A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to go into a bike store and check why my rear Cosmic elite wheel was making horrible noises when I road it. It turned out that an internal eyelet in the rim, which holds one of the spokes had broken, rendering the nice looking wheel into a huge paper weight, meaning it is thrashed. I had to use my old racing wheelset, a pair of Spinergy Spox, to messenger instead. It was nice since they are so light, but every bump, I felt, was going to destroy them. I discovered also that the freehub is also in its last leg, having from time to time, a crack and miss of the stroke, when the
I have not bought a wheel set in about 4 years, my last one being the Cosmic elite, which I loved. So I started researching the newer technologies out there, trying to find in the internet a pair of wheels that were not going to bankrupt me. I looked on Craigslist here in Austin, but could only find a pair of used durace/cpx33 wheels that looked pretty old (the 8spd cluster giving it away). I even looked into ebay, only to find how over priced used ksyriums of all kinds are. So when I found a pair of Fulcrum racing 5 at excelsports for only $318 or so, I got a pair.
Today I put on the rim tape, tires and casette on them and went to performance bike shop a few blocks away to get a new stem (my 3t forge is crackling away) and to test my new wheels. Wow, for the price they are awesome, stiff, not amazingly light but lighter than the Cosmics and super loud. Its like a huge insect buzzing away when coasting. I had read about that when I did the research, but living it in person was pretty cool. Now no one can say they could not hear me coming. I ended up buying a Ritchie WCS 4 axis stem. And of course I got 15% off and since my wife has a membership to the performance club or what ever its called, I used some of her points, which translated into $12 free dollars back. So instead of paying $99+tax it only cost me $79. Still pretty expensive, but since they offer 100% satisfaction guaranteed I can always return it and say it wasn’t of my liking. One of the reasons that keeps me coming back to Performance bike shop.
Fulcrum racing 5 front wheel
A hansome bike for sure
