Quote:
Originally Posted by AZX54.4
I was running the Continental Grand Prix 4000 s on bontrager rims prior to this upgrade. The contis are great tires! Hutchinson is basically the only tubeless tire provider as of now. That will certainly change in the future. They have 3 tire options. The Atom which is a light weight slick, more of a performance race tire. The fusion 2 and now 3 which is a more durable slick and then the Intensive which is an all purpose trainer tire. Thats the tire I went with. I think the Atom and Fusion are in 23C size. The Intensive is a 25. I am very pleased with the road feel of the Hutchinson tire. I have only been out on the wheelset once since i put them on for a 25 mile ride. I love the feel. Like I said, it absorbs so much of the road imperfections. I feel like the Shimano rims/hubs are so buttery smooth. My brother has a set of ultegra rims which i had ridden on before I made the purchase and I really liked the feel. Mounting the tires was a tight squeeze. It is necessary to use some type of sealant (I used hutchinsons latex sealant) for the tires to seal and seat into the rim.
No special brake pads are required because the braking surface is not carbon. This was a huge attractor for that I wouldn't need carbon specific brake pads. That will be a fun bike, your Cervelo R3. I was going to go to a demo day 2 or 3 weekends ago to test ride one. I am running dura ace 7800 gruppo on my bike. I love the Dura Ace gear. I think you should build your bike up with a Dura Ace Di2 gruppo  )) haha. As far as the wheels appearance, which is so important they look awesome. You can also get the ultegra in tubeless for much less. But that wouldnt work to build your bike up with DA gear and not get DA wheels.
Overall, an awesome wheelset. Shimano definitely makes a good wheel and I agree about having the loose bearings. I think it would be a great opportunity with building up a new bike to enter the tubeless world. Feel free to ask more questions, especially as i get more miles on the wheelset. |
I have Bontrager rims (original Race) on my Trek 5200, and while I have no complaints, I just want something lighter and faster.
I knew about the Hutchinson Atom and Fusion tires, but not the Intensive. I don't know if it is available locally, but I'll look into it, thanks. My LBS has the tubeless Shimano wheels advertised, so they must have tires.
I thought I had read about brake pad restrictions, but the warning online is just that you can't use the Shimano performance pads, they are too aggressive. Must be thin rims. That is a nice feature, not to have to go to special pads. The carbon hoops are still a bit pricy here ($1400 vs $1200) but that is due to our smaller market. No, I won't go to the Ultegra version. I have Ultegra on the Trek, and it works fine, great in fact. When we built the race tandem we went Dura Ace (and Rolf wheels), but that was in 2008. Again, it works great, but it isn't the latest. We got my wife a Cervelo R3 this year, and she has the newer 2009 Dura Ace, very nice. I want it. I don't need the DI yet, I would probably try Campy just for fun before going DI, although I like the idea and technology of the DI gear.
I think I need to try tubeless on this build. I had also been reading about the Fulcrum two way fit wheels, and the red spoke version would look sharp (white bike), but Shimano gear is nice. Let us know how you like the wheels as you get some miles on them.
Jeff