# Disc Wheelset for new Giant Defy Advanced



## photomadnz (Jun 22, 2015)

Ive decided to re-ask this question with the appropriate info filed out. I just picked up my new 2015 Defy Advanced Pro 1 with the Giant P-SL0 disc wheelset. The wheels have come in without skewers etc at 1770gms. Id like to start looking at something a bit stronger and hopefully lighter to run on it.

I weight in at 215 pounds so wonder how long stock wheels at 24/20 would last.

Id probably like to stay with Alu probably as much for budget as wanting something compliant, and carbon may be to stiff and harsh to ride everyday?

Initial quote from a trusted builder has got me to a build of-
*Pacenti SL25 rims 32/28 with White Industries CLD hubs and DT Aerolite spokes* *2x/3x*, *Alloy nipples*. 

Should come in around 1630 which isnt a huge weight gain but should be noticeable? But certainly stronger and still quite comfortable with the wide rim? Hopefully a noticeably better wheel all round?



*Why do you want new wheels? What's wrong with your old ones?* 
Not strong/stiff enough. May also save some weight.


*What are you old ones? (rim name, hub name, spokes, their numbers)* 
Giant P-SL0 disc alloy wheelset


*How much do you want to spend?* 
Around 1000-1500 USD


*How heavy are you?* 
215 Pounds*
•Do you ride "light" or "heavy"? Are you powerful or smooth?* 
Pretty standard mix of riding styles


*Have you had problems with your current wheels and if so, what?* 
Bit of flex, question over durability for my weight


*What condition are the roads in that you ride?* 
Large chip mainly


*What tires, widths and pressures are you using?* 
25c Conti's around 95psi


*What do you expect from your new wheels that your old ones can't deliver? (be reasonable and realistic here!)* 
Stiffer, Comfortable and slightly lighter


*What are you going to use the wheels for - recreational riding, touring (loaded), training, racing, general purpose?* 
General Purpose. Mix of steep hills and flat.


*Do you want custom hand-built (designed for you) or factory pre-built?* 
Probably hand built


*Do you want wheels that are easily repairable with readily available, reasonably priced spokes and rims or are you ok with maybe having to ship your wheels back to the factory and wheels that contain expensive, proprietary spokes and possibly un-obtainium replacement rims?* 
Easy to repair


*Do you need 11spd compatible wheels (can be used with 8 ~10spd cassettes too by using a spacer) or are 10spd wheels ok? (can only be used with 8 ~ 10spd cassettes). Edit - This info is for Shimano & SRAM related cassettes; not Campagnolo.* 
11 speed shimano


*Do you want the wheels to be oriented towards "aero" or "light"?
* 
Both would be nice


*Do you want to use regular clincher, tubeless, or tubular tires?* 
Clincher


*Aluminum or carbon rims?* 
Part of the question. Comfort is high on the priority list though


*Rim brakes or disk brakes?* 
Disc brakes


*Rear hub width? (120, 126, 130, 135MM)
* 
Standard QR


*Do you want adjustable loose ball bearing hubs (almost exclusively Shimano) or cartridge bearing hubs (almost everything else)?* 
Either


Thanks for all help provided.


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## dgaddis1 (Sep 27, 2008)

DT 350 hubs, Nox A36D rims. Carbon for stiffness, wide rim for improved comfort, asymmetric, also tubeless ready, nice quality reliable and easily serviced hubs. 28/28 3-cross with CX-Rays and alloy nipples. Under $1500, ~1560g


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## TJay74 (Sep 9, 2012)

Reynolds should have a couple of options for wheels as well, I would go no less than 20f/24r on spoke count at your weight.


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## skinewmexico (Apr 19, 2010)

Nimbus alloy Ti disc (Pacenti rims, 24/28) at 1585g from November for $640. Those are some pretty expensive ounces you're paying for with new wheels.


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## TJay74 (Sep 9, 2012)

Also Giant has a new carbon clincher disc wheel set that just came out, price point almost spot on with what you have listed. I just bought the P-SLR1 for my TCR and so far they have been a very solid wheel set.


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## Clyde250 (Feb 24, 2007)

If you are staying with alloy, it's going to be really tough to beat the Giant wheels. The SLR-1's are carbon and come in at the same price/weight as your hand built set. Their carbon wheels only save 100g and will cost 40% more.


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## ceugene (Jun 20, 2015)

TJay74 said:


> Reynolds should have a couple of options for wheels as well, I would go no less than 20f/24r on spoke count at your weight.


