if you can find some in stock. That would be my pick.
I’ve got a set of the GR1600’s that I really like. Reasonably priced and pretty much bomb proof.