Weight Weenies

Building a Liv Avail Advanced SL (Giant Defy by any other name) for my other half.

She wants 28mm tubless rubber for more comfort on bad roads and 1:1 gearing for climbing. Weight is a consideration too, so would like to keep it below 7.5kg. A Hylix seatpost has arrived and it's only 86.2g.

Not sure if it's gonna have SRAM Force, or Ultegra r8170 yet.

So we start thinking about wheels. They have to be tubless ready, fairly aero and fairly light. Got to be quite good in crosswinds too. Staying away from hookless, so Zipp 303s are out. DT Swiss ERC 1400 SPLINE 45mm wheels are pricey for what they offer.

Vel RSL 50mm Toray 24/30T carbon rims from Sigma Sports seem to tick many boxes at a good piece: Under 1,500g, 20.3mm internal width and 27.5mm external width, DT Swiss 240 EXP 36t Hubs.

Not perfect for 28mm GP5000TR's, could be a bit wider, but pretty good overall.

Is there anything else I should be looking at?

Hey! May I humbly suggest taking a look at our Polaris 42?
It's designed for 28mm tires, with a 23mm hooked internal width, 32.5mm external width, and weighs just 1300g with DT240 EXP and Sapim CX Ray spokes.
It's reasonably aero, and we designed it for crosswind stability.
With a GP5k, a 25mm inflates to about 28mm, and a 28mm inflates to about 30mm.You could probably get away with using the GP5K 25mm.
The rim is tubeless ready - we provide tubeless tape and valve. You should be able to inflate the GP5K with just a floor pump, no booster or compressor needed.

Not the same bike, but here's a Liv Langma fitted with those wheels - lady is 50kg and about 160cm tall.
Apologies for the picture quality - this was taken just to let her see the wheels after they were fitted to the bike.


Price is 1999 Singapore Dollars, or about 1229 GBP, shipping included.
Comes with a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects, and a parts crash replacement policy for the original owner.
If she crashes and the wheels are rendered unusable, we will provide the replacement parts - you only have to pay for labor (maybe a local shop to re-lace the wheels) and shipping.

If you would like to find out more, do take a look here: https://www.ascent-bikes.com/polaris

Regards
QX
Founder
Ascent Bikes

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Thanks for your post. Your wheels do look very nice.

I'm not sure she'd be thrilled with 42mm height though, I think she wants 50mm for the look.

But the real dealbreaker is the price of your Polaris wheels is more than double of the Vel RSL2 and of course with Sigma Sports I have convenient support here in the UK. Low £ doesn't help at all with imports right now.

Price seems important.
Light bicycle have quite a few options.

Hey, no problem! Thanks for considering the Polaris. The Vels should do fine at that performance level, but hopefully the crosswind handling is good.

All the best, and enjoy the ride!
QX

Yeah tough times here, a new road bike feels like a luxury anyway, so looking for good value, good quality components, rather than flashy, big name brands.

What makes these Vel wheels seem good are the DT Swiss hubs with Sapim CX-Ray spokes and weight under 1,500 grams. I also like the fact they are hooked rims, not sold on hookless yet. Yes, the could be wider, I'm sure 22mm internal and 30mm external would work better with 28mm tyres.

Looked at the Light Bicycle and love their wheel builder website, but the wheels I built came to over $1,000, so not really competitive.

I also looked at some big brands, like DT Swiss, Campy and Zipp. Nothing really compelling for her use case. Zipp is hookless and Campy too narrow. I do like Scribe wheels, but not sure about the hubs.

No worries.
Far sports may be worth a look. On another forum I am on, a few have them and seem happy.
I have some rim brake 50mm prime wheels from Wiggle that were cheap as chips and are bullet proof. 25k km on them. I like them better than my 404 firecrest I also have.
Probably heavier than what you are after though.

Yeah the Prime Primavera wheels were a prime consideration , but the DT Swiss hubs draw me to the Vel wheels. From what you say the Prime hubs are good though.

I'm looking for an excuse to get more expensive and posher wheels, but can't find one. This is not how capitalism is meant to work!

The Vel wheels look great value at £699, especially as Sigma are a good bet for customer service in case something goes awry.

Over the weekend Sigma did a 15% off everything offer so I picked up these very wheels for £600. Already got them but haven't ridden them yet.

Wowzers the ones with dt swiss hubs?

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Thats my buddies ride with those vels with dt swiss hubs

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MrCurrieinahurry wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 02, 2022 8:44 am

Wowzers the ones with dt swiss hubs?

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Yep, seemed too good a bargain to pass up. Cheaper than the Chinese brands, next day delivery and you get the support from a great retailer.

I ordered the Vel RSL2 50's this week as well, will update with my thoughts once I've taken them out for a spin.

However much I felt like I should order the flagship Hunts/Scribe or Zipp firecrests, I couldn't help but think the hub reliability and cheaper price far outweighs the extra mm width or the slight rim shape variations.

So far I'm impressed with the Vel RSL2 50's. Will need to get a few long rides in to bed them in, but good first impressions.

Weight wise they are lighter, I picked up a deal on lighter disc rotors and cassette and in total it shaved 400g off my last wheelset (dt swiss ER1600) - first time my bikes gone sub 8kg.

The Vel wheels look stealthy, no visible logo really, and the red dt swiss 240 hubs look and sound great.

If anyone has any questions just let me know.

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