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Go-Fast Wheels: Upgrading a key part of your ride

Without question the smartest upgrade you can make to your road bike is a new set of wheels.

Without question, the smartest upgrade you can make to your road bike is a new set of wheels. Without going into a physics lesson, reducing rotational weight (wheels, tires, pedals, cranks) will give you the biggest bang for your upgrading buck. The problem is, with dozens and dozens of aftermarket wheelsets available, knowing where to begin is difficult. Many bikes today – even fairly high-end ones, are spec’d from the factory with overly beefy wheels. While they’ll make great training hoops, you’ll want to invest in something better if you plan to do any racing – or even if you’re just looking to shave some weight from your ride. Here are four great upgrade options for 2010.

::GEARBOX
303 Tubular – $2,650
Zipp
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There’s no question Zipp is one of the leaders when it comes to high-end road wheels. They’ve set the bar quite high for all other manufacturers to follow. And rather than rest on their laurels, they’re continually updating the line with new models and big changes to existing wheelsets.

In the case of the 303, Zipp took a hugely popular do-it-all top-end road wheel and made major changes for 2010. The Speedway, Indiana-based company makes all of its wheels in house and, now that it’s offering the 202 lightweight carbon climbing wheel, the 303 has become the perfect one-stop-shop carbon tubular. It may not be as deep as the 404, or as light as the 202, but it’s an ideal option for those only looking to carry one race-ready wheelset. At 1,171g, the new 303s are lighter than many other full-on climbing wheels and are only 100g heavier than the 202s. What that extra 100g gives you is Zipp’s traditional dimpled rim in a 45 mm depth – slightly deeper than the previous generation 303.

More noticeable is the rim width, which is increased by more than half a centimetre. There’s also a new angled braking surface which improves stopping performance.

The new wider design makes for more lateral stiffness and better impact resistance, while also allowing you to mount wider tires without losing much in terms of aerodynamics. Wider tires creates a more comfortable ride, even when being tested on rough roads and – as proven by the pros last year – the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix. For hubs, the new 303s use Zipp’s 88 in the front and 188 in the rear, which are smoother and lighter than some ceramic-bearing hubs. You can feel the smoothness in the steel bearings, making an upgrade to ceramic seem hardly worth it. At $ 2,650, the Zipp 303s are certainly not in everyone’s budget, but if you can swing it, there aren’t many better upgrades.

::GEARBOX
MV32TUL – $2,549
Reynolds
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There’s no hiding what the new Reynolds carbon tubular wheelset is all about. It’s right there in its name: 32 because it’s a 32mm rim depth – clearly meant for climbing efficiency over aerodynamics; T for tubular; and UL because this is a wonderfully ultralight wheelset.

The drool-inducing MV32T UL wheelset will cost you $ 2,549, or $ 2.45 per gram for those without a calculator handy. At just 1,040g per set, Reynolds claims this is the lightest wheelset on the market that can be serviced by even those of us without the benefit of an advanced engineering degree. Surprisingly, even at that weight, there’s “virtually no rider limit” as the company’s lawyers put it.

To hit that weight, Reynolds uses high modulus carbon in its rims, which they say also improves rim temperature under braking by 17 per cent. For anyone who has felt the sometimes sketchy braking performance in carbon rims, this is an important fact. The hubs used are DT Swiss 24OS matched to DT Aerolite and Competition spokes.

The MV32T ULs live up to their ultralight branding. Acceleration is noticeably improved over heavier wheelsets and the same can be said when you hit a climb. These wheels won’t make up for that second helping at the local Chinese buffet, but they’ll certainly help. Despite the weight, the Reynolds are still surprisingly stiff, which can sometimes be hard to say for featherweight wheels.

::GEARBOX
RRC Clincher 32 – $5,100
DT Swiss
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As beneficial as riding tubular wheels is, there are many who simply can’t bring themselves to spend hours fiddling with glue and risking a whole lot of frustration with an unfixable cut tire. Going the clincher route has often meant you’re stuck with heavier wheelsets, but today’s carbon technology is allowing for incredibly lightweight options even for clinchers.

While they don’t come cheap, the DT Swiss RRC Clincher 32s don’t carry much of a weight penalty over their tubular siblings. The company sells the RRC Clincher line as individual wheels so that you can mix and match rim depths based on your needs. In addition to the 32s, DT Swiss also sells the RRC line in 46 and 66 depth options.

The RRC 570R Clincher 32 front wheel weighs in at just 570g and the 680R Clincher 32 rear is 710g, making for a surprisingly light set for non-tubulars. The front wheel has 20 bladed spokes and the rear is 24 and both come with rim tape, brake pads and wheel bags. Both carry a 90 kg (200 lb) weight limit and can handle tires between 19 mm and 23 mm.

You do pay a premium for this type of technology, though. DT Swiss has never shied away from wallet-thinning prices and if you have to pay full retail for these, they’ll cost you more than $ 5,000.

::GEARBOX
WH-6700 Ultegra Road Tubeless – $810
Shimano
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If spending more on a set of wheels than your bike is worth doesn’t add up for you, there are other options. Together with Hutchison, Shimano introduced the Road Tubeless system in 2006 and the result was a wheel system that allowed lower air pressures without an increase in rolling resistance or a greater risk of pinch flats. Most riders have said flats out on the road are almost a thing of the past. But because the Road Tubeless wheels were at the Dura-Ace level, the price put them out of reach for some.

Now, Shimano has taken another step towards widening the reach of road tubeless wheels by introducing the WH-6700 Ultegra wheelset. Using the same rim as the Dura-Ace WH-7850-SL tubeless wheels, the new Ultegras can take a standard or tubeless tire and are significantly cheaper than their siblings. At 1,492g, they’re only about 120g heavier than Dura-Ace. They’re built on a butted Scandium alloy rim with a new titanium freehub body and wider flange hubs.

As is the case with most of the Ultegra line, the WH-6700 wheels are almost as good as Dura-Ace without the price tag. If the name and 120g aren’t that important to you, this is a great way to get into the Road Tubeless technology.