Keep in mind he's looking for a disc brake wheelset. 20 spokes in front definitely won't cut it, though I don't think 24f/24r is out of the question.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

dgaddis1 said:


> DT 350 hubs, Nox A36D rims. Carbon for stiffness, wide rim for improved comfort, asymmetric, also tubeless ready, nice quality reliable and easily serviced hubs. 28/28 3-cross with CX-Rays and alloy nipples. Under $1500, ~1560g


You made me go look to see what these Nox rims are all about. 
Nice write-up on them. Long term feedback?

Here is the link for more on the Nox A36D for whoever else wondering:
In Depth: Nox Composites A36D Carbon Disc Road/CX Rims
and here:
Nox Composites tease fully molded carbon road/cyclocross carbon rims


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## robt57 (Jul 23, 2011)

20/24 spoke disc wheels seems pushing things well past 'too far' for a Clyde IMO. I think your sense of longevity potential being shorter is quite valid.

So, one Clydes opinions:

I am 218 lb now, I built two sets for my all road disc custom. 


< 1st set; 32 spoke SL25 Pacenti on 9 speed NOS XTR Hubs [only doing 10 speed]. I did do some things to lighten these up a tad. Laser Sapims for all the trailing front spokes & rear disc side trailing as well as leading rear drive side too. Even though Sapim says no lasers in disc wheels. I used my own judgement and experience of about 50 wheel builds over 20 years.

More that the small weight saved, it is my opinion the lighter spokes in the places I use them will be under more tension and less likely to get loosey goosy at the j-bends in wind up/down loads. Thus wheel should last longer.

Then 14/15 race spokes for the trailing drive side rear and leading disc sides, used brass nip on these and AL nip on all the lasers. I had it all laying about in quantity Nips wise. These are solid all the way. And I feel the braking super stout as compared two wheelset two even after the re-lace [read on]. 



>2nd set; CX75 28 hole hubs w/CL25 Pacentis, all Sapim Race laced 2x and Alloy nips. I rode these up my street and came home and re-laced the front disc side 3x. Even though a ton of folks here say I could not possibly tell or it can't make a difference. Read what you want into it remembering I am 215lb, and the front has a 180mm rotor. I won't do 2x laced disc wheel front for myself again personally. Again, regardless of internet forum opinions. 20 something grams of additional spoke lengths is nonsense as far as I am concerned.

I traded these out can am building a CL25 Set 32x with the same spoke config as my SL25 set. My original plans was 28 spoke for paved use, and SL25 set for my Nano 40s for woods and gravel the 'All' except road use I guess. 

The CL25 over the SL25 will save you 50 [touch more?] grams of rotational weight and that is with eyelets as opposed to none in the SL25. In my minds eye these may be more durable than my SL25 set, or not. Will go all Alloy nips on this next CL25 32x set.


I hope I did not mess up wording and or order of words, being a touch dyslexic and all.


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## robt57 (Jul 23, 2011)

ceugene said:


> I don't think 24f/24r is out of the question.


I am thinking it kind of is. Approaching maybe @ 100 kilo plus bike weight. 

Everyone has a different place for the line of course.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Makes sense. 

With the right rim I would not use anything less than 28/28 with D-Lights for a (baby?) Clyde with smooth pedal stroke and paved road use and 32/32 for anything else. That's me though...


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

skinewmexico said:


> Nimbus alloy Ti disc (Pacenti rims, 24/28) at 1585g from November for $640. Those are some pretty expensive ounces you're paying for with new wheels.


I went the same route but 28/28 instead based on my intended use and advice from Dave at November Wheels and I weigh 185. If I didn't plan on loading the bike up for endurance riding on coarse gravel 24/28 probably would have been fine.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

Clyde250 said:


> If you are staying with alloy, it's going to be really tough to beat the Giant wheels. The SLR-1's are carbon and come in at the same price/weight as your hand built set. Their carbon wheels only save 100g and will cost 40% more.


I have the same wheels which are 20/24, have about 2,000 miles on them and weigh about 210-215 lbs. While 2K miles isn't a lot overall it's only been 2 months. I've had no problems and I ride on some pretty rough roads. I do use 28s on them which so far run 28-31 wide depending on the brand.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

Clyde250 said:


> If you are staying with alloy, it's going to be really tough to beat the Giant wheels. The SLR-1's are carbon and come in at the same price/weight as your hand built set. Their carbon wheels only save 100g and will cost 40% more.


I found the difference in ride quality well worth the difference in price even if there wasn't much of weight savings. Others may feel differently.


