Upgrading wheels...

[sdnelson19]

i went from ksyrium elites to a hand built set from Greg at TWE. MASSIVE improvement. Had been looking at the RS80 myself, glad i sent Greg an email. Cannot recommend them enough.

[PawPaw]

i went from ksyrium elites to a hand built set from Greg at TWE. MASSIVE improvement. Had been looking at the RS80 myself, glad i sent Greg an email. Cannot recommend them enough.

what did you pay and how much do they weigh? standard or deep dish? TWE have no prices on their site.

[roreybellows]

i went from ksyrium elites to a hand built set from Greg at TWE. MASSIVE improvement. Had been looking at the RS80 myself, glad i sent Greg an email. Cannot recommend them enough.

what did you pay and how much do they weigh? standard or deep dish? TWE have no prices on their site.

+1 also very interested in what you bought from TWE

[biker jk]

Well among the wheels you listed it's quite a mixed bag of attributes. Bear in mind that the Zipp Firecrests are full carbon clinchers so the braking won't be great on long/steep decents and worse in the wet. So these would be better suited to racing if you regularly do long/steep descents on recreational rides. If you do a lot of climbing and descending then I would go for the RS80s (and even better the Dura Ace C24s which can be had for less than $800 a set). Another point is that the deep dish rims are a lot stiffer so you will feel the bumps and bad roads.

[sdnelson19]

i went from ksyrium elites to a hand built set from Greg at TWE. MASSIVE improvement. Had been looking at the RS80 myself, glad i sent Greg an email. Cannot recommend them enough.

what did you pay and how much do they weigh? standard or deep dish? TWE have no prices on their site.

+1 also very interested in what you bought from TWE

there are no prices on his site because he's too busy building wheels to update it- and there are too many diff combinations or rims/hubs/spokes... anyway, mine are 38mm alloy clinchers, about 1600g (i weigh 95kg so cant have anything too light) and were just over a grand (delivered). That was with his best hubs/spokes. Flick him an email ( [email protected] ) with a budget in mind and he'll be able to tell you what he can do. I told him initially i wanted to spend a grand, weigh 95kg and ride mostly flats.. this is the combination that we came up with....

from order to delivery was under 10days too (and i live in country SA)

[gassyndrome]

They look great. Well done!

[vander]

Also dealt with Greg and he is great.

[sdnelson19]

They look great. Well done!

they ride even better.... (and 2 weeks after i got mine a mate was so impressed he got some of the 30mm deep version)

[steveagle]

Im curious if the TWE custom wheels would be any better off than cheaper Dura ace C24s which are cheaper and lighter? I would expect the hubs and spokes of the C24s to be equally top notch...

[sdnelson19]

I guess it depends what you want out of a wheel.. Personally i like the fact that if i break something i only have to send it back to Greg for a (relatively) cheap fix, the wheels have been built for ME and not the general public.. After 1 ride on these i came to the realisation that i'd happily have paid more for them.

For my weight/power, anything lighter would've broken far too soon for my liking.

But for me, the biggest thing i can say about them is that i'd happily talk friends into buying from him- and would happily buy from him again myself.

(and they look freakin' awesome)

[Chuck]

Lots of great info in this thread, cheers guys

[Dr.Nate]

Got a great deal on Mavic Kysrium SL at the LBS and honestly I know they aren't the lightest fastest wheels out there, for the riding I do they are already overkill! Would have liked the Campag Shamals but was working out to too much extra $$$ to change cassette etc... Anyway thx for all the info guys.

[Ken Ho]

Nice outcome. You got the ones you wanted, which is always good.
My Shamals arrived on Friday, so I'm sharing the excitement of new wheels.

[cavebear2]

Greg's TWE wheels are fantastic. I've got a pair of XR380 clinchers - beautifully engineered rear hub with aero spokes, 1350gms per pair including skewers & rim tape. These wheels have done more than 26,000km with no problems. Rims still in good condition - I look after them and use Koolstop Salmon pads. Both wheels are still within 1mm of true - I've ridden long distances on some very rough roads in regional WA. Rear free hub purrs quietly and can not be heard after greasing.

I've just ordered another set - XR200's which come in at 1300gms and $900 including postage to Perth (I'm 68kgs)
Keep in mind that you may not get this price as it's a discounted 'returning customer' price.

[PawPaw]

Got a great deal on Mavic Kysrium SL at the LBS and honestly I know they aren't the lightest fastest wheels out there, for the riding I do they are already overkill! Would have liked the Campag Shamals but was working out to too much extra $$$ to change cassette etc... Anyway thx for all the info guys.

What did you pay for the SL's?

[toppity]

I'm about 100kg. I've had a set of RS80s that came on my CAAD9 for 18 months now. They have done a heap of km's and are still great. I've raced and trained on them with zero problems.

Forget talking in months. How many km's ya got on tha RS80s; and what kind of of terrain? how many pot holes have you jumped? how much gravel road? etc.

I've probably done 8,000-10,000km's on them. Terrain is a mixture of good to fair roads. I live in Country Victoria so we get all types of roads. I had the spokes retensioned about 1500km's ago. Not because thy were out of true, but because I was noticing some flex. The retension did the job. I have only ever trued them once apart from that when they got a little out of true. probably never done more than 100kms on gravel, but jumped, and hit a few pot holes.

[idler]

Where does TWE source their rims and hubs - what make are they?

[PawPaw]

Greg's TWE wheels are fantastic. I've got a pair of XR380 clinchers - beautifully engineered rear hub with aero spokes, 1350gms per pair including skewers & rim tape.

Wow, that weight is unbelievable. AFAIK, Greg's xr380 rims are alloy and weigh 550g each. = 1100g.
Are you sure your XR380s weigh 1350 grams? That's pretty much impossible with 550g rims.

[PawPaw]

Where does TWE source their rims and hubs - what make are they?

Another builder reckons the alloys come out of the same factory as KinLin's. They certainly look the same, with TWE stickers; and have similar model numbers.

[toolonglegs]

Makes sense... He is a wheel builder... Not a manufacturer after all. Has to source his parts from somewhere.

[Dr.Nate]

Got a great deal on Mavic Kysrium SL at the LBS and honestly I know they aren't the lightest fastest wheels out there, for the riding I do they are already overkill! Would have liked the Campag Shamals but was working out to too much extra $$$ to change cassette etc... Anyway thx for all the info guys.

What did you pay for the SL's?

I paid $600 for the pair... But had to give the LBS the RS 30's .. I did want the RS80's but they didn't have any in stock and its a little difficult for me to get to the LBS as i'm up in the blue mountains so I settled for the offer of $600 for the kysrium SL.