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pryde and joy on two wheels

wheelsmith pave wheelset

you may recall my recent review of the rather excellent neil pryde bura road bike that has provided unlimited joy and happiness over recent weeks. it's one of those bicycles that it's all too easy to underestimate, delivering a good deal more than it seems to promise when, as marcel wust would have said, 'lifting it straight from the box.' i cannot deny, however, that the modern trend for ever stiffer frames is one that ageing bones such as mine take just a few more minutes than usual to adapt.

prior to the bicycle's arrival in the hebrides, my mainstays in the road-going department had been a rather tasty, steel colnago master or its carbon brother, the original c40. both of those are a tad less stiff to ride than colnago's present day c60 and definitely more resilient (if you see what i mean) than the very squared cross-section bura. however, there's little point in my castigating any manufacturer for this state of affairs, because it's the law.

wheelsmith pave wheelset

if i might quote from the neil pryde website, "The bura transcends being a featherweight, stiff race bike", it's plain for all to see that the folks at neil pryde see stiffness as a plus. the complete bicycle features fulcrum racing 5 wheels, possessed of reasonably minimal alloy rims and remarkably few, straight-pull spokes. top this off with a fast looking fizik arione saddle, and the road will always tell you just how stiff and race-like the bura really is.

but, at the risk of appearing to remove myself from a race-based equation, this is not necessarily the sort of bicycle i would have picked for myself off the shelf. as one with a distinct prejudice against the mores of strava, coupled with a distinct reticence to pin any sort of number on a back pocket, though i do enjoy the sensation of riding such a race-oriented bike, when traversing dishevelled single track hebridean roads, punctuated by the odd cattle grid, my honed physique often yearns for a smidgeon more comfort and joy. yet, to all intent and purposes, there seems no means of achieving velocipedinal nirvana with neil pryde writ large on the downtube.

wheelsmith pave wheelset

or is there?

i'm more than old enough to recall the days when saddles featured a tad more comfort than professed by fizik's otherwise superb arione. and i cannot deny that i lie awake at night, feverishly concerned over the distinct lack of spokes proffered by the current breed of factory-built wheels. do not misunderstand my line of questioning here; were it not for the demonstrable ability of machines to build respectable wheels with straight-pull spokes, it's doubtful if the price of admission would be quite as enticingly low as it is.

wheelsmith pave wheelset

however, the sagely wisdom of gents such as the mighty dave t would have you believe that the very best accessory you can purchase for any bicycle, is a quality set of wheels. we all have our own ideas as to quite how that quality might be defined; mine leans heavily towards regular, double-butted stainless steel spokes with the traditional j-bend at one end to thread through a quality pair of hubs. i'd recommend a minimum of twenty-eight of the little blighters per wheel and i'm a firm believer that those spokes ought to cross each other at least twice before they reach a flat-profile rim.

wheelsmith pave wheelset

i count myself extremely fortunate that the above description is easily and superbly filled by scotland's wheelsmith in the shape of their pavé wheelset. according to master wheelbuilder, derek mclay, "There is no point in a rigid deep carbon rim or low spoke count for cobbles or rough roads unless you are riding 27mm or 28mm silk tubulars and have back-up. At amateur speeds, you will bounce about and put static load shocks through the entire bike. A rim with a little bit of 'compliance' is the way to go." in this particular case, derek is preaching to the converted.

so, in order that i might verify the truth of his statement, i removed the fulcrum wheels from the bura and replaced them with a pair of wheelsmith's pavés. the review pair feature 28 spokes up front, laced two cross onto miche hubs and replica ambrosio anodised rims. the rear wheel adds four more spokes, laced three-cross once again onto a miche rc2 hub and the same rim. to keep everything ship-shape and bristol fashion, i transferred the clement strada tyres. that way my comparison test would mean the only difference would be the wheelset.

wheelsmith pave wheelset

in all honesty, though i expected there to be some noticeable difference, i really hadn't expected it to be quite so dramatic. before i'd turned a pedal, simply rolling across the car park that borders the croft, provided me with the sort of bicycle that the distributors will probably have to drag kicking and screaming from the bike shed when they want it back. while the frame has lost none of its vitesse, none of its professed stiffness, and none of its exhilarating handling, the comfort level has been immeasurably improved.

granted, there's something of a price premium involved, but it's hardly as great as you might imagine. the average retail price of the fulcrums is around £190, only half that of the wheelsmith pavés, but believe me, they're worth every penny. islay has more than a few roads that we really only bring out for special occasions, where being thrown about, courtesy of all that stiffness, is an occupational hazard. the wheelsmiths remove those unpleasant sensations almost completely, yet retain those hard-won average speeds often seen on strava.

wheelsmith pave wheelset

the neil pryde bura is very agreeably priced at £2250 and it would be hard to criticise the ultegra/fulcrum package on price alone. but if i might assume for a moment that you agree with me wholeheartedly, i would encourage you to add another £400 to your budget and do as i have done to augment the bura with this second, high quality pair of wheelsmiths. i hardly need point out that this is the way wheels used to be built and with good reason. just ask eddy.

come the revolution, all wheels will be made like this.

wheelsmith pavé wheelset

saturday 18 november 2017

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................