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## dgaddis1 (Sep 27, 2008)

dcgriz said:


> You made me go look to see what these Nox rims are all about.
> Nice write-up on them. Long term feedback?
> 
> Here is the link for more on the Nox A36D for whoever else wondering:
> ...


I've been beating on my a set of their first gen MTB rims for ~3yrs now. Several thousand miles, mostly on rigid bikes, all over the southeast. More rim strikes than I can count. Never had a single problem. And they've made lots of improvements since then.

I haven't put a ton of time on the A36D road rims yet. I'm 170lbs and did a 24H build front and rear and they're plenty stiff and solid enough. I can say the tubeless set up wasn't the best. Most tires I've tried fit too loose to get inflated, that includes an IRC tubeless road tire and a Compass Bon Jon Pass tubeless tire. An air compressor might get it done, but, I kinda doubt it. For those who don't care about tubeless, this is good news, because the tires don't fit super tight. I was able to get a set of Schwalbe One's set up tubeless without too much hassle, but still, not the easiest set up I've done. They've been rock solid once set up. They're 23's and measure 27ish on the wide rims.

I have another rim available now as well for custom builds, the Velocite Venn Rev 35 TCD. Terrible name, I know. But it's cool. It's more of a road rim whereas the Nox is overbuilt and is very well suited to dirt/gravel. The Velocite rim is lighter (390g vs 440g), 35mm deep, and has an 18mm inner width. The spoke holes are drilled at front/rear left/right specific angles, which is really cool, no one else does that. In other words, the front drive-side spoke holes are drilled at a different angle than the non-driveside, and a different angle than the rear drive-side. They're made with an automated filament wound system instead of hand laying pre-woven cloth into a mold. That improves consistency from one batch to another, and keeps cost down. Pricing is *very *competitive. A set built up with DT 350 hubs with 28/28 spoke count, Lasers, alloy nipples, you're looking at 1500g and under $1100 shipped. I'm pretty stoked on these...they're going to be popular. I've got two sets in now, both are spoken for, and I just placed an order for four more sets of rims. They come in whatever drilling I want too, which is nice. Light weight 32 spoke carbon build for heavy guys? No problem.

Teaser pic. I'll have a full detailed blog post later once I get the first set built up next week.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Good info! 

Woven carbon fiber on the Velocite? Looks like 12k from the pic.


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## dgaddis1 (Sep 27, 2008)

dcgriz said:


> Good info!
> 
> Woven carbon fiber on the Velocite? Looks like 12k from the pic.


The outer layer is just cosmetic. I really like it though!

EDIT: Bike Rumor did a post on the rims a while back here - Velocite?s new Venn Composite rims break the mold w/ filament wound, single strand carbon construction and they won design awards at both the Taipei and Eurobike shows.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

dgaddis1 said:


> The outer layer is just cosmetic. I really like it though!


Got you! It does look interesting.


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## Clyde250 (Feb 24, 2007)

I hope it helps the ride quality. I have a 55mm rear 28h and a 45mm front 24h ordered from Light-Bicycle. I am lacing them to I-9 hubs. Weight is going to be around 1650g. I am hoping it improves the ride quality. The whole reason I went disc is to be able to try carbon without melting them.


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## willstylez (Sep 15, 2011)

Where can you buy only the Velocite Venn rims. I only see the complete wheelset on their website....unless i'm totally missing it.


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## ceugene (Jun 20, 2015)

I'm one of the mentioned orders for the Rev 35s. I figured since I'm 145lbs, the lighter the better. Also the price...

I had been wanting a deeper profile wheelset, but I live in an area that is both hilly and gusty. 35mm should suit me well even if they aren't as aesthetically striking as 45mm deep rims.

I'm pretty excited to be a human guinea pig for these.


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## dcgriz (Feb 13, 2011)

Lighter, stronger and less expensive. Are these rims breaking the mold giving us all three?


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## dgaddis1 (Sep 27, 2008)

Woo-hoo, finally got the blog post up on the Venn Rev 35's.

Follow the rabbit to learn more.

Now Available: Velocite Venn Rev 35 Carbon Disc-Road Rims


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## photomadnz (Jun 22, 2015)

*Wheel Update*

So I went with the custom build I was initially looking at-

*Pacenti SL25 32/28 rims
White Industries CLD hubs
DT Swiss Aerolite spokes*

Im really happy with the wheels. Im running 700x25 conti 4000s. The wheels feel solid and stiff, yet they are incredibly compliant & comfortable at the same time. They get along very well almost feeing like an outright aero set I used to own.

I know these wheels will last me for a very long time. Cant recommend this combo enough.


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