Vision TC24 Wheels Review

There often seems very little real world reviews of components so here is an honest review of my latest wheelset. 1st post so I will give you some background of the type of riding I do and experience. I have cycled most of my life including 10 years as a courier in London. I now road race(currently 3rd Cat) and cover about 320km a week av. I weigh about 80kg(6ft 3) Mechanically I am pretty good and rarely hand my bike to a shop, just for headset and BB bearing pressing, and wheel tensioning.

On to the Vision TC24 wheels. These are tubular carbon rims and very lightweight. 1250grams advertised. They are very light! I have Schwalbe Ultremo tyres taped on. They have been good so far. No punctures yet, so I cannot comment on ease of changing the tub tape. The tyre compound is super soft and after approx 400km the back tyre is looking worn, but the front is as new.

Braking

I am using yellow Swissstops, and in the dry they are working ok although they do leave yellow streaks all over the rim. The initial grab is strong(to the point that they often fail to release if you have braked strongly to a stop) but the power then fades as one increases the pressure on the lever.
In the wet this is reversed, with nothing happening(i had to get on the drops to put enough power into the lever) initially and then a slight slowing down followed by a grab and lock up if more power is applied. No usable modulation at all. Terrifying in a racing scenario! The one plus is that all the yellow smears were quickly removed, although a fair bit of carbon from the braking track has also gone . This was in 2x40 mile wet road races. The pads had become embedded with road grit and turned into sand paper.

Performance

As previously stated these are super light and make the bike feel very good to show off at cafe stops! The sprint feels good, may be psychological? The lateral stiffness is appalling and i would definitely recommend you check this with your own eyes before buying. This is only an issue with the rear wheel and especially when flexing the rim to the non drive side chain stay.

Servicing

The access to the sealed cartridge bearings is incredibly easy. 2 allen keys and your in! 1 more clamps the tension required instead of cones and locknuts. Unfortunately the non drive side bearing has failed on my rear wheel after no more than 300km! Hopefully just bad luck with one of the cartridge bearings and not something that will continue to be a problem.
Spoke tension was checked on the rear wheel with a tension meter to see if the lateral stiffness could be improved, and found to be fairly uneven, but as it is round and true I am yet to allow it to be adjusted.

Overall

I am not totally sold on these, and feel that even though I got them for about £600 new I am not sure that they were the right choice? I will ride them more and report back after some more miles. They are my race day only wheels so this could take some time.