Hi all,
as you may have seen, I started in an attempt to upgrade my existing ally bike and come out with something a little better than I have...ended up going mad and having a new bike....
So, the existing bike is still looking for a few bits and bobs.
I've seen some Reparto corse wheels, which I wondered about having as road wheels - what I mean by this is, I'll keep my existing ones (which currently need new tyres) and use them purely for the turbo and rollers, so i'll chuck some Tacx turbo tyres on them and leave them as they are. But set the reparto's for road riding.
So the plan would be:
Nice day - use the carbon
Wet day - use the Bianchi with repartos.
Horrendous storm Dennis type day or purely indoor training - use the Bianchi with Tacx tyres.
Are the wheels any good? any horror stories? I'd be putting some general tyres on them so they can cope with changing weather.
thoughts would be great.
Reparto Corse Wheelset - any good?
Re: Reparto Corse Wheelset - any good?
'Reparto Corse' means 'racing department' in Italian. Wheelsets with this writ upon them are most likely to be various OEM wheelsets as supplied with Bianchi bikes.
I don't think they are likely to be anything super special, else they might more commonly be sold in the aftermarket. In the current vogue almost any OEM wheelset is somewhat infra dig on a posh bike, so if you are offered such a wheelset new(ish) and it isn't on widespread retail sale, it has probably been rendered surplus to requirements by someone else doing an instant upgrade.
Are they any good? Well 'good' means different things to different people; good can mean the latest styling, the least weight, rave reviews in magazines, or decent strength, performance and reliability/repairability. In the weird and wonderful world of aftermarket wheels, expensive is often equated with 'good' too and so are some brands, regardless of whether the wheels tend to fall apart or not, or can be maintained or not.
FWIW if you stress-relieve them and maintain the bearings properly (and often a first service is beneficial before the wheels have done a turn, such is the paucity of grease in some of them) then lots of different wheelsets can be 'good' in moderate service. But if you can't buy spare parts down the line, the wheels might just as well be throwaway ones, in which case they are -practically speaking- not worth any more than a set of throwaway wheels would be.
A further complication is tubelessness; if you are definitely going to use tubeless tyres then it makes sense to use rims with lips in the well which are designed to retain tubeless tyres properly. However if you are definitely not going to use tubeless tyres, I would suggest you avoid such rims; they only make dealing with the tyres more of a PITA than it needs to be.
cheers
I don't think they are likely to be anything super special, else they might more commonly be sold in the aftermarket. In the current vogue almost any OEM wheelset is somewhat infra dig on a posh bike, so if you are offered such a wheelset new(ish) and it isn't on widespread retail sale, it has probably been rendered surplus to requirements by someone else doing an instant upgrade.
Are they any good? Well 'good' means different things to different people; good can mean the latest styling, the least weight, rave reviews in magazines, or decent strength, performance and reliability/repairability. In the weird and wonderful world of aftermarket wheels, expensive is often equated with 'good' too and so are some brands, regardless of whether the wheels tend to fall apart or not, or can be maintained or not.
FWIW if you stress-relieve them and maintain the bearings properly (and often a first service is beneficial before the wheels have done a turn, such is the paucity of grease in some of them) then lots of different wheelsets can be 'good' in moderate service. But if you can't buy spare parts down the line, the wheels might just as well be throwaway ones, in which case they are -practically speaking- not worth any more than a set of throwaway wheels would be.
A further complication is tubelessness; if you are definitely going to use tubeless tyres then it makes sense to use rims with lips in the well which are designed to retain tubeless tyres properly. However if you are definitely not going to use tubeless tyres, I would suggest you avoid such rims; they only make dealing with the tyres more of a PITA than it needs to be.
cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Hudson1984
- Posts: 220
- Joined: 21 May 2012, 2:02pm
Re: Reparto Corse Wheelset - any good?
don't often expect clear, concise replies in forums. I can see why you have a thread dedicated to you now! so thanks for the reply.
didn't realise they were just a standard wheel (albeit a bit newer than that already on my bike)
I have a set of Campag Calima on my carbon bike - this was a good balance of price and seeing good reviews - I prefer a long term wheel over something 100g lighter that won't last.
What i'm really wanting is just a nice wheelset - doesn't have to be absolutely fantastic, just a good all weather wheel. My current ones aren't really a problem (well not that I can notice anyway) so i'm only really doing it to make it easier to changed between turbo riding and outdoor riding.
So really a basic wheel and a new cassette is the goal - I don't really want to spend 000's as I want to keep the carbon bike as the "performance" bike, so these wheels really are just needing to be "do the job nicely" level rather than even mid-range band. My bianchi has a 9 speed gruppo which i'm not looking to change so the wheel needs to suit that too
Re: Reparto Corse Wheelset - any good?
FWIW, the Bianchi "reparto corse" wheels are most often laced on Miche hubs, the lack of cone/nut on the Lh side of the rear hub will give you a clue for this.
The hubs are good, the rims are sometimes laced in odd "couples" of spokes so not suitable for rebuilding because you are unlikely to find those rims. But you can always relace those hubs onto any Mavic/Rigida/etc rim with different spokes.
Sometimes you can get those wheels for just over £100 which can be a few tenners more than the price of the hubs, so it's not too bad!
The hubs are good, the rims are sometimes laced in odd "couples" of spokes so not suitable for rebuilding because you are unlikely to find those rims. But you can always relace those hubs onto any Mavic/Rigida/etc rim with different spokes.
Sometimes you can get those wheels for just over £100 which can be a few tenners more than the price of the hubs, so it's not too bad!
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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Hudson1984
- Posts: 220
- Joined: 21 May 2012, 2:02pm
Re: Reparto Corse Wheelset - any good?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bianchi-repa ... 4189572622
these are the ones.
Sadly running on SRAM and Shimano spec so won't work for me.
I have an £80 refund due from Wiggle, so i'm tempted to just get another set of Calima wheels... would they take a 9 speed cassette?
these are the ones.
Sadly running on SRAM and Shimano spec so won't work for me.
I have an £80 refund due from Wiggle, so i'm tempted to just get another set of Calima wheels... would they take a 9 speed cassette?