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Are aluminium wheels worth upgrading to “better” aluminium wheels?

Hi All,

I recently got my first carbon bike after riding a £300 aluminium job for a few years. Absolutely love it - night and day difference! It's a nice bike but had been told it came with "budget wheels". I had heard this was often done with bikes so have been considering upgrading them. But I'm not sure if in my price considerations it's worth it?
 

The bike is rim brake, currently sitting on a pair of Fulcrum Racing 4s. After doing more internet reading it appears these are actually quite good value for money? If I was to replace them I was considering something like racing zeros I found for £650. Or pacenti Forza custom built with hope hubs at around £500. Having done some more reading about the internet (and other people's similar questions) it seems some people suggest to leave it unless you upgrade to deep carbon wheels. Thing is I don't want to spend that kind of money on wheels.

 

So to conclude - is upgrading to high end aluminium wheels (for similar prices mentioned, found a Eurus set for £500 as well), going to make an appreciable difference on the bike? Would you do it yourself?

 

Many thanks!

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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20 comments

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matthewn5 | 3 years ago
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I certainly noticed the improvement swapping between Fulcrum Racing 5 (winter) and Fulcrum Racing 3s (summer), so why not buy a second hand pair of 3s to use for 'best' and keep the 4s for winter? Shouldn't cost more than £200 if you're patient - even for the more recent ones with the wider (c17) rims.

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srchar | 3 years ago
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When I swapped out some worn Zondas for Calimas, I noticed the downgrade. It follows that an upgrade would be similarly noticeable.

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Chris Hayes | 3 years ago
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....don't know about deep section carbon wheels, especially cheap ones.  You might be better with a decent set of alloy wheels than cheap carbon wheels, many of which are way ove 1500g and have poor rim braking surfaces.   

I have a couple of pairs of sub 1500g alloy wheel sets (Mavic Open Pro UST and Kinlin 22s on decent hubs - Chris King and DT Swiss 240s both tubeless - and a set of Shamals .... I had to spend GBP 1800 to get better what are arguably better  carbon wheels. 

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alex.glenorchy | 3 years ago
4 likes

Hi All,

Another update - I've decided to leave the wheel upgrade. 
 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment. 

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joeegg | 3 years ago
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I think the question is what are you wanting to gain ? A few seconds off your Strava times,more comfortable ride,wheel stiffness ? If you've ever done group rides then you'll see that the person first to the top of the hill is probably not on the high end wheels. I would run the wheels you have and enjoy the bike while not getting too hung up on Strava times.

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Simon E replied to joeegg | 3 years ago
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I'd agree with joeegg. Ignore the marketing bull, just enjoy riding your bike.

Fulcrum 4s are not cheap OEM wheels. They're actually rather better than most wheels supplied with new bikes below £2k or so.

I don't know what tyres you have but some fast rolling tyres such as GP5000s, Schwalbe Pro One or similar might be worth considering for a little more speed and suppleness.

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alex.glenorchy | 3 years ago
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Hi All,

Thanks for the comments. I'm going to try FlyingPenguin's recommendation to get an idea of cost for deeper carbon rims. And then consider whether this is something I actually want to spend my money on at the moment.

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Nick T | 3 years ago
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You'll only notice any substantial benefit by going deeper and carbon. Be aware that you'll need to change your brake pads, and depending on the rim you choose your braking distances may be lengthened somewhat. I've got ~10 year old Bora wheels that are... lethargic when it comes to slowing down. They since profiled the brake track with little bumps and the new Bora wheels brake better than my alloy rims do

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Joe Totale | 3 years ago
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I'm with the others, Fulcrum Racing 4's are pretty decent alloy wheels and a different set of alloy wheels would make at most a very small improvement which will be barely noticeable. 

I would however say that a depeer set of carbon wheels which is also lighter would make a noticable difference, especially when riding at high speeds. I'd advise getting them from a good wheelbuilder such as Wheelsmith, Cycle Clinic or DCR Wheels whose base level carbon wheels are really not much more expensive then the alloy wheels you've listed. A wheelbuilder will also give you a much better warranty than off the shelf wheels which could save you money in the long term.

Light Bicycle from China are also another option and they have a very good reputation, I know of several people with Light Bicycle wheels who love them and the company are nothing like the dodgy eBay sellers we've all seen about. However, if there were any issues then you would have to send them back to China which is certainly offputting for me. 

