Very Light, Responsive, Good Climbing, FAst

None

amazingly cheap and light

Very light, durable and inexpensive. Find another wheel set that matches it and it will cost several times what these wheels cost. They are simply an outstanding value.

None.

I've had my XR-1's for about ten years and I finally wore out the rear wheel today, after 18,000+ miles. It developed a crack on the rear where the spoke threads through so it looks like it is done. It is a sad day. I've only had the set trued 2-3 times over that period as they just haven't needed it. I have hit several bad potholes so hard I thought I cracked my frame but these wheels have endured it all with no issues. I'm 165 lbs and ride regularly over less than ideal pavement. I've ridden thousands of miles over rough, Texas chip seal, dropped off of curbs and other things when it's convenient and hit the occasional pothole at high speed. These wheels have not lived a pampered existence. Based on my experience, I would highly recommend Xero wheels; these in particular, but they are an older model and apparently no longer available. Pity. I hope my next set of Xero's are as good.

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Bontrager

Cheap, Durable, Light, Aero,

They get no respect because they cost less than $1000

Bought these 8 years ago (2004) and rode once of twice a week recreationally. After ~15,000 miles, the rear rim gave (stating to show cracks around 3 spoke holes). I'm ~190 lbs and ride somewhat aggressively, some potholes, some sidewalk hops, some gravel roads, etc. I'm impressed with the fast that until now, these wheels needed no truing, no broken spokes (my durace rear lost 2 spokes in 2 years). I will definitely buy another set.

stay true, very durable, light, very quiet freewheel, looks great

first rear wheel disintegrated in pot hole,
braking surface wore out before any problems showed up.
Tend to fill with water through spoke holes on really wet rides and are impossible to empty.

I am a heavy rider (90-95kg) and commute 30kms/day every day with panniers weighing about 10kg. I ride at 35km/h on the flats on average and am very aggressive on the couple of hills that I normally ride.
I broke 3 rear axles (!!!) with the original custom wheels that came with my bike and my LBS mechanic suggested that i change wheels to something with a better supporting hub design for my weight and strength. He recommended the Xero XR-1 set and I was hooked by the look and the light weight but I also like the sound of the freewheel (my original wheel had a very loud click that I found annoying when coasting).
I immediately noticed a positive difference and loved these guys. Within 2 months of great handling and performance I hit a large pot hole that broke a spoke. i stopped and trued up the wheel best as I could on the sidewalk since i still had 10km to get home. By the time I got home several spokes had literally peeled from the rim leaving it in tatters.
i took it back to my LBS and he sent it to the factory. In the meantime I bought another rear wheel exactly the same to keep riding. To my surprise, Xero rebuilt the wheel for free (reusing my hub) but didn't decal it. I put this one in my garage as a spare and kept riding my newer replacement.

This was all in 2005. This is now 2010 and the sets have over 25,000km on them. Both the front and rear started going out of true for the first time this year. Within a month of this I broke a spoke on the rear wheel and finally put on the factory rebuilt wheel that has been collecting dust. The bearings in the hub are still spinning great and quiet even though I have been through four cassettes on them.

When I took a look at the front wheel closely, the braking rim is completely worn through with horizontal cracks appearing. The wear indicators are long gone and I didn't even notice.
Considering the great mileage I got out of these I called my dealer for another set just this month and they told me that they don't carry the brand anymore because too many of them failed like my first one did (the spokes would peel out of the rim). They suggested Fulcrum 5 as a suitable replacement.

I am now shopping for a strong light wheel and will likely go for the Fulcrum 3 wheel set which is about 50% more expensive than these.

In summary, these have been real workhorses for me but I suffered a severe failure early on. I am not sure if I was either unlucky with that one or lucky with the one that lasted. LBS experience has not been good. Because of that, I will only rate a 3.

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custom wheels

Light and cheap.
Easy to spin and climb.
Remains true.

Poor durability
Skewers suck

I rode these wheels for about 7000 km (4500 miles), on two consecutive seasons. I'd like to give them a good review but... I just can't. I notice some cracks around the nipple holes on the rear wheel at the beginning of this season. I hoped for the better, but the worst happened. The crack expanded to the limit where the nipple was just coming out of the rim. I noticed 4 other holes were cracked. At the same time, I broke a spoke on the front wheel, so I just returned the complete wheelset. The good news is they honored their (supposedly expired 1 year) warranty. But I just bought a different wheelset since I cannot trust these wheels.

I mainly commute with my bike, the road is not that bad, but there is a lot of vibrations.

Other problems I had with these wheels is the spacer on the back wheel coming loose on the drive side and the skewers are just crappy, you have to tighten them real hard to prevent them from slipping. The wheels also are not that rigid, you feel them bend when you climb over a pebble or a small bump on the road.

Bottom line: incredible value but really poor durability.

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My good old campi rims never cracked on the same road, but they are 32 holes rims, meaning a lot less tension on the spokes.

Lightest wheel-set at this price point, zero flex at my speeds, trouble free, low spoke count look.

soft brake surface

3rd season with 3K miles on these wheels. At 6'/180lb these wheels have remained tight, true & flex free on my 2X weekly rides. I do a ping check every month on the spokes. 2 minor gripes: 1. Braking surface is very soft - I ended up with Campy pads that finally stopped the rim shredding. 2. Replaced rear skewer with Shimano due to wheel slips in the frame on hard efforts.

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C'dale / Trek house brands - all popped spokes

Light, cheap

Way too flexy... When I was 180, standing would cause both wheels to rub the brakes. Slightly better now that I lost 15 pounds, but still very flexy.

Yes, these wheels are light and cheap, BUT, unless you are superlight, these things are way too flexy. I got mine about 3 years ago, so perhaps they have improved. Forget sprinting, your rims will rub the brake pads. Were pretty durable, until recently. A minor pothole (my Mavic Cosmos survived far worse) and now the rear rim will not stay true. Honestly, not bad for $200, but probably best suited for very light riders.

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Mavic Cosmos

Aero and light, smooth ride

Spokes easily break

I purchased these wheels in order to improve weight and ride from my stock shimano wheelset that came on my Tarmac. The wheels feeland ride exceptionally well, but after 1,000 miles i have suffered from two broken spokes in the rear wheel, one while on a 100 mile ride and one while riding rollers under light conditons. It seems as though to shave the weight the comprimised the integrity of the spoke strength. At 135 lbs I can easily say I'm not overloading these wheels!

Very even Spoke tension. Durable and Unbelievably light for the price. Ride quality as well.

None so far, other than the anxiety before recieving them of purchasing such inexpensive wheels.

I purchased these wheels out of a desire to try something new. I had been riding on Ksyrium elites for the last year or so and had put about 6000 miles on them. The Ksyriums had always seemed a bit too rough riding for myself and I couldn't justify them based on their strength (185lb rider), because the rear wheel never seemed to stay true. Twice I had the rear wheel almost lock up after hitting a very large pothole.
Along comes the XR-1, 180g lighter, smoother riding and as of yet, still perfectly true. As of this review I have about 500 miles on them and couldn't be more pleased. Despite having a deeper profile than the Ksyriums, they are much more stable in crosswinds (I think it is the absence of bladed spokes), though admittedly they don't feel anymore "aero."
All in all, I can't see any reason why these wheels would perform poorly for anyone. One would assume with wheels manufactured for this price, there would be a higher rate of defects. If that is the case I must have gotten exceptionaly lucky. These wheels have performed great.
My only complaint is that they were not the advertised 1520g but rather closer to 1590g w/out rim tape.
Just as a side note, I ride exclusively in northern california, on everything from aggregate roads and patched together messes, to glass covered city streets and even the occasionaly nice road. So between my weight, conditions and aggressive riding style my equipment takes plenty of abuse.

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Mavic Ksyrium Elite (2007 Edition)

Strong, light & inexpensive. Silver ones look great! Accelerates faster than my Mavic Elites which cost much more.

none

INCREDIBLY STRONG - used on a Scott CR1 Pro w/Syntace C2 aeros. Today while going about 22 mph on the flats, while keeping an eye on the cyclist in front who had just dropped the hammer, I hit a rock and went airborne for maybe 20 - 30 feet. The aero bars were bent up at about 80 degrees, bars knocked up a couple of degrees and off center about 5 degrees, right brake lever jammed up about 2 inches but the wheel was absolutely TRUE!!! It was astounding to see that it was not bent much less still true!

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Mavic Ksyrium Elite