That expectation has been met and exceeded. I have also reduced rolling resistance to about 60% of what it was ( ~18 vs 30 watts) while vastly reducing hand-numbing and saddle soreness, dramatically increasing road contact surface and therefore grip, as well as saving some $$$ in not having to buy 12-15 $8 tubes per year. More on the tire journey in another post.
I ended up choosing Easton R90SL rims, DT Swiss silver Aerolite spokes, silver nipples and Matte Mango Chris King hubs. Here's a bit on my decision process...
- I wanted faster, lighter wheels
- I wanted bomb-proof hubs and wheels that were so distinct they would discourage theft. Orange hubs are pretty unique. Where you gonna pawn them Wanna-B thief?
- I wanted wheels that made me more visible to enhance my safety. The hubs show up MUCH better than I expected, in part because I used "naked" stainless spokes, which amplifies the hub's effect rather than mutes it.
- I wanted nipples that wouldn't fade in the sunlight, so "naked" alloy.
- I wanted a little wider rim for strength and stability.
It may seem that I saved a little weight (300 vs 245+100 for 25mm tires), as I don't have to waste 100gm on a tube, but by the time I put 60ml of Stan's sealant in the tires it works out to be the same weight. BUT, the GP5000TL has proven to be more flat resistant, AND, I no longer carry a tube, patch kit, tire irons, etc, so my saddle bag is half the size and weight it used to be, so in that sense I am saving quite a lot of weight and drag. Basically, everything you need is on the bike, but it's rolling around inside the tire, not in your saddle bag, and no rides ruined due to flats, nor phone calls home for a rescue.
I have to admit, I got lucky in regard to the raw stainless steel spoke color choice, because when you get a puncture with a tubeless tire, sealant often leaks onto the spokes, and it's VERY hard to get off. With uncolored spokes though, you can use a ScotchBrite pad to scrub those spokes clean, and because stainless is so hard (~ 300k PSI), unless you're obsessive about it, you don't have to worry about damaging the spokes.
Happily, bladed spokes make good reflectors. I just shone a small desk lamp onto my front wheel here. By way of comparison, the saddlebag has a reflective coating. A small thing that might save your life on an evening ride when you get delayed due to a mechanical or a flat.
Just a caveat about bladed spokes, you need a good spoke holder to hold the spoke so it doesn't twist when you turn the nipple to true the wheel. It's important, because once the spoke is twisted it will never twist back into the correct flat shape, and that can cause weird turbulence on fast downhill runs.
I also got lucky in my rim choice, because not only do I get a very strong, stable wheel which increases the tire's road patch, it makes the tires easier to put on because the beads, at least with the R90SL Easton, have plenty of room to seat in the bottom of the channel in the center of the rim. Once I got the hang of it I no longer need any tools to put on any tires I've tried. NICE!
The wheels came in the mail with Stan's rim tape on them, and I've stuck with that because I like Stan's tape. It's very strong, tough and lightweight. From the factory they had 4 layers of tape, which is excessive. I now use a single layer, except that I start 4 1/2 spoke holes to one side of the valve hole and overlap the same on the other side. This because I've found, in contrast to tubed tires, tubeless tires go on better when you push the last of the bead over using the valve as a stop to keep the bead from crawling past the valve.
Let me explain. I've noticed that with tubeless tires, in contrast to tubed tires, it's best to end up pushing the bead of the tire over the edge of the rim up against the valve. With a tube you want to keep the bead down against the rim at the valve, and the valve pushed up into the tire, so working the bead over at the OPPOSITE side of the rim is best.
By contrast, with tubeless you want the two beads to slide down into the deep cavity in the center of the rim (that's what makes a rim "tubless ready") to allow the bead to move as far to the opposite side as possible when going over the rim. The rub is the beads can't GET into that cavity at the valve because that space is occupied by the valve, so use the valve to stop the bead from crawling away, and let the 2 beads seat as deeply as possible on the opposite side of the rim. The priority should always be getting the 2 beads as far into the center channel as possible. Arresting bead crawl is just a nice side-effect of that.
If you need a 2nd set of hands to hold the bead (assuming you have some weird kind of rim that is very hard to get tires on, or whatever) you can use a set of Zip-Ties instead to cinch the bead down tight against the rim. Then work against that "hard point" to get the bead over the rim.
I really like the color and quality of the CK hubs. They RX you tighten up the bearing pre-load after 10 miles or so, and that is definitely needed. It's so easy though, as you don't need to remove the wheel, or even release tension on the quick-release lever. All you need is a short hex wrench to loosen the threaded bearing pre-load collar, then using that wrench as a lever, turn the collar clockwise until the bearing is snug again. Mine was VERY loose after 15 miles, the 1st chance I had to stop and futz with it. Silly simple. I love KISS engineering! As always, with bearings, loose is fast and long-lasting and tight is slow and ruinous. There are places where tighter is better, but this is NOT one of them.
The "angry bees" sound of the Chris King (same ratchet mechanism that DT Swiss uses) took a bit of getting used to, as I sometimes thought I had a vehicle behind me instead of a CK hub! My Ultegra hubs were nearly silent by contrast.
My only complaint about the CK hub is it's alloy freehub body had some tear-out from the cassette after only a few rides. I wish they offered a titanium freehub body like Shimano uses on their Dura Ace (hubs we can no longer buy for some odd reason, anyone know why?) which do NOT tear out.
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| Giant black plastic spacer between rim and valve |
I had a hell of a time trying to find handlebar tape I liked whose color went well with Matte Mango. Fizik sells some in orange that matches the color pretty well after a bit of road grim accumulates, but it's crappy tape if you care about killing road buzz. My favorite tape, Cinelli gel cork had several colors I tried. Blue (too dark), Blue Prince (not a good color match), orange (not even close), and white (gets stained by my gloves too fast).
I finally settled on Serfas light blue. It kills road buzz nicely, has just a little teal in it, and is a perfect contrast IMHO that is highly visible to mortorists. It turns out it's the same tape I put on my old CroMo steel Nishiki Competition single-speed conversion to match the lettering. I'd forgotten I bought it. Nice surprise! A little spray of Formula 409 cleaner with a hand towel keeps it nice and clean.
I have to say, these wheels have changed my life. I now feel confident riding where I want to ride, instead of where I have to guess I'll be least likely to flat. When riding next to the many, many 18-wheelers going to & from all the warehouses around here I feel pretty confident I'm not going to have a catastrophic blow-out and end up pancake-flat road-kill.
As you can see from the number on the front of the top pic, I rode the 70mi Victor Valley Bike Tour, with ~ 2,800ft of climbing. Seventy @ 63 (I'll be 64 in a few months) was only possible because the last 3 months I traded in most of my 25-35mi rides for 50-65mi rides to train for the event. I guess the word I'm looking for is LIBERATION.
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