If you read this blog for more than a year (estimated) then you know that Panda has a cross-country bike. I read a lot of different websites, fora (forums?), Discussions, blogs and so on, so I knew exactly what bike needs. It was supposed to be a winter cross, meaning:

a tire, not a tire - although much worse, it is more comfortable in tourism,
gum width minimum 35mm - because it is less fear to ride on mud and snow,
tourist geometry - why speed up on trips?
disc brakes - only in winter they inhibit
Shimano 105, 2 × 10 drive - for an electrician, it's a waste of money, 2 x 11 also in a winter bar, and Shimano, because the most convenient
used and reasonably priced - it's the first cross-country, so it is not known whether it will be used at all, and that probably more than once will meet the stones is a bit of a pity new for good morning.

Bad luck, Panda wants to read the internet too. More specifically, he only reads the blog (because he checks for errors), but that's enough. Using all the advice she found here, the choice fell on Focus Mares in the Rapha version. A typical chase, with 40mm wheels on 32mm tubular carbon cones and tubing, 1 × 10 Sram Red drive and brakes cantilever. So everything is great, only nothing is correct.

As it happens with purchases of used items from Allegro from competitors, what they earn on the trade (name known to the editor): the bike came, almost the entire drive was replaced, and the wheels went to the trash, because nothing could be done with them anymore. Because, of course, carbon wheels save much easier than aluminum ones (we have some carbon magicians in Mazovia), but it turns out that there is such a level of consumption, from which nothing will be conjured up. The level also surprised even those magicians. Here the problem appeared, because they were Eastony EC90 SL, i.e. weighing ~ 1220g, white and black cones - in my opinion, one of the most beautiful wheels they are. Buying them is the cost of a new, very good cross-country bike. You know how it is with girls: if they have something nice and try to replace it with something ugly, it turns out to be impossible. A bit like: try on this dress, but we'll buy the cheaper one. So we started searching for wheels. The action was doomed to failure.

At the beginning, let's just say one fundamental thing:

WHEEL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF THE BICYCLE

... and usually the first to change in a new purchase. For unknown reasons ($$$) bicycle manufacturers usually save on wheels by inserting some 2-kilo szimanochy. Take for example LAPIERRE SENSIUM 500 for PLN 7600. It's a bike in the category just right: a little prestigious brand, accessories 105, nice ... and Shimano RS010 wheels - retail price from PLN 400, weight 1900 gr and MICHELIN DYNAMIC SPORT 700 × 25 tires for PLN 40 per 300 gram piece.

Therefore, the first thing that should be changed in a bike are wheels or in the budget version - tires. In a simple way, we lose from 200gr on tires, paying extra PLN 150 or from 400g, paying a thousandth for the wheels. The legitimacy of changing 105 on the Ultegra, frame and most accessories can be talked about, but putting lighter wheels on the bike, feel straight away and the difference is colossal. Who has changed once, will remember it forever.

Too much choice is a problem

I once made such an entry: HEAVY DUTY OR TIRE? TO BE OR HAVE? Although the main criteria remained the same, some things have changed since then.

First of all, in the city they say that the trends are tubeless. Maybe so, but it does not matter, because nobody uses it in the conservative road world. Why? I do not know. Why do not I use it? I do not know too. Sure, it's about compatibility with the rim, but I do not want to check.

Secondly, apparently the carbon wheels on the inner tube are no longer dangerous and bad. Not only that, they are even often advised as a golden mean between two extreme solutions.

Thirdly, primo, ultimo: disc brakes have appeared in the roads and all discussions on the choice of material lose their meaning. The carbon wheel and shield is the future. Dot.

Besides, if you did not trust me in this matter (because why would you like it), then Inside Cycling lately he threw the text about which type of rubber to cross-country.

Cycling Tips, in turn, wrote about the same topic that I am writing right now and shows from this text the same as with mine - not much;)

Oh, even Keep Circle wrote text on the same topic and it was already three years ago - to make it more fun, also described Dandy Horse.

However, I have never touched on the blog about the choice of wheels: folding or factory / system? I have never wondered about it any more, because I have never bought anything other than cash. So in order to make the right decision, we decided to go to a good wheelset and then verify their statements in ours Treka's friendly website in Pruszków. Why Treka? Because he has the most expensive ;-) Why verify? Because I think that there should be two sides of the barricade in each conundrum - in this case, the people who put up and those who sell ready.

