So, if you had a choice which wheelset would you demo? Easton, Zipp, Flashpoint, Shimano, Campy, maybe Mavic? You will find (if you ask) that road shops carry sets of demo wheels for their customers to try out. Whether it is to gain speed on your local group ride or to gain stiffness to aid in recovering from a strong acceleration, wheels are what will make a difference.
Shimano is behind tubeless road clinchers. They've added the Ultegra WH-6700 wheelset to their roster of tubeless wheels. This means that if you want to try tubeless, you can without any tricky tape job on the rim bed as the spoke holes do not protrude through the rim and the rim seam has been sealed. And if you don't care, you can run normal tubed clinchers. If you're on the fence, you can hedge your bets by getting a wheelset that can go both ways.
It's nicely aero with 16 bladed radial spokes in front and 20 bladed cross-two spokes in the rear. It is reasonably light with a claimed weight of 695g in front and 957g in the rear.
Shimano has taken the design they pioneered with their Dura Ace tubeless wheelset and brought it to an affordable price point. The difference is a somewhat heavier rim, less finish work on the exterior of the hubs and a different hub shell alloy, less smoothing of the bearing races, and a steel cassette body that can work with 8-, 9- and 10-speed cassettes. They still use "angular contact" aka loose ball bearings over sealed cartridges. Shimano thinks they roll smoother and offer less friction.
As with all Shimano wheels, these come with skewers and a spoke magnet. The Shimano Ultegra WH-6700 tubeless wheelset has a claimed weight is 1652g (695g front, 957g rear).
The Bike Route now carries demo wheelsets of this model. For $30 a day you can take a long ride and find out exactly how light and stiff wheels help your performance and enhance the ride quality.
Any other questions? Call The Bike Route, 239.262.8373
