Performance Inc. Forte Wheelset

Price Paid:  $160.00 at Performance

Summary:
Wheels look good and are stiff and reasonbly light for the money. Have stayed true for the 3000 miles I have on them.

For the downside, the spokes make a large amount of noise, I thought it was the bars or seatpost creaking for a while, but replacing the wheels with my old Open Pros completely elimnated the noise. Tightening the spokes got rid of the noise, but I was off the scale of my Park tension gauge. Performance was quite supportive, even sending me some free spokes as spares (even though I never broke one), but they were unable to provide a maximum recommended spoke tension for the wheels. This would be a great wheel for a deaf person, but I am looking for replacements now.

Strengths:
Look good (stickers removed), spin well, strong, true.

Weaknesses:
Very noisey (creaks, groans, and pops)

Similar Products Used:
Mavic Open Pro

Price Paid:  $159.00 at Performance - Columb

Favorite Ride:
circleville to old man's cave

Bike Setup:
New Lemond TI frame, Ultegra group.

Summary:
After a 3 year layoff from road racing I am getting back into training. Blew my budget on a Ti frameset and had to economize on wheels so I thought at $159 it would be worth it as a traininng wheelset. Me: 195 lbs, ex Jack Daniel's, Bank One, Unizan Bank rider. Mostly flat road races or flat crit's. These wheels are amazing for the money. Advertised at 1750 grams they spin nice and have never required truing. Spokes stay evenly tensioned. Great wheel for the money!

Strengths:
inexpensive and strong. Light weight for the money...

Weaknesses:
decals (I removed mine!)

Similar Products Used:
Shimano r550 clincher wheelset,
Mavic Kysrum clincher wheelset

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Price Paid:  $110.00 at Performance

Favorite Ride:
downhill

Bike Setup:
I have many awesome bikes.

Summary:
I used these about 2 years split amongst 2-3 road bikes, so only put about 3-4000 miles on them, maybe less. I was very happy with these wheels considering the price I paid. They arrived round and true, well-tensioned out of the box. They stayed true over the time I used them, hubs spin smooth and quiet. The stickers were quite ugly, so took them off ASAP and the wheels looked pretty stealth after that. I recently sold them after I've switched all my bikes to Campy.

Strengths:
Good price to weight ratio. Reliable for the short time I used them. Spokes are thin bladed but regular spokes can be used as replacements if needed ( I never needed).

Weaknesses:
A little heavy but not really a complaint for this price.

Similar Products Used:
Mavic Helium, Velomax Circuit, Custom Ultegra/Open Pro, Custom DT Swiss/Velocity