Digression 1

We visited Warsaw Dandy Horse Wheels and this entry is contrary to appearances: Give me the wheel and I will write a text about you. I am not saying that this is the best place to place wheels in Poland or in Mazovia. There are currently many wheel assemblies and certainly a large part of them is very good. Dandy Horse, however, captivated me with two things: first they have a blogfrom which generally I almost do not understand anything, but I am eating. I like to read about texts, which at first glance look like my textbook for Digital Techniques in college, and which touch, in contrast to TC, the topic that interests me. You can read about how companies brand Chinese, what's up with all these stiffnesses and so on. I would like to write it myself, but every time I sat down to it - I fell asleep. The second advantage is that I know a few people who ride on wheels from them and all of them praise them. It's me, in times when he complains about all the mechanics, it's enough.

Shock and disbelief

I do not know how to put it in words so as not to get out of bugs and menda. When entering Dandy Horse, we expected something completely different. If you used to be in a shop for sharpeners, located in a small apartment, in a side street, you can see this picture in front of your eyes. Places where you are afraid to lean your hand on a counter, because you can not look at it, you can have a tattooed satan on it and a hole with a 2cm section in the ear. Here it is not.

Still on the shelves, we find a rural cheese packet converted into a container for the tool, which replaces the ParkbTool container for a thousandth and a welding mask that helps in creating your own tools, but the first entrance is more like the Veloart style than piwnicowy. You do not need much - all you need is a minimalist design, a glowing logo and white walls decorated with black hoops. This is one of the few places where baskets, trumpets, bells and glowing gadgets do not attack us at the door. It is also a smart procedure, so as not to offend anyone, get rid of customers who would like a bike service, in which the crank has not been around for 13 years.

During our 2.5 hour conversation, which for 3 working guys there generates 6 overtime, we exchange many opinions, but one statement remains permanently in my head:

We are able to make the wheel as good as any of the ready (but we can not do so expensive)

When I hear something like that, a lamp lights in my head. Take such an article with Bikeradar (from 2013, so technological prehistory), it shows the production line of Trek wheels in Wisconsin. One very important question needs to be asked: how the production line for millions + employees are qualitatively up to basement workers.

After collecting opinions from a few more or less independent places, it turns out that it's quite good and against my intuitions, they do not play ... too much. It's like a folding and ready bike ....

Convenience

System wheels have one major advantage: you go to the store, buy, drive, and drive (and the first big and unexpected hole in the race). It's expensive, but you pay for the convenience. You remove the wheels from the cardboard, put on the bike and forget about them. When you break the spoke, you call the place where you bought it, you wait for max. a few days (because, unlucky, it is not in stock) and you are going to exchange. Well, unless you bought Mavica. Then you throw them out and buy new ones so you do not get angry. Who has any experience with our wonderful Polish distributor knows why :) On the other hand, I used to have Campagnolo top wheels. I lost them for half a year after the derailleur screwed into my spokes. It's not enough that they only sell entire sets, they do not know where. In any case, certainly not in the country on the Vistula.

I learned to write e-mails to foreign stores, which download things much faster from their distributors. How will Aeoluses break loose, call the store, ask for new spokes and wait more or less as long as the shipment from the warehouse is waiting. Service happy, because you have to go back to him - You do not care, because you did not have any choice. However, you have to wait. If you're polite, maybe you'll even get replacements for the waiting period.

Of course, all this is cool, if you are at home - on a long route or on vacation the problem escalates somewhat.

It's easier in the bums, because it's uncomfortable on a good day. The circles we receive are unfinished from the viewpoint of the recipient. The magician is not able to tighten the spokes so that after a few / several rides they do not require a slight correction. That's why you have to go back to it. This, of course, is not a major drawback, especially if he sells good coffee and cakes at the same time. It appears here the main advantage of the place we visit. Thanks to the hand-made press (visible in the picture above) - the wheels are tired before going outside. This allows you to accommodate the tension already on a good day. It's nothing, it's nice. You do not have to return unless you say that you are happy that you do not have to come back. I do not think that I would see a similar press somewhere else.

On the other hand, in the squares we gain the convenience of the service. Until we decide on a very unusual solution, with a bit of luck, almost every spare part should be found within the city. It does not make any significant difference to me, but in the case of ultras and travelers ... maybe.

No - I've thought about it. The fact that you can buy the part you need in the store, instead of contacting the Fair Dealer, in 80% of cases is a huge difference.

Price

If the price argument does not appeal to you and you are not sure which wheels you want, you do not need to read this text. Take system wheels and that's it. They will always be more expensive.

