220 wheels review..
jac
Posts: 452
in General Chat
I'm thinking of putting a new set of wheels on my bike, so I was delighted when I read 220 were reviewing the latest offerings this month...
UNTIL I read it!
"If your finances are limited then go for FSA's", it says.
These are the cheapest on review - at a whopping £899.95! More expensive than my bike.
Have I missed a review of cheaper wheels or is 220 just aimed at those willing to take out a second mortgage to pursue triathlon?
UNTIL I read it!
"If your finances are limited then go for FSA's", it says.
These are the cheapest on review - at a whopping £899.95! More expensive than my bike.
Have I missed a review of cheaper wheels or is 220 just aimed at those willing to take out a second mortgage to pursue triathlon?
0
Comments
I plan on getting new wheels in the medium term, but not for nine hundred pounds. What would be useful for me (and presumably many others?) would be a review of wheelsets costing say £200 to £400.
Reviews in 220 seem to be all high end stuff (see recent review of aerobars) or they have a range of items over too wide a price range ie with a token budget item. They then conclude (surprise) that the expensive stuff is better than the cheap stuff.
triathlon Plus seems to be a better reveiewer already - with meaningful reports and kit that is within more people's price range - based won just two issues though to be faitr.
didds
The same applies for the wheels. I would love a set of zipp wheels and I would expect them to outperform my cheap shimano tiagra wheels.
At the end of the day, its expensive for a reason and cheap where are cheap for a reason.
I agree that not everyone is able to afford them but it does give an insight to what we could have.
i've had a read of triathlon plus (it was the free first edition that came with cycling plus) and they review more moderatley priced stuff that i can actually afford. afraid i might be switching over to them until 220 catch on that not everyone can afford the stuff they review!
Doesn't the law of diminishing returns apply though?
I don't think a 2k bike is necessarily twice as good as one that costs a grand, and the same would apply to wheels. I suppose that if you're right up there and competitive with the race leaders, then it would make sense to have comparable gear to them, but I think for a lot of people, the gains to be had are probably not worth the money (IMHO).
Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems like a lot of people put their faith into better and better gear (am I blaspheming here or what?) 220 does a good job of spreading this idea - you read it and think 'there must be lots of people out there buying this stuff, I've gotta have it too, to stay in the game'
There were a lot of ads in the mags for the old FSA carbon wheels over the last 2 years, in or around 500. Not sure if they're around still now there's a new model out.
My PX 50s look great. I really haven't a rashers whether they're faster though. They seem to be well regarded by more knowledgable cyclists than me.
I did Windsor in 2007 with the regular Shimano wheels the bike came with and in 2008 with my PX 50s. My two times were within 10 seconds of each other! That said, conditions were cooler in 2008 and I had just done a full OD race the previous weekend so was hardly fresh.
I have to say though that the absence of a review for such a popular wheelset as the PXs (or the Dalkkiia ones that are also at the low cost end -in carbon terms) strikes me as a bit cynical.
Just to further reveal how odd this month's 220 Wheel Review seems to me, HED has updated its range this year and has put in lots of double-page ads showing off its new wheels, including this month's 220. They've clearly spent time expanding the range - and are the wheels used by Chrissie W, the best triathlete in the world probably. Has 220 ever reviewed these new models? Not that I can recall.
A proper "group test" should include all available opitions. I appreciate that for bikes this is too hard as there are so many. But for carbon wheels there are probably only about a dozen options and ALL should be reviewed with awards across categories - money no object, budget / value for money, versatility & so on.
I accept that in the past I've been sceptical as to why Focus bikes (sold exclusively through Wiggle, one of bike & tri mags' biggest advertisers) always seem to score so highly in reviews. On this basis maybe it's good that HED doesn't score really well - at least you can maybe trust the reviews' objectivity - but surely a good pre-season wheel review should cover PX, Dalkiia, Hed, Corima and any others I've left out. It just makes it feel incomplete to me.
EDIT: just noticed that HED Stingers ARE reviewed. Ooops!
Note to self: do not post on internet forums when I have just polished off a bottle of wine by myself.
I was suprised that in last months mag they missed QR out of the wetsuit test (maybe one of Triathlons most innovated companies wouldn't supply the Ed with any freebies,but I may have to eat my words due to the QR Cd0.1 feature).