I build road wheels for my own use and these are bombproof - DT Swiss RR415 (465) rims + DT Swiss Competion spokes + Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 hubs. This is a great pleasure for me to have a wheelset built by myself. Try to do it yourself!
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Martin318is said:I rode and raced on Open Pro 28s with DA hubs for about 10 years before they started going soft on me. Bombproof.
That said, I have also ridden more than 20,000km on a pair of 2006 Mavic Aksium race wheels and even though I was weighing about 110kg and treating them very badly, I have not once had a problem with them.
I would add a vote to both piles - either get a set of handbuilt Open Pros with Ultegra hubs, or a set of Aksiums (seems clear to me that your original ones were faulty).
RDV4ROUBAIX said:You're one of the lucky ones!
As per the OP, he said his "main concern was reliability." Always a gamble with machine built and/or large factory produced wheel sets. There are 3 glaring issues working against them. One, machine built wheels cannot "feel" the build, often times shipped from the factory visually true but sometimes up to 40% difference in tension values just on one side of the wheel. Wheel machines still cannot resolve spoke torsion with round guage spokes as well as a human can, which is super critical for a wheel that stays in true. These machines are kind of a rip off for $250k unless it's really low end stuff, high volume. A machine built wheel is only as good as the mechanic who unboxed and fixed it, a common saying amongst shop wrenches. Two, larger companies that hand build from start to finish more often than not the people building your wheels are paid very poorly, usually held to hourly quotas, aren't cyclists themselves, don't ride the product they're building and couldn't care less how your wheels preform on your local club race calender. Building this way creates warranties up the yin/yang due to half-assed hurried builds. Three, Using non standard parts for training wheels, the biggest one being the straight pull and/or bladed spoke. If one happens to break your chances of finding a quick replacement is really poor, unless your LBS is stocking many lengths of SP's. I know a few that do, but most on this planet absolutely don't.
RDV4ROUBAIX said:You're one of the lucky ones!
As per the OP, he said his "main concern was reliability." Always a gamble with machine built and/or large factory produced wheel sets. There are 3 glaring issues working against them. One, machine built wheels cannot "feel" the build, often times shipped from the factory visually true but sometimes up to 40% difference in tension values just on one side of the wheel. Wheel machines still cannot resolve spoke torsion with round guage spokes as well as a human can, which is super critical for a wheel that stays in true. These machines are kind of a rip off for $250k unless it's really low end stuff, high volume. A machine built wheel is only as good as the mechanic who unboxed and fixed it, a common saying amongst shop wrenches. Two, larger companies that hand build from start to finish more often than not the people building your wheels are paid very poorly, usually held to hourly quotas, aren't cyclists themselves, don't ride the product they're building and couldn't care less how your wheels preform on your local club race calender. Building this way creates warranties up the yin/yang due to half-assed hurried builds. Three, Using non standard parts for training wheels, the biggest one being the straight pull and/or bladed spoke. If one happens to break your chances of finding a quick replacement is really poor, unless your LBS is stocking many lengths of SP's. I know a few that do, but most on this planet absolutely don't.
RDV4ROUBAIX said:44, I would say the exact opposite about hand built wheels, training wheels especially. We can look at it from your perspective, which isn't really cost effective. You can gamble on big factory machine built wheels built with proprietary parts that are cheap like you said, maybe get a couple good seasons out of them until they start falling apart, which happens all too often with Mavic wheels, ask any bike shop mechanic. It costs Mavic much less to build mediocre machine built stuff and deal with warranties rather than have a master builder crafting wheels from the ground up that will last more than 3 years. Spend a couple hundred more on some custom hand built wheels from a reputable builder that are built to fit the riders weight and riding style you'll often get more than double the lifespan as compared to an off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all machine built. Choice is pretty easy, but most don't get it due to misinformation.
I will say that machine built wheels are great for entry-mid level bikes, beach cruisers and kiddie bikes, but for people who take cycling seriously as a way of life they know custom hand built by a human is the way to roll.
The Gnome said:Can i just say this? you are really full of it...I have ridden machine built open pros for about 20 thousand miles...and I am not a lightweight guy... why do you have to do this sorta crap when someone asks you for a cheaper alternative? yes, you build wheels...that is fantastic...and I am sure you get plenty of rich customers...but you are seriously full of it... get off your high horse would you...yeah man, handbuilt things probably do last abit longer when folks like you know what they are doing ... but not THAT much to justify price and EGO... to crap on stuff and compare it to buying kidding wheels is ridiculous...
RDV4ROUBAIX said:Good for you man, machine built wheels are only as good as the person who touched them up after they came out of the robot. Rich customers? Are you out of your &%$@ing mind!?!?! Can't believe I'm actually responding to this *** post anyway, just killing time before I start in on another $$$million$$$ dollar custom wheelset. Jesus H. F-ing Christ! Pffft, what a joke.
RDV4ROUBAIX said:...don't know why you're so hung up on that like an uptight Catholic school girl...
The Gnome said:Can i just say this? you are really full of it...I have ridden machine built open pros for about 20 thousand miles...and I am not a lightweight guy... why do you have to do this sorta crap when someone asks you for a cheaper alternative? yes, you build wheels...that is fantastic...and I am sure you get plenty of rich customers...but you are seriously full of it... get off your high horse would you...yeah man, handbuilt things probably do last abit longer when folks like you know what they are doing ... but not THAT much to justify price and EGO... to crap on stuff and compare it to buying kidding wheels is ridiculous...