Keefer Madness

First Impressions of the Shimano RS-80 Wheelset

// June 27th, 2009 // Cycling, Cycling Products, Personal Crap, Reviews

So I’ve not been able to log three rides on my new wheelset — the Shimano RS-80 wheels, which were a warranty replacement and upgrade for my Shimano Ultegra wheels that came with my 2009 Specialized Tarmac Expert.

While a full review may come down the road, after some more rides and a few races on them, I wanted to give a first impression review of the Shimano RS-80 clincher wheelset.

After doing a little surfing about the wheels on the web, it’s my understanding that these wheels are basically the Dura-Ace wheels. except with the heavier Ultegra hubs. Moving from the Ultegra wheels, these guys were just shy of a half of a pound lighter — which is substantial seeing as it’s rotational weight that’s being reduced. On the three rides so far, I’ve found