I am in the market for front and back carbon wheels for 2024 cervelo P series frameset build . 700c x 28 . What are people recommending ??? I am also thinking about 60 mm depth on front and 80 mm depth on rear . I live on flat roads in South Carolina and race flat road long distance . Yeah windy where I live sometime but not Texas ! (LOL) I am using shram wireless shifting and a 1 by crankset 12 speed 10/32 with 165 mm cranks . I want to step it up to kick ass wheels but also want to be able to train on the wheels .I do 3 rides a week being recovery , interval on wahoo kickr and long ride on weekends . I am totally clueless on tubeless and have some people say tubeless and others say no tubeless . My biggest concern is getting stranded on weekend or having to drop out of race due to problem with tubeless etc . I am somewhat getting educated that if a problem occurs with tubeless a tube can then be installed ??? Is tubeless less if an hassle??? Anyway thoughts please on my questions would be appreciated !!!
Hard to argue with the value of HED wheels. Vanquish or vanquish pro models. I like tubeless but it is a little more of hassle to setup initially and a little more maintenance every few months. HED at least gives you the option to run tubeless or tubes. If you don’t ride outside much, tubeless doesn’t make much sense except for race day.
I can definitely argue with the value of HED wheels. Don’t get me wrong, I run HED wheels (came with my new bike Vanquish 62s) and they’re well built and high quality, but I was getting slightly faster times with el-cheapo rim-brake chinese 88mm Superteam wheels which also were amazingly high quality in looks, finish, and I never had a single problem with them. They also cost $350 - for BOTH wheels (I think they’re like $450 now, but rim-brake). HED vanquish run like 1700-1800 for both wheels. The cost comparison isn’t even close, but of course you get a good company backing their product with HED, whereas for a chinese company you’re probably looking at a throwaway if there’s a problem. Those 88s were so good I immediately looked to buy another set but at least as of now, Superteam didn’t sell 88s with disc brake.
Now other wheels from Yoeleo, Elitewheels do disc wheels for less than half the cost of the HED, and they’re almost certainly just as fast. And these wheels are shockingly high quality now. But we’ll see what happens after the tariffs kick in - I actually wouldn’t mind having those chinese wheels double+ in price so US brands like HED can really be cost competitive.
My first set of deep wheels were 60mm/90mm, and I had buyers remorse pretty early on. I wish I started with disc. And, 90mm looks way more awesome up front. So after a couple years, I upgraded to HED 90mm/disc wheels. They are my only set and what I race and train on. They are bomb proof. Like above, I think HED are pretty tough to beat.
I upgraded my road bike last year, and it came with tubeless and ENVE 3.4 wheels. The ENVE wheels are wider and easily handle 28mm tires. I am upgrading those to 30mm, so that will be my first hands-on experience maintaining tubeless wheels. So far, the tubeless thing has been a nothing burger for very fast and comfortable wheels and tires.
I would do disc from the start and give tubeless a long look. You can run them lower PSI for comfort, speed, and flat resilience.
Are you speaking of the hed jet rc pro series? If not what model he’s wheels dis k you speaking of ? Thanks
I’m the opposite. I ran 88/disc then got a wheel for 88/88. I saw my times were indistinguishable.
While I love the look of the disc the hassle of having a short stem latex tube and annoyance with the pump head in the cutout were enough to make me run the 88 mostly. I eventually only used the 88s.
I can’t make any specific recommendations regarding wheels for your particular build, but I will comment on the tubeless vs tube controversy. First, the odds of you getting stranded with tubeless is far less likely than with tubes. That doesn’t mean you just mount and go. You can still get a puncture but it’s much less likely to get something the sealant can’t take care of. But that’s why you carry a patch kit, and you can also carry a spare TPU tube for your training rides just in case.
I live in goat head (and tumbleweed [sage brush] and mesquite country) and when I was running tubes, I was getting punctures so often I wanted to trash the bike. It was so frustrating I almost gave up on riding. Some people over at Bike Forum suggested I give tubeless a try. In the year and a half since, I have had one puncture where I had to walk. This was before (and how) I learned my lesson about carrying a patch kit and a TPU tube spare.
There is something of a learning curve to getting the wheels set up and sealed. But after you get comfortable, it’s really no more maintenance than a tube set up. And there is data that supports tubeless is faster.
This was several years ago and a clincher bike. They are HED Jet Black wheels. Still have the bike and wheels and love both. Though I will probably do an upgrade in the next year or two - the bike is almost 10 years old now.
I have no idea what wheels I would choose if buying now. I really like my Enve road bike wheels, but that is my only other experience from HED. Oh, my very first set were FLO - I loved those too, I just wish I had started deeper.
I recently upgraded my wheels because I recently upgraded my bike, so needed disc brake wheels. Previously have used Zipps (60 front and rear disc), Enves (8.9s) and HED (60 front and disc rear). Many good options depending on your budget. I also switched from tubes to tubeless. More maintenance required but I’ve flatted enough over the years to make the change. Decided to go with the new DT Swiss 60 on front and HED Vanquish disc on rear. Make note of manufacturers recommended max tire pressure as they can differ greatly. For example, HED has maximum 80lbs while my DT Swiss is 102. Pay attention to internal width which affects your desired tire sizes typically 25,26, 28. One thing I highly recommend you do not do is use your race wheels as training wheels. I’ll use a cheaper heavier set of wheels with Gaterskins and tubes for training and save my race wheels and tubeless tires for race only. Good luck.
I have always used my race wheels for training. They’ll hold up.
Gatorskin tires are a sin.
I agree a good set of wheels hold up. Race tires…less
The tariffs are going to change things significantly for my suggestion. I am one who has sourced and built all of my wheels from China. I just found that they have been every bit as good (and in many cases better) than the big brands. Especially for the price.
That said, 145% tariff massively changes the value equation. This may very well significantly affect big brands too as 99% of bike wheel parts are produced in China or Taiwan.
If you can get your wheels without the surcharges applied, then jump on it.
Light bicycle is great.
Superteam is great.
Elite is great.
HED
Reynolds
Bontrager
DT Swiss
Those would be my suggestions at the moment.