Shimano Dura-Ace C24 road wheel review
Discussion
A short while ago, I started a thread to find out what would be the best road wheels to buy for my roadie for a budget of about £600.
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f...
I initially started with some Mavic Ksyrium SL's, but a bunch of you recommend the Dura-Ace C24's so I opted for those instead. After a lengthy wait and being screwed over by customs in Gibraltar, the wheels arrived and I finally took them out for a spin today.
So let's talk about my gear....I have a stock 2010 Trek 2.5 with a full Ultegra groupset with Crank Brother Egg-beaters for my pedals. The wheels were bottom end Bontragers and weighed in at a hefty 1.9kg without the cassette.
The new Dura Ace C24's come in at a feather light 1.4kg shaving 0.5kg from my bike. Along with the new wheels, I bought a pair of Michelin Pro3 23c tyres. This shaved yet another 120g from the weight of the original wheels tallying up a total of a significant 620g of weight savings.
The only component I didn't upgrade was the cassette. I switched this over to the new wheels but I plan to upgrade the 105 12-27 cassette to an Ultegra knocking another 50g from the weight.
So, enough of the specs and onto the review.
The very first thing I noticed after setting off was how twitchy the new wheels felt. I put this down to the tyres however it was clear these wheels were fast. We set off on a 60km tour through the Spanish back-roads all the way to a stunning place called Castillo de Castellar. The fastest I've completed the climb to the castle, was 1:01:05, so my aim was to beat this.
Generally I couldn't really tell the difference between the new wheels and the old ones and this began to worry me, and in all fairness, climbing didn't feel much different. Cruising along on the flats and downhills was another story however, and the wheels felt incredibly fast and felt like they required less effort.
After finally making it to the top, I managed to knock my time down to 0:59:45, so did the wheels contribute towards this? Who knows, but heading back down, I noticed the braking was miles better than the Bontrager rims! I always found they felt soggy and a little like overheating disc brakes, but these Dura-Ace rims were superb. Braking was precise and powerful which offered a lot of confidence down the hills. Along with the grippy surface from the Pro3 tyres, I ended up overtaking a couple of cars down the hill.
So ultimately, are these wheels worth £549?
They are obviously miles better than my stock Bontragers, but I think I need to ride a little more to get used to them. I'm tempted to switch back to the old wheels after a few rides just so I can compare the two wheels properly. I think that way, I'll probably feel the difference more.
Either way I'm very pleased and they add a lot of bling to the bike and I managed to get a few admiring looks when I stopped for breakfast with my cycling buddy.
I'll update this post as I learn more about these wheels and get used to them, but so far, so good!
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f...
I initially started with some Mavic Ksyrium SL's, but a bunch of you recommend the Dura-Ace C24's so I opted for those instead. After a lengthy wait and being screwed over by customs in Gibraltar, the wheels arrived and I finally took them out for a spin today.
So let's talk about my gear....I have a stock 2010 Trek 2.5 with a full Ultegra groupset with Crank Brother Egg-beaters for my pedals. The wheels were bottom end Bontragers and weighed in at a hefty 1.9kg without the cassette.
The new Dura Ace C24's come in at a feather light 1.4kg shaving 0.5kg from my bike. Along with the new wheels, I bought a pair of Michelin Pro3 23c tyres. This shaved yet another 120g from the weight of the original wheels tallying up a total of a significant 620g of weight savings.
The only component I didn't upgrade was the cassette. I switched this over to the new wheels but I plan to upgrade the 105 12-27 cassette to an Ultegra knocking another 50g from the weight.
So, enough of the specs and onto the review.
The very first thing I noticed after setting off was how twitchy the new wheels felt. I put this down to the tyres however it was clear these wheels were fast. We set off on a 60km tour through the Spanish back-roads all the way to a stunning place called Castillo de Castellar. The fastest I've completed the climb to the castle, was 1:01:05, so my aim was to beat this.
Generally I couldn't really tell the difference between the new wheels and the old ones and this began to worry me, and in all fairness, climbing didn't feel much different. Cruising along on the flats and downhills was another story however, and the wheels felt incredibly fast and felt like they required less effort.
After finally making it to the top, I managed to knock my time down to 0:59:45, so did the wheels contribute towards this? Who knows, but heading back down, I noticed the braking was miles better than the Bontrager rims! I always found they felt soggy and a little like overheating disc brakes, but these Dura-Ace rims were superb. Braking was precise and powerful which offered a lot of confidence down the hills. Along with the grippy surface from the Pro3 tyres, I ended up overtaking a couple of cars down the hill.
So ultimately, are these wheels worth £549?
They are obviously miles better than my stock Bontragers, but I think I need to ride a little more to get used to them. I'm tempted to switch back to the old wheels after a few rides just so I can compare the two wheels properly. I think that way, I'll probably feel the difference more.
Either way I'm very pleased and they add a lot of bling to the bike and I managed to get a few admiring looks when I stopped for breakfast with my cycling buddy.
I'll update this post as I learn more about these wheels and get used to them, but so far, so good!
Yup, I think you're right...I'm just desperately trying to see where £600 worth of wheels and tyres improve my performance!
Saying that, I broke the 1 hour record to the top of the castle. I'll have to publish the route on here once I get it off my friends Garmin GPS.
I do however plan to put the 105 cassette on my old wheels and like you said, use them as winter wheels with some decent winter rubber on them. I'll put an ultegra cassette with a 11-25 teeth combination on there so I can also get a bit more speed on the flat and downhill sections.
Saying that, I broke the 1 hour record to the top of the castle. I'll have to publish the route on here once I get it off my friends Garmin GPS.
I do however plan to put the 105 cassette on my old wheels and like you said, use them as winter wheels with some decent winter rubber on them. I'll put an ultegra cassette with a 11-25 teeth combination on there so I can also get a bit more speed on the flat and downhill sections.
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