Easton EA90 SL

Price Paid:  $0.00 at demos

Favorite Ride:
Rubber side down

Bike Setup:
'06Fooji team, Ult.6600, Truvativ Rolleur crks, race on Michelin tires, commute on Conti's

Summary:
Demo'd these wheels for a month. Rode them down stairs. Played bike polo on them. Commuted the mean streets of Seattle, plus one long ride (50+ miles) in the rain. Very impressed with the durability (maybe a mil out of true after straight-up abusing them). These are also very stiff wheels. Wound it up to the city limits sign and dropped everybody. Great power transfer (check out the drive side hub flange! Yowch!). Love the hubs, they're pretty buttery. Great on ascents, confident descender, corner like champs. I like these wheels because they're not 'syrium sl's, dang near as light and retail for $250 less. As far as word of mouth goes, Easton (nee Velomax) has great customer service, so I'm erring on the side of calling people's bad experiences an aberration.

Strengths:
Solid (as burly as a considerably heavier wheel), smooth hubs, light and cheap. Relatively cheap. They look slick too.

Weaknesses:
The cassette hub body was a little chewed when I got my hands on them, was a lot chewed when I was done with them (I'm a beast on the sprints tho!), but I was using a 105 cassette. They're supposed to hold up better with a nicer cassette on.

Similar Products Used:
Shimano whr550's; hand built's (love Mavic rims tho: Open Pro's, CXP33's anyone?) on Ultegra, D/A,(say DOO-ra ah-CHAY. You know, like the Italians.) and VanDessel hubs.

Price Paid:  $350.00

Favorite Ride:
any road, any where, any time.

Bike Setup:
Fuji Team Pro, Ultegra SL, Easton EA90 SL and EC70 SLs (depending on the day), Deda stem, ritchey wcs seat post and handlebars.

Summary:
Great set of wheels. I'm 250 lbs and these wheels have not given me a problem what so ever. Very light for such a durable wheel. I'm sold on easton wheels now.

Strengths:
stiffness, smooth rides, etc

Weaknesses:
none that I can think of

Similar Products Used:
Mavic ksyrium es and sl

Price Paid:  $450.00 at Ebay

Summary:
I upgraded to these from Shimano's base wheel model that came on my Cannondale. I was experiencing some flexing with the old wheels and felt they did not roll as smoothly as some other bikes I have tried. I originally wanted the Orion II model, but think that Easton has changed their product line around and these are now the equivalent (although to Easton's detriment this information is not easy to come by and I could be wrong). These wheels do not flex at all and roll much smoother. After using them for about a month I am very happy with them. I have not been road biking for long and do not have a lot to compare these to, but the bottom line is I am about 5% faster on average with these wheels vs the older ones and I no longer have the annoyance of the wheel flexing and rubbing on the brake pad when really pushing on the pedals.

Strengths:
Stiff, fast, and comfortable to ride

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I bought the EA90 Aero's with my new bike in Nov '07 at about 1000 miles I started breaking spokes..broke one, called Easton, they said wheel not a problem, fixed it, broke another one, sent wheel in to easton. Customer support was absolutely horrible. They said it was not the wheel. I never broke spokes before. They don't stand by their products. I will never buy Easton again and customer support lost my address several times..etc ended up over 6+ weeks to fix, true and send my wheel back. Horrible experience

Strengths:
nothing

Weaknesses:
poor quality
poor customer service

Similar Products Used:
Much happier with my mavics