Subject: Chinese wheels - light-bicycleI’ve just bought some cheapo wheels from China, so thought I’d post up my $0.02. There was no way I was willing to pay $2k+ for “genuine” wheels so it was always going to be China. I was looking at Yishun, Yoleo and Light-bicycle as they seemed to be where most people were buying them from. I ended up going with Light-bicycle as they had the most professional website and seemed pretty prompt at replying to my emails. They've also got a live chat tool on their website which was good to use when I needed a quick response. Their English was also excellent. I chose 88mm Carbon Clinchers front and back and went with custom graphics. Total cost including shipping was $640. They took about 3 weeks to make, which is what they originally told me and shipping was quick – 6 working days and this was over Easter, just in time for Busso 70.3. Pulling them out of the box I was pretty amazed at how light they were and also how fragile they felt! No idea about their strength and durability compared to something like ZIPPS, I guess time will tell. The wheels looked really good though and no obvious imperfections. I managed a few training rides before Busselton and they felt good, rides were really windy though so I wasn’t really able to tell if they were significantly quicker or not. But Busso was a good test as conditions were perfect, flat and completely windless. During the season I’d averaged 34km/hr in the 5 sprint tris I’d done and 33km/hr in one OD. In Busselton I managed to average 36km/hr for a 2.30, so was pretty pleased with that. I felt that I could have perhaps comfortably gone 1 – 2km/hr faster, but having faded badly in the run leg of my previous 70.3 I had to keep on forcing myself to slow down. Busselton is fast though and a lot of people got PBs so it’s too hard to say whether it was the conditions or the wheels, but they felt quick and I’d never averaged that speed before even in a sprint so I’m fairly happy with them and would definitely recommend light-bicycle.
http://www.light-bicycle.com/
Swim leg
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