Road Disc brake wheel upgrade

A little update I have completed the front wheel assy. With disc, tyres and skewer

New Hunt front wheel 1295g

The original wheel mavic tn 319 rim 25mm Durano clincher with disc

Weight 1585g

So a nearly 300g saving on one wheel so expect similar weight loss when I fit up the rear.

The new wheel dropped straight in with no adjustment needed to the caliper, wheel spun free. Good news for when pro cyclists go disc

Cheers. I reckon I could just be a bit more patient and wait for mine to turn up, but I've not heard a beep from Hunt yet, and I'm in the June 'catchment' as well.

25mm tyres (reported weights 700g pair) were fitted on order. I was going to fit myself but couldn't find a supplier with stock at the time.

That makes them correct with bare wheels weight.

Once my rotors turn up I can compare weights with my original wheels. I doubt there will be a huge difference in weights, but I will have a spare set of hand built

I hadn't decided on which discs, no immediate rush

My Hunt disc wheels turned up early today fitted with Schwalbe ones- tubeless
They look very nice, subtle black with discrete Hunt logos, I will fit them next week once I have new disc rotors.

For those interested, I weighed the wheels with only the tyres fitted, no cassette or rotors (weights for those parts easily researched)

Front wheel 1104 grams

Rear wheel 1214 grams

i 'upgraded' the Maddux 3.0 on my Cannondale Synapse to the Kinesis Crosslight V3 wheels, managed to get them for £240, BUT i had to have them re-laced as my TRP Spyres kept catching the on spokes.
I weighed them at the shop before they were re-laced and they weighed 1700g for the pair with skewers.
For the money i paid, i thought they were pretty decent value, but the re-lacing added extra cost. Apart from that, i haven't had any other problems with them.
Next time i decide to upgrade wheels, i'll be getting some hand-builts though.

I got a set of Stans Grail rims built up with Hope hubs at Moonglu. I'm running them tubeless with Hutchinson Sector 28's and they are great. Not the lightest but seem to be pretty bomb proof.

Moonglu

American Classic Hurricanes have a disc version. I have them on my cross bike, so far they've survived the mud and grime without any major hassles... Not sure how much they go for these days, maybe slightly over £500

I am putting my Hunt 4 seasons on my new Defy at the weekend so will report back. In the meantime pop over to Merlin for reduced Kinesis cx wheels.

What about the Hunt Wheels Four Season DIsc? They seem great for £350 light and looks like ace.

The kinesis (V3) rim is 515g built with triple butted spokes and alloy nipples on an ultralight hub, yet to claim the weight loss is where it counts, is a bit deceptive. Better choices in my opinion, than either the kinesis or Novatec offerings, would be the Newer Pro Lite Revo's 28/32h centre lock 1470g. (srp £350) or an Alex CX28, 1670g £158.

Yep, I reviewed those Kinesis wheels and in fact they're still on my "cross bike that's only raced cyclocross once", a year and a half later. and I still think they are ace.

Since the review, they've done one cyclocross race, 1500 touring miles fully loaded, the cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix challenge, and thousands of commuter miles (tow-path and road). plus some accidental mountain biking in spain.

the damage? one broken spoke. that was the only time I have *ever* trued them.

i'll be taking the cassette off soon as I've got some Reynolds Assault Disc wheels to test, so it'll be interesting to see whether there are the "extremely deep gouges" in the freehub reported in the comments below my review.

as I'm putting together a cx disk braked bike I've been looking at wheels a lot recently so excuse me if I bore a bit on this... Anyway, the choice of off-the-shelf stuff is pretty limited and personally I reckon that option only offers value for money at the low end of the price range, once you're spending upwards of £250 then a handbuilt wheel is going to be the best option.

In terms of parts then for rims you should look at Stan's Alpha, Velocity A23, HPlus Son Archetype and actually pretty much any road rim like an Open pro, or something from DTswiss but those first 3 have anodised brake tracks so they look more 'discy'.

There are lots of nominally 29er rims that look like they might also serve as road rims but their compatibility with narrower tyres and higher pressures is not always clear so it's a bit of a minefield that you might want to avoid.

For hubs, shimano now do an Ultegra disc hub (cx75) which is 28h and 11 speed compatible, DT swiss do plenty of lightweight-ish MTB/CX hubs, there's Hope Pro2 Evo, Novatech and so on. The Shimano XT hubs are mtb parts but the same spacing and the same weight as the cx75 but 9/10 speed only.

Personally those Novatech CXD wheels look too lightly spoked to me, looks like they are trying to save weight in the least logical place.

Kinesis do a disc wheel for £300 which got decently reviewed here but I've read mixed reviews elsewhere and it seems like you could get a handbuilt wheel of similar specs for the same price.

In the end, my budget is a bit lower than yours and I'm looking for something I can use off-road as well so am going for Archetype rims on 32h XT hubs.

Let us know what you go with or if you find other options.

At the risk of repeating myself, Hope do some cx disc wheels with mavic rims. I have the conventional hubbed versions and really rate them, and English employees will benefit from their purchase, not Chinese ones.

I reckon you can have some nice ones built for that. Pick a rim and hub, buy your, own spokes, bung them together loosely and pay your local expert to finish them off.
My plan for the same type of wheels.

Have you looked at the Novatec CXD? Less than 1,500 grams for ~ £350.

I'm eyeing them up for my CX bike, just need to find a way of actually ordering them - they seem to be coming (or going to come) to the UK through extrauk.co.uk but I haven't yet found a dealer that carries them.

Alternatively, find a local wheel builder and tell them what you need. You'll certainly get something within your budget and you'll be supporting local business.