Weight Weenies

In the process of ordering an Argonaut RM3 and one of the decisions I'm struggling with is the wheelset.

I live in a pretty hilly area and quite close to the mountains. Most of my rides are rolling at a minimum with an average longer weekend ride having between 1000 and 2000m of elevation gain.

I have been considering going either with a pure climbing wheel like the newer ENVE 2.3 or Roval Alpinist CLX II, but wonder if a wheel with a deeper profile wouldn't be the better choice overall (ENVE 3.4 for example), or even grabbing a pure climbing wheel and then something more all-around as a second wheelset.

I've seen that Argonaut is now producing their own wheels, which look interesting on paper (43mm deep, hookless, 23mm int, 30mm ext, DT Swiss 180 hubs, 1260g and apparently super stiff). Spokes are internal apparently, which makes me wonder about ease of maintenence, but I guess I'd have that same issue with ENVEs if I went that route. I'd be grateful for any feedback from people who own these or have ridden them already.

I'm coming from a pure clincher background and like the low maintenence involved with inner tubes (I can count the number of flats I've had in the past several years on one hand). I like the Roval wheels for their ability to run tubeless or inner tubes, but I understand that many rims nowadays are tubeless only. Is there anything to be aware of when looking at a purely tubeless wheel?

Appreciate any and all feedback and advice!

Of course, I'm not really Argonaut target market, however, I fail to see any special benefits for their wheels unless you really want to have all aligned for your build, in which case their performance is actually irrelevant

Similar profile rims are offered by many reputable Chinese builders, and in most cases can be configured with hubs / spokes and all other aspects of your choice.

Other than that, 30mm wide (at "brake track"?) and 40+ mm deep wheels are just about the best choice for mixed-more-mountains focused riding, and should fit 28mm tyres nicely (with +/-30mm WAM), which I personally would take too.

What I don't like in this case is hookless and, to a lesser degree, internal nipples, which just make potential wheel maintenance a little bit more complex without much added benefit, if any, which are the 2 factors why I would look for potential alternatives.

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I would go for a wider rim, even if it's a bit deeper/heavier. If you're mere mortal, you'd be happer with some extra comfort.
On the other hand, you can always get spare set of wheels: one for pure climbing: light and shallow and another one for comfortable riding.

I think those Argonaut wheels: 43mm deep, 23mm internal @ 1260gm is a great choice. You'd have to compromise few things if you want a lighter wheelset. BTW, I don't see that wheelset on a website for some reason

Bora WTO 45's are a great general purpose wheels and excel at climbing.

They have a *gasp* 19mm internal width and can be run equally well with inner tubes and without.

Not sure what the advantage of 30mm+ wide rims are for a road bike, if you then need to buy a second pair of 'climbing' wheels because your 'normal' wheels are too heavy.

Nickldn wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:55 pm

Bora WTO 45's are a great general purpose wheels and excel at climbing.

They have a *gasp* 19mm internal width and can be run equally well with inner tubes and without.

Not sure what the advantage of 30mm+ wide rims are for a road bike, if you then need to buy a second pair of 'climbing' wheels because your 'normal' wheels are too heavy.

I purchased a set of previous gen. Campagnolo Bora WTO 33 rim brake wheels for my other bike last year. The narrower profile fit my older frameset. I was initially very happy with them until I noticed a small crack just below the brake track on the rear wheel about 2 months after purchase.

My LBS contacted Campy and after much back and forth, Campy refused any kind of warranty coverage or replacement deal. Resulted in me paying full price to replace the wheel and left a fairly sour taste in my mouth. Campy won't get any of my bike money ever again, esp. given the number of wheel manufacturers who actually offer a half-decent warranty/replacement program.

cpac54 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:12 pm

Nickldn wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:55 pm

Bora WTO 45's are a great general purpose wheels and excel at climbing.

They have a *gasp* 19mm internal width and can be run equally well with inner tubes and without.

Not sure what the advantage of 30mm+ wide rims are for a road bike, if you then need to buy a second pair of 'climbing' wheels because your 'normal' wheels are too heavy.

I purchased a set of previous gen. Campagnolo Bora WTO 33 rim brake wheels for my other bike last year. The narrower profile fit my older frameset. I was initially very happy with them until I noticed a small crack just below the brake track on the rear wheel about 2 months after purchase.

My LBS contacted Campy and after much back and forth, Campy refused any kind of warranty coverage or replacement deal. Resulted in me paying full price to replace the wheel and left a fairly sour taste in my mouth. Campy won't get any of my bike money ever again, esp. given the number of wheel manufacturers who actually offer a half-decent warranty/replacement program.

That is not a nice turn of events, do you know what caused the crack? I am not surprised you are staying away from Campy. I had a bad experience with them not wanting to warranty a leaky brake caliper and making all sorts of excuses. I had to buy a new one, but that is nothing compared to the price of a wheel.

I thought I would pipe up on this thread. I received my RM3 last May with the 43mm Argonaut Wheels. I'm not sure why they don't market them more, but built up with DT180s they weigh in at 1261g. I've been running 28mm Conti 5K TLs on them. I regularly swap them with some Enve 5.6s with CK R45 hubs (11/30 cassette on the Enve's - 11/34 on the Argonauts), so I'll use that for comparison.

After 6K miles on the bike, about 4K on the Argonaut wheels I can say that while they are very slightly slower on flat/rolling roads then the Enve's, they feel stiffer and more responsive when I'm sprinting out of the saddle. Also, the difference in aero is so negligible that I find that I have been just leaving the Argonauts on the bike.

Saying this, if I could get ahold of the 60mm Synchros Capital SL wheels, I'd probably sell the Argonauts and the Enve's

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I thought I saw that the Argonaut rims are Light-Bicycles (with Argonaut logos)?