Serenade 4550 Wavy Wheelset SUB 1200g steel spokes 500USD

[dolph]

I have successfully used a DT Swiss freehub on my Serenade gravel wheels. Those have the SR032 Hubs, however. I'm running an N3W freehub for Campy Ekar on those.

I was told by Marya in the past that their hubs should be compatible. I have however not tried it on my other Serenade wheels with the SR278 hubs.

i run dt swiss 54t on my sr278hubs without any issues, using dt springs and axle spacer too

[fhill]

Do you have pictures of the TAR55WS? Ordered them as well this morning but am really curious about the performance in cross winds. They kinda look U-shaped, totally different than their 50mm counterpart. Do they measure 34mm externally or 32mm externally as shown in the pictures on the Serenade website?

https://serenadebikes.com/product/25mm-inner-wide-carbon-spoke-wheelset-with-sr251c-hub/

Yes I'm running the TAR55WS, on a road setup
Will make some pictures tomorrow, I think its 32mm outside where the tire sits and 34mm on the widest part. Will try to measure and make pictures of it.

Can't say to much about wind performance as it's quite still this week in terms of wind, but on the few downhills i already did they seem to be quite stable.

[fhill]

Hope you can see the shape of the rim.

Measured 32mm outside where the tire sits and 33.7mm on the widest part

[Kuma]

Would you prefer 3,3mm or 5,5mm carbon spokes? When is it recommended to use 3,3 or 5,5mm?

[FlorianS]

Hope you can see the shape of the rim.

Measured 32mm outside where the tire sits and 33.7mm on the widest part

Thank you so much! Are you running 30mm or 32mm? These tires match perfectly, wow.

[fhill]

Thank you so much! Are you running 30mm or 32mm? These tires match perfectly, wow.

Those are 28mm Conti GP5000 STR, they measure ca. 30,5mm

[serenadebikes]

Would you prefer 3,3mm or 5,5mm carbon spokes? When is it recommended to use 3,3 or 5,5mm?

Climbing & All-Round Road Riding： 3.3~3.5mm
Aero: 3.8~5.2mm.

[2wheeledbarbie]

Serenade were kind enough to send me a set of their new 65mm "Snakeskin" wheelset for review.

Full disclosure—they sent these to me free of charge, but the opinions below are entirely my own. In fact, I'd already been seriously considering buying a set because I thought they looked really interesting.

I've now got around 90km on them, so these are only first impressions rather than a full review.

any update on these.  Top of my list for new stuff that I don't actually need for the bike.

[Sander2177]

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. 👍

[Jaaniusss]

I've now placed a second order for Serenade wheels. This time I decided to go for the snakeskin 65mm "scope" design. Went for silver hubs, carbon spokes and a custom Serenade sticker design (+15 USD extra).

Total price was 651 eur on website, but with the currency conversion ended up paying 680 eur. Will keep the forum posted on delivery time and how/if they're able to assist me with my custom sticker design idea.

[Jaaniusss]

Received my second set of Serenades yesterday.

Ordered on 28.09 received behind my door on 28.10. Overall very good turnaround time and a lot faster than the previous time.

Everything packaged nicely, came with tubeless tape installed, 2 extra carbon spokes and tubeless valves.

Weight on my scale was 1336g for the set, I think online they advertise it just a hair under 1300. Supposedly according to Wendy there is not supposed to be a weight difference in the black vs silver hub, but I dont know if 46 extra grams can really come from the tape. The custom stickers I ordered supposedly will be sent later on - lets see

Either way so far I'm very happy with them, but can't really use before spring

[ediryppah]

Received my second set of Serenades yesterday.

Ordered on 28.09 received behind my door on 28.10. Overall very good turnaround time and a lot faster than the previous time.

Everything packaged nicely, came with tubeless tape installed, 2 extra carbon spokes and tubeless valves.

Weight on my scale was 1336g for the set, I think online they advertise it just a hair under 1300. Supposedly according to Wendy there is not supposed to be a weight difference in the black vs silver hub, but I dont know if 46 extra grams can really come from the tape. The custom stickers I ordered supposedly will be sent later on - lets see

Either way so far I'm very happy with them, but can't really use before spring

Looks cool. I'm considering these, especially with silver hubs that always look nice.
What about the custom Serenade stickers?

[CandC]

I also bought a set of the "snakeskin" 65mm wheels with silver hubs. I have about 325 miles (~500km) on them since Oct 10th.

I like them a lot. They feel premium and come with tubeless tape installed and nice valve stems. The snakeskin pattern extends to the edge of the rim in a continuous pattern, which is not true for some of the snakeskin rims available from other sellers.  I haven't taken them out of the bike to check the uniformity of the tension, but the bearings felt smooth in hand and the wheels ran true.  I did not throw them on a scale as I was in a hurry to get out for a ride and I already had mounted the tires when it occurred to me to check the weight.  I would not be surprised if the wheels had 36g of tubeless tape. It was expertly applied and very thick, which I think is a plus. I ordered a set of the DFS sub 1000g wheels for my wife and they included some very cheap and incorrectly sized tape in the box.  I ended up having to order some.

They are a bit more of a handful in wind gusts over my 40mm zipps, as is expected for a 65mm rim. It doesn't really bother me as I am about 95kg, and have quite a bit of experience riding.  If you are lighter or have issues with balance, or confidence, you may want to stick to something a bit shallower.

I am a bit of a skeptic on the aerodynamic "feel" of wheels. The data shows that aero wheels can save up to 10 watts, but the difference in the perception of speed at 10 watts at 45kph I don't think is real (390w vs 400w?).  I feel confident that it doesn't get much better though.  They also make the loud carbon wheel rolling sound.

I am more of a sprinter and these wheels have survived a few sprint workouts and are confidence inspiring.  I even hit an all-time best power (1550w for 10 sec), which has less to do with these wheels and more to do with training- but no issues with the wheels. I'm entering trainer season, so I don't expect I 'll have much of an update for a while.

[Jaaniusss]

(..)
What about the custom Serenade stickers?

I sent them an Ai render of the bike I'm building and the stickers I'd ideally like for the wheels to "tie" the entire thing together.

They're bigger in text size and a different color from the usual serenade stickers. After a little back and forth with Wendy they ultimately said no problem and only asked for 15$ extra. They did say they'd have to ship the wheels to me first and then send the stickers on a later date as their shipping prices were supposed to increase from the following week. I will be sure to update the forum and post better pictures of them IF and WHEN they send them to me.