Splendor on brave

Here the topic is debatable. On the one hand, going to the street on new Zippach, Enve or Lightweigtach, we can be sure that we will achieve the effect of a 3-centimeter mini skirt. These are the wheels that clearly say: we are expensive, so great. But ... there's also a trick here that I am writing about in the case of black and black bicycles for 40k: who knows, he knows. Nobody will say anything about your wheels: Wow, you have equipment from Dandy Horse! as saying that you have something great. It will be pronounced rather with curiosity, whether it can actually be quite well and cheaply (relatively). However, we all know the stories of small German or British manufactures that grow into boutique brands known only to the initiated. The road to such an opinion is simple: one day you announce that your wheels are 4 times more expensive and you count on the fact that you will change the target ;-)

For now, we do not have a boutique, national brand of wheels, so factory sets will give more respect to street people .... especially considering it is still popular Polish design school. and Polish marketing school also, in which sponsored ads attack me with continuous Caps Lock and exclamation - probably that I would see them better and with funny pictures stolen from other profiles - probably that I would click them better. It is a good way for a company that makes good wheels to fall out of my interests. Even if it starts to produce very expensive and very good wheels - the image will plunge it.

Quality

We go to the most important parameter. Can the wheels assembled in the apartment be better, at least as good as those from the store?

digression 2.

It is the secret of Poliszynel that all these small and ambitious companies that make wheels, take parts from Chinese (Chinese as a pejorative concept defining the Far East, not China). The same that you can access through aliexpressy. So for good morning, two questions arise: why not order them yourself and why not order ready for $ 500? Of course, I omit the issue of supporting local business, because it is an individual matter (buying cheaper abroad, I save money and support myself, and I am also a Polish business).

We can buy ourselves, of course, for what? Once, that one way or another, we have to give it to someone to put together, two: this one, if he orders massively, he will probably do it cheaper, three: where to order? The number of companies that produces carbon hoops, even branded with their brand, is so large that we must rely on the fate or experience of friends. Due to the often uneven quality of products, the opinion of friends is also burdened with a large element of randomness - so it is better to rely on someone who orders a lot from the same place.

This can be a comfortable teddy bear and order cash (risking additional customs fees)? You can. Not only that, we can even find very good wheels that are very good. Or not, as we will see in the least appropriate moment. Here are the popular words like: quality control, accuracy vs machine, etc.
The difference is that if our girl broke a circle at the congress and lost her nose, we can go to Staszek, who put them on hangover and shoot him a seal in the eye and Staszek is aware of that. If Mr. Ming's equipment was in Taizhong, we can send him an e-mail, he will apologize in the e-mail and say that he is sorry and that he can send a new wheel, but he generally hangs it. As if the effect was the same, but the satisfaction of the seals is greater, and consequently, the motivation of the depositor too. It should also be added here that we live in the 21st century and the news is spreading fast. If the two independent wheels of the manufacturer from the example of Łódź are falling apart and both stories go to the net, the disgust will always continue.

The end of digression and theorem:

House-folded wheels, even if super tools are available, will be slightly worse than the factory ones. And I can see how half of you (especially the one that produces the wheels) go to the tab contactto send me blouses. But wait! Because worse does not always mean worse! …or something like that.

but price / quality!

In the city it is said that the wheels can not be both light, durable and stiff. A standard pyramid applies here: we choose 2 properties from 3 possible and agree to compromise.

If we can accept the fact that the wheels will require some adjustment at the beginning and we accept the fact that we will return with them at the beginning of our adventure once or twice to the service, these will be almost always better. Assuming of course the same budget gorszość well-arranged wheels only translate to the necessity of their initial tightening.

All this obviously works only if we have a GOOD AND PROVEN plant that deals with it - and finding one can take a while. What do I mean by better? The ratio of weight to strength, stiffness, aerodynamics and price. Because again - if we throw out the price out of the equation, making work makes no sense. I put "almost" next to the word "always", because there are technologies like the golf surface of the rim in Zipp wheels, yours typesetter I will not get it. How much does she give? I do not know. Aerodynami is an unexplored area by an average bread eater like me.

Choice and matching

There are many wheels on the market, everyone will find something for themselves. Most of them are universal, there are no weight limits. This is an advantage, but also a compromise, and compromises and ambitious sports are biting a bit. Because even if each producer has dozens of models to choose from, they will continue to be intended for most cyclists. If you're not the majority of cyclists, because you weigh, for example, 55kg and you drive mainly in the mountains, then you can put together some hardcore and here definitely will be useful for a non-standard solution. The downside is that small manufactures are not usually prepared for a non-standard customer, so you'll be able to fold - but not soon. However, as they say: on bezrybiu and cancer fish.

Note, boobs found at Dandy Horse:

A terribly long entry, a lot of spanking water

To sum up: buying folding wheels is like folding a bike (once, because now it's probably cheaper to buy the whole). If you want to save a little, if you do not mind a bit more work and you have proven people who will advise you well and do it well, it's worth it. If you are lazy, you like to go to the store and buy just what you need, it's a waste of work. 

And you - internet people - which solution do you prefer?