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OnYerBike | 3 years ago
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As you say, Fulcrum Racing 4s are actually pretty good value wheels. Whilst not exactly high-end wheels, they are decent all-rounders and already significantly better than the unbranded stock wheels you get with many entry level road bikes. As such, I don't think upgrading them now makes a huge amount of sense - I don't think the improvement in performance will be noticeable enough to justify the cost.

Being rim brake, they will need replacing eventually anyway - you could always consider going up a level at that point.

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FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
1 like

You can get carbon wheels from UK builders for ~£600 without resorting to far east sellers (that can be somewhat pot luck).

I've personally used Mark Pollard (https://www.spokesmanwheels.co.uk/) for a couple of sets, one alloy, one carbon.  Good, solid, no nonsense wheels and substantially better than any value wheels (previously I had Kysrium Elites).  Obviously his website could use a little work(!), but he's solid and pretty quick.

38mm carbon, £585, 50mm carbon, £650.  I speced DT Swiss hubs on mine so they were a bit more expensive, but they're very true, have taken substantial abuse and there is a very noticeable performance advantage.

Obviously other builders exist, but the point remains that you can get very good carbon wheels substantially cheaper than the Hunts and Zipps of this world which are not far off your stated budget.

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alex.glenorchy replied to FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
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Thanks - intriguing! I'll take a look.

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Cargobike | 3 years ago
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By changing wheels, what gains are you hoping to make?

In my opinion I'd save your money and concentrate on increasing your fitness, while decreasing your weight, neither of which you have mentioned, but both far more relevant to going further, faster, than any spangly new wheels.

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alex.glenorchy replied to Cargobike | 3 years ago
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I'm 62kg at the moment. Still working on fitness. Been cycling regularily (I.e. with intent to improve) for about two months on the new bike. Currently I cycle about 110-120 miles a week. Ride high 30s to 40 miles normally, but started mixing in 60 mile rides recently. 
 

For an example I recently did a 37 mile ride, 2100ft elevation change, 18mph average. That's a good example of my current trips. Starva estimated 180w average power (but I don't have a power meter so I imagine this is not accurate). I'm still seeing steady improvements at the moment so I'll how things go.

 

You first point is more my question - I was told it's a nice bike (got a good deal on it) but that I'd want to upgrade the wheels. I know riders with similar frames to mine but with expensive wheels. What do I hope to gain? I'm not sure what I will gain without going deep aero (which I don't want to spend). So my question is whether it's worth upgrading the wheels to "quality" aluminium so to speak. And by extension what I'm really asking is am I going to gain anything? 
 

I gather by your response, not much!

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bobbinogs replied to alex.glenorchy | 3 years ago
1 like

One thing to be aware of is how the wind can affect a lighter rider with deep section wheels. The modern profiles are a big improvement on the old V profiles but they can still be an issue on a gusty day. I am 65kg and have found that 40mm (Fulcrum Quattro) is a good sweetspot but even they can suffer with a front wheel wobble when passing a hedge gap in a strong cross wind. Last time it happened I was going about 45mph downhill, caused a little heart flutter to be sure!
Another thing to consider about carbon is that it doesn't really make sense in midwinter, chewing up the rim with muck and crap with no discernible benefit. Swapping wheels is a good option then but don't be tempted to keep the same pads on as embedded alu rim flakes will shred the carbon rims next time round.

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Dnnnnnn replied to alex.glenorchy | 3 years ago
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alex.glenorchy wrote:

I recently did a 37 mile ride, 2100ft elevation change, 18mph average.

Switching to metric distances and speeds is one of the best free upgrades you can have as a cyclist.

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hawkinspeter replied to Dnnnnnn | 3 years ago
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Duncann wrote:

alex.glenorchy wrote:

I recently did a 37 mile ride, 2100ft elevation change, 18mph average.

Switching to metric distances and speeds is one of the best free upgrades you can have as a cyclist.

Though keep the climbing measurements in feet.

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LetsBePartOfThe... replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
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And your body weight in tons

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mdavidford replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
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hawkinspeter wrote:

Duncann wrote:

alex.glenorchy wrote:

I recently did a 37 mile ride, 2100ft elevation change, 18mph average.

Switching to metric distances and speeds is one of the best free upgrades you can have as a cyclist.

Though keep the climbing measurements in feet.

I thought climbing measurements were given in Everests these days?

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Orbeaman replied to mdavidford | 3 years ago
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What tyres are on the wheels? Do tell.  I would look at that first. 

Better wheels are nice, but you might be halfway there. I paid to upgrade mine with my Orbea, but that was a factory option and the difference in price. 

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