Wheels

You go to war with the wheels you have, not the wheels you wish you had.

I have two sets of race wheels. Both of them are more or less Velocity Deep Vee based.

Velocity is a humble company that makes rims. You can buy Velocity rims straight up, or you can get them under other brand names, in wheels that other manufacturers build up.

The Deep Vee is the ubiquitous Velocity rim. It is about 30mm deep, so it's aero. It's also heavy as shit, running approximately 2.2 metric tonnes before the average fixed gear hipster powder coats it pink or frog vomit green. The rims are very popular on track bikes - both hipster ones, and ones that are actually used on tracks. They've also made cameo appearances on 29'ers. These rims are stout and versatile.

The Deep Vee is also rock solid. Other than my Thomson seatposts and stems, this may be the single most durable piece of cycling equipment I own.

A good set of Deep Vees built up should run in the neighborhood of the mid-200s (for 105 hubs, straight gauge DT spokes) up to mid-300s nicely built on Ultegra hubs (my choice) up to the sky if you choose to build 'em on Phil Woods'.

My initial race wheel was anything on the front, 36 spoke Deep Vee on the rear on a 105. I still have this wheel, it's going strong 4 years on, and usually rides as a pit wheel in 'cross, or on my B bike. I got the 36 because I had a set of Mavic Open Pros, a reasonably light, strong wheelset, that I couldn't keep true. My fat ass and power conspired to bend them constantly. So I got this beast. I haven't had to true it in 4 years.

I have another set of wheels that is my training and racing mainstay. It's a Deep Vee rear on a PowerTap (which is Ultegra-based) hub, 32 spoke, matched to a Velocity Fusion rim. The Fusion is considerably lighter than a Deep Vee, and is almost as aero. I have to true this wheelset about twice a season, just a minor tweak here and there. I've raced cross on it with no problems.

My A wheelset is a Velocity Pro Elite, 36 spoke, with straight gauge spokes. It's basically a Deep Vee rim with a 30mm section. But it's tubular. The wheels are built with Ultegra hubs. They are reasonably light, and utterly bulletproof. I race cross on them, use them for roadracing and do road training on them during the times I just don't feel like using my Powertap. They aren't the lightest wheels in the world, but they aren't that heavy thanks to the lightness of tubulars and the absence of the heavy ring used as a braking surface / lock ring for the clinchers. They climb like a dream and cost a bit over $300; they never need real truing, just a one or two spoke tightening every season or so.

The only complaints I could think of are that the rims are not super duper precise when they come from the factory. They've all seem to come with a very slight egg shape to them, and the joint seam is usually a bit rough. But what do you want for a set of relatively inexpensive rims? The egg shape comes out with proper truing, and the seam... well, brake pads for metal rims are cheap.

Yeah, I could lust really hard after super light and blingy wheels. But I'd probably break most of them. If you're a racer, you should never buy what you can't afford to break because, no matter how good the gear is, you are going to break all of it eventually. I totally endorse the Deep Vee or Pro Elite combo on Ultegra hubs. They're good enough to git 'er done, and extremely durable. Most of the time in races, you're worried about hanging on to the pack or the break, getting up the hill, or getting through the part of the cross race that is inexplicably both rocky and muddy. These wheels are competent but unspectacular, and you don't have to worry about them ever, good enough that I don't seriously consider upgrading to my Lust Object Wheels. That is really high praise.