Urgent: Help with a deal on wheels!

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi all. I’d really appreciate some opinions and help on a wheel purchase I might make. I was looking to get a rear Alps/404 type wheel for next season. I wasn’t planning on making the purchase for a couple of months. Anyway, I have the opportunity to pick up the Bontrager carbon wheelset for 800 clams. I wouldn’t have considered this wheel otherwise b/c it is typically pretty damn pricey at $1350 and I don’t think you can buy the wheels individually. This looks like a great deal on a similar type of wheel and I’m thinking of jumping at it.

The problems?? I’d rather not drop $800 bucks right now. Also, I usually wouldn’t consider buying a wheelset made by a large company like Bontrager (Trek) due to customer service issues. But if this really is a good deal, I might condider going for it. (Heck, I recently shipped a Rolf wheelset to Trek for servicing, and this shouldn’t be any different.)

Oh yea, I also weigh 200 pounds and usually race around 195. So I wonder if I should be concerned by the low spoke count. BUT, I’ve had a set of Rolf Vector Pros for 3 years that I just love and the spoke count has never been a problem.

So whaddya think???

Thanks,

Pooks

2

I held a pair of them that Trek had on display yesterday at the El tour de Tucson expo. Felt about the same weight as my zipps and seemed to be rather well constructed. Its going to be hard to buy a zipp wheelset for 800 used on ebay from what I’ve seen lately on ebay. my motto “when in doubt buy and if you don’t like sell them later”

3

“I’d rather not drop $800 bucks right now”

That’s fine Sir, we take Master Card or Visa.

4

I don’t know the trek carbon wheels, but I would not be afraid to get them. Go for it.