any feelings? looking at the rd-400’s but could go up or down. need a good all around wheel at a decent price. for road racing. 1400ish grams, 18/24 spokes. recc another wheel as long as it isn’t carbon, or atleast has an alu breaking surface. must be clincher as they are proven, without any uncertainty, to be faster.
anyone ridden these or similar?
American Classic 420s sure look nice. I put a pair of FSA mtn bike wheels on my girlfriends bike and they seem great but never tried thier road stuff.
I’d look elsewhere from the AM Classic 420s. I rode one for a race (loan from a friend) and it was the harshest ride I have ever had. My Hed Jet60 (heavier than you want) and Spinergy Tilium (carbon with alu braking surface but a bit heavier than you want) are far superior and way more aero. I’d recommend the Spinergy really, unless you are doing tons of hills or sprinting the bit of extra weight isn’t going to hurt you much.
I ride the rd-200 as training wheels. I like them and haven’t had any problems with them. I bought them at www.ltcycles.com They can get you pretty much whatever you want pretty quick and cheap.
I also have RD400 wheels. They have always annoyed me because the rear hub is SO loud. I like my wheels to be silent. I find I don’t ride them nearly as much as I thought I would because of this. I found this today and am looking forward to fixing them… I thought I’d post this here so you all can fix this as well if you have the same problem. (this came from a response from FSA to a wheel review done by cyclingnews.com)
Cheers.
Disassembling an RD-400/RD-600/RD-800 rear hub
(1) Insert 5mm allen wrenches into each end of the hub. Loosen and remove which ever side comes off.
(2) Re insert the allens. This time one will go into an end cap and one into the axle itself. Loosen and remove the second cap.
(3) Push the axle, with the freehub body, out to the drive/right side. If stuck, give the axle a little tap with a short 2x4 or soft mallet.
(4) Slide the axle out of the freehub body.
When reassembling, the pawls may need a bit of encouragement to lie down as the freehub enters the hub shell. Use your finger while turning the freehub gently in the freewheeling direction.
We like to use a heavy oil (Phil or 50W) in the pawl area rather than grease. Oil won’t last as long, so take the assembly apart once a year (or 4 times if you’re in Seattle/Vancouver), wipe down, reoil, reassemble. If you’re lazy, use a light grease.
More lube = less noise.
Ric Hjertberg
Full Speed Ahead
havent tried the FSAs but I’m riding the Easton Tempest IIs about 1500 grams clincher and aero with aerospokes - They’re pretty fast and they’ve held up to my 245lbs
Other choice were the reynold’s altas…nearly the same spec as the Eastons…
Maybe campy protons?
I just bought the FSA 400’s (through a team deal) and am really happy with them. They were originally bought for my road bike, but I liked them so much I put them on my tri bike. My tri bike had Velomax Circuits (I am now putting the Velomax wheels on my road bike).
They are reasonably loud, especially compared to the Velomax’s silent freehub. Going down big hills sounds like you got a good sized tuna running out some line “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”
Roadbikereview.com reviews indicated some reliablity issues. I don’t have enough miles on mine to judge, but others on my team have tons of miles on theirs and have had no issues (riding year round here in rainy seattle). Also, the other people stated that they were super stiff, but I haven’t noticed that as much. I weigh a bit more then they do though, so that might have something to do with it 
Now if I could just get my hands on the 800’s…
-Mike
I’m riding the Velomax circuits and a friend of mine, big dude, rides the ascents and I cannot recommend them enough. They are solid and true through all of our abuse. And silent. Which is unusally important to me.