Building up a new high-end road bike on a titanium frame. My current primary road bike is a 15yr old Serotta, and so predates a lot of current tends & tech, and as such, I’d love to get people’s feedback on the wheels and drivetrain.
The current bike maxes out at 28mm tires on a set of rim brake HED Belgium plus rims. I actually love the wheels, and they’ve been bulletproof. I’m just starting to look at disk brake wheel options, and am more concerned about ride quality than saving every gram. I spend a lot of time climbing, and so also don’t care about the aerodynamics that much, and I’ll probably mount 32mm or maybe 35mm Conti (maybe tubeless) tires. What do people like in terms of getting a somewhat similar ride quality wheel as the HEDs, that would be great for climbing, isn’t crazy expensive, and is ideally low maintenance? (Note: I’ve never had carbon wheels, so I don’t know what I don’t know wrt maintenance.)
Enve 3.4? Or ?? Open to all suggestions and getting used wheels.
The drivetrain question is probably a little more straightforward. I’ve typically ridden dura ace or ultegra mechanical and have no complaints. Is electronic shifting worth the added expense?
Apologies in advance if some of this is already adequately covered in other topics - I did look around before posting, but it also a little hard to find things split between here and discord.
Are you opposed to Chinese direct-to-consumer wheels? The more popular brands like Farsports, Lightbicycle, BTLOS, and Winspace make good quality, great value products that easily rival more expensive name brands.
Electronic shifting is faster, more consistent, and easier to maintain. It’s also a good idea because mechanical drivetrains are becoming less and less common especially at the higher end if that’s what you’re after. Ultegra and DA have no mechanical options whatsoever anymore. All of SRAM’s offerings from low to top end are electronic.
Thanks @Drew - not opposed to Chinese brands at all, as long as the quality is good/ safe, so thanks for the tip! Any thoughts on how those compare to used Enve’s or Rovals, if I can find them?
And re the drivechain, I hadn’t realized they weren’t producing mechanical version anymore, so I guess that answers that question!
One thing to be aware of is any Enves you look at may be hookless, which is a bit of a polarizing topic in terms of safety and practicality. Read up on it a bit and decide for yourself. I have a set of Enve 4.5 hookless and am confident in them but not everyone feels that way.
Opinions will definitely be split on the best wheels, the Enves are always well reviewed, however they are hookless which may be less of an issue if you’re a lighter person and plan on only using wider tires at lower pressures.
As for matching the ride quality of the HEDs, I don’t have hard numbers to back this, but going from tubed (I assume ) 28c to tubeless 32c tires at the proper lower pressures will make for an exceptionally smooth ride if that’s what you’re after. I treated myself to a set of Reserve 52/63 wheels earlier this year and made the same jump from 28s at 85psi to 32c tubeless at around 64psi and I’m so mad I didn’t make the upgrade sooner. I’m a bigger 100kg guy on a Chinese Ti all road frame and the wider tires alone have made the biggest best improvement in ride quality from any other upgrade I’ve ever done in my life.
Reserve offers their mid depth 42/49 set which is hooked and has a wide 25mm internal rim diameter which would be a good match for 32-35 tires. With hub choices (dt 240/180) Can be built to similar overall set weight to the enves 1380ish?) although rims themselves are very slightly heavier. Reserves offer Lifetime warranty, easily maintained hubs. Definitely worth considering even though they may be deeper than you initially intended re “climbing wheels”, not sure if that’s a deal breaker.
Re electronic groups, might as well. I’m personally still on mechanical Ultegra and it always works pretty darn well but I’d be lying if I didn’t wish I had di2 , although certainly not needed
Hookless and road isn’t polarising; it’s established that it’s problematic. If a person fully understands the constraints around pressures, has a decent pump that is known to be accurate, and gets rims and tyres that are known to be ok in terms of adhering to standards, then it’s not a problem. The issue is the margin for error is small; smaller than the accuracy variance of most track pumps.
The recommendation from many respected people in the industry is that for road use, steer clear of hookless.
But sure, read up more and/or listen to Geek Warning episodes covering the subject to understand fully.
Steering clear of hookless while wanting to buy a known and respected brand is right now, almost impossible. And since the author is planning to ride quite wide tyres, it doesn’t matter too much anyway. So, buy what you like!
Enve’s would be my personal choice, I just like what they do and they have a great catalogue of wheels for every taste. Go with something shallow and it’ll look great on your bike and will outperform your HED’s by miles.
Electronic is a must on a road bike these days and you won’t regret it. It just works, it works fast and is reliable as hell. Go with what you like the looks off and what you like to spend the money for. We are in a blessed age where everything just works beautifully and none of the group sets on the market right now have any known issues.
In terms of the drivetrain, I wouldn’t dismiss mechanical at all. Shimano still has 105 mech, and Campy is heavily invested in mech groups. As for speed of shifts, I don’t know that electronic groups actually shift faster, and if they do it’s likely to not have any real benefit. As for precise shifting, well, the answer is prolly, “It depends.” With that said, it’s really a personal preference matter.
For wheels, you might want to check out Reserve Wheels. Their road and gravel wheels come with mini-hooks, and you can run clinchers on ‘em if you want. If you’re looking for lighter wheels and lower profiles for climbing, then their 34/37 TA or 42/49 TA wheel sets might be worth a look. You get your choice of DT Swiss hubs. I’ve got a set of 40/42s ( 2.5 years old) w/ DT 180 hubs, and they’ve been great. A big plus in my book is that they have subtle/minimal branding on the wheels.
I have Enve 3.4s and 4.5s both set up tubeless with Conti GP5000s and both are great. I like the 4.5s better because of aerodynamics and stiffness. No issues with either but if you go tubeless get a compressor for setup and a digital tire gauge. You also want to choose your tire/tire size and rim combo intentionally.
I also have Roval Aplinists and have run them tubes/tubeless and they are the most compliant and comfortable of all.
if you travel a lot latex or TPU tubes are easier to deal with than sealant/tubeless in some respects
On drivetrain. I really like the Campagnolo Record 12 I have.
If I was going disc brakes, I might just go for electronic shifting as well, just to complete my conversion to modernity. My wife recently took delivery of a bike with Ultregra Di2 8170. The shifters sit beautifully in the hands, the shifts are fast, and I think the RD is one of the best looking on the market. I personally would be tempted with the new Campy SR13 as well.
My experience was that moving from mechanical to electronic shifting meant I shifted much more frequently than previously. Does that make a difference? Really not sure. I don’t like having to recharge my bike but it’s not so often that it is a problem
Wider rims and tyres do make a huge difference in terms of confidence due to increased road contact and comfort to some extent. I’ve currently 30 and 32c tyres on rotation cant say I notice a difference between the two but as you go bigger, tyre pressure becomes more critical. The SRAM calculator really helps in terms of setting a baseline that you can learn from and adapt to your own preferences. I’m perfectly comfortable with road hookless btw but be sure to educate yourself on the matter.
One idea that intrigues me is the idea of combining Campy Ekar with the classified hub system. There is a supplier (can’t remember who) who supply a 13 sp cassette for Classified that effectively allows a 2x13 on a single front chainring. That would allow wider tyres given the lack of a FD to interfere in clearance.
I have Chorus 12 with disc brakes. It replaced Record 10 speed that I’d used for a long time. I love it. I don’t have any issues with shifting precision or the alignment of the RD going out of whack, but I also have direct mount RD hanger that’s pretty beefy.
I considered going with an electronic group, but I just couldn’t come with any reason for how an electronic group would improve my ride or my life.
I just went through this. Ended up getting a set of Superteam all carbon wheels. 21mm inner width and running 32mm tires on them. Have been fine, even on roads that have a lot of ridges/bumps. First ride was up about 9km on Mt. Lemmon then the descent. Never even thought about them on the descent. Delivery took a bit, about 20d, but all in all I’m really happy with the wheels and how they ride.
I’ve just been through this as well. I was surprised to find a host of options from well established Chinese brands offering 50 mm deep carbon rims on ratchet style hubs at about 1300-1350 g, which is 300g or 3/4 lb less than my very nice Chris King / HED Belgium + wheels, and all in the low 1,000 USD range. Technical specs seen good, reviews (not sure what they’re worth) are good. The Wheel Atlas, https://Thewheelatlas.com , does indeed seem like a great resource.
Best of luck with the build, it is exciting stuff!