BTLOS 30mm wheels for pure climbing?

[texbike]

Originally Posted by fogrider

I just took delivery of a second set of BTLOS wheels. The first set are 35mm deep and came in around 1255 grams. The set I just got are 40mm front and 45mm rear, came in at 1296 grams. In general with lightweight wheels, a bike just feels quick and snappy. BTLOS wheels feel solid, I've gone through a fair number of carbon wheels over the years, and it feels like the industry has really got carbon figured out. I got these wheels for rim brake bikes and use their carbon brake pads. I haven't ridden in the rain on these (and don't intend to) but on dry conditions, these are as good as it gets.

Originally Posted by CAAD

Been looking at a set of their 40mm extralight wheels with carbon spokes as a do it all wheel set. Claimed weight is 1228g. Would be saving almost half a pound just in the wheels, currently running 55 deep wheels but they can a handful descending.

Originally Posted by sokyroadie

My BTLOS WRC-35 extralight, 20/24, Bitex, Pillar weigh 1200g and have been great.

Just out of curiosity, what are the price points for these builds? I'm kind of curious...

Like Shino, I'm running aluminum rim-brake clinchers (Shamals, Eurus, Zondas, Ksyrium SSC/Elites) that are all falling in the 1400-1500 gram range across my primary, newer-esque bikes. Is there really that much of a difference between the BTLOS (or other carbon clinchers) and a nice set of aluminum wheels like the Zondas, Shamals, or Eurus?

Cheers,

Texbike

[Dave]

https://btlos.com/road-bike/r-carbon...ad-bike-wheels

All you have to do is spend a couple of minutes on the BTLOS website and select the build you want. The weights listed by some posters here are much lighter than the values listed at the BTLOS website. My extra light 29mm profile disc brake wheels weigh around 1350 which is what I get with a WRC-35 extra light build with bitex hubs for $717 with a free freight code. I suppose that rim brake hubs are lighter.

[deluz]

I have BTLOS 30mm rim brake and they have been great.
They are on my steel bike which is non aero and I was looking to save weight.

[Clean39T]

I'm going to have some contrarian opinions here.. but maybe they matter some since I've spent a lot of time climbing all the climbs in Portland for plenty of years.

Here's what matters most to me for wheels when climbing in Portland:

Stiffness - most of the climbs are "power" climbs, not sit and spin for an hour on a 3% grade, and stiffness feels great when you are in and out of the saddle, muscling up 20% kickers, etc. - the wheels I've most hated were light and flexy .. frankly felt like crap and worse than 1600g alloy hand-builts despite being 1250g and $2500 MSRP.

Robustness - there are very few climbs here that are smooth pavement and if you're thinking about whether your wheels can handle the broken pavement and are subtly moving your weight around to avoid sharp ledges, you're both not having fun because of the anxiety and not going fast because that energy isn't moving you forward.

Braking - because every good climb here is followed by a technical, crusty, artisinal-pavement, off-camber descent.. you simply can't ignore how the wheels feel going back down after you get up.

So what does that all add up to?

Well - disc brakes .. but if not that, alloy pre-builts - like Shamals or Fulcrum Racing Zeros.

Platonic ideal:

[CAAD]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

I'm going to have some contrarian opinions here.. but maybe they matter some since I've spent a lot of time climbing all the climbs in Portland for plenty of years.

Here's what matters most to me for wheels when climbing in Portland:

Stiffness - most of the climbs are "power" climbs, not sit and spin for an hour on a 3% grade, and stiffness feels great when you are in and out of the saddle, muscling up 20% kickers, etc. - the wheels I've most hated were light and flexy .. frankly felt like crap and worse than 1600g alloy hand-builts despite being 1250g and $2500 MSRP.

Robustness - there are very few climbs here that are smooth pavement and if you're thinking about whether your wheels can handle the broken pavement and are subtly moving your weight around to avoid sharp ledges, you're both not having fun because of the anxiety and not going fast because that energy isn't moving you forward.

Braking - because every good climb here is followed by a technical, crusty, artisinal-pavement, off-camber descent.. you simply can't ignore how the wheels feel going back down after you get up.

So what does that all add up to?

Well - disc brakes .. but if not that, alloy pre-builts - like Shamals or Fulcrum Racing Zeros.

Platonic ideal:

I'll take my 1300g carbon wheels any day over any alloy wheels.