any update on these. Top of my list for new stuff that I don't actually need for the bike.
Hi mate, what more do you want to know?
I’m on vacation at the moment, but I managed to put almost another 200 km on these wheels the weekend before I went away.
Saturday was pretty gusty, around 45 km/h winds, so as you’d expect there was some movement with the stronger side gusts — but they are 65 mm deep wheels, so that’s always going to be a consideration with a wheel this deep.
Overall, I think they’re an excellent set of wheels, especially for the money.
Serenade sell them on their website as 24/24 spoke as standard. Personally, I think that’s unnecessary for most riders unless you’re a bigger/heavier rider or putting out some serious power. As I was dealing directly with Serenade, I had mine built 20/20, which has been absolutely fine for me.
In my opinion, Serenade offer excellent value for money. If you’re in the UK, I think these work out at roughly £500, and at that price it’s difficult to complain about what you’re getting.
The one thing people always seem to focus on with Chinese wheels is bearing life. Personally, I don’t have particularly high expectations for the original bearings in any wheelset at this sort of price point. High-quality bearings aren’t cheap, and that’s one of the areas manufacturers can use to hit a particular price.
Ceramic bearings can have slightly lower rolling resistance and potentially lower weight, but the actual real-world benefit is tiny for most riders. Lower-quality ceramic bearings can also wear relatively quickly, particularly with water, contamination, rough roads or poor sealing. A good-quality steel bearing is generally cheaper, durable and, for normal road riding, perfectly adequate.
Bearing life is going to depend on rider weight, conditions, how much you ride in the wet, road quality, maintenance and plenty of other factors. If the original bearings last 1,000 km, fine; if they last 3,000, 5,000 or 10,000 km, even better. They’re consumable parts and easy enough to replace when eventually required.
To be fair, I swap between different wheelsets so regularly that it’s actually pretty rare for me to wear a set of bearings out anyway.
If I could change one thing about these wheels, I’d probably make them 25 mm internal rather than 23 mm. But again, the rim profile is based around the Scope design, which also uses a 23 mm internal width, so I understand why they’ve gone that route.
Other than that, I think they’re an excellent wheelset for the money.
There are a few discount codes floating around, but if you’re looking to buy anything from Serenade you can use:
CHINABIKES
That gives you an additional 8% off the purchase price. 👍
