Monday, January 5, 2009

Updating the wheel quiver

As I do every winter, I'm contemplating my equipment selections for the coming season. I sold almost all my race bikes last year and replaced them with new ones, so those are staying put. It's wheels I'm thinking about this year.

Last year, I had two primary road wheelsets and one MTB wheelset. My road wheels were both equipped with PowerTap SL hubs. One set had Flashpoint FP60 rims - these were used exclusively on my TT bike. The other set had Sun Venus rims - these were my training and racing wheels. The TT wheels had Michelin Pro Lite tires, while the RR wheels had Continental Grand Prix 4000s. I switched to tubeless Hutchinson Fusion 2s at the end of the season, which proved comfortable and dependable.

My MTB wheels were a set of SUNringle' Black Flags - a nice, light XC wheelset. I rode them primarily with a Kenda Small Block 8 tire up front and a Maxxis Crossmark out back.

Here's my tentative plan for 2009:

Training/road races
PowerTap Pro+ rear hub, SUNringle' City Flea front hub
Sun Venus rims (28 hole)
Wheelsmith AE15 ovalized spokes
Hutchinson Fusion 2 tubeless tires

Criteriums
PowerTap Pro+ rear hub, SUNringle' City Flea front hub
Sun Vista Cruiser tubular rims (28 hole)
Wheelsmith AE15 ovalized spokes
Continental Competition tubular tires (700x22)

Time Trials (same as last season)
PowerTap SL rear hub (with ANT+ firmware upgrade), SUNringle' City Flea front hub
Flashpoint FP60 rims (24 hole)
Wheelsmith XL15 spokes
Michelin Pro Lite clincher tires (700x23)

MTB training
SUNringle' Disc O Flea
wheelset
Kenda Small Block 8 front tire, Maxxis Crossmark rear tire (both 26x2.1")

MTB racing
SUNringle' Black Flag wheelset
NoTubes "The Crow" tubeless tires

3 comments:

Snacks said...

But what are you going to do with all those race wheels?

Racerveza - Denny Yunk said...

You mean besides blog about them? I guess I'll have to do some bike races or something.

Russell said...

It's all in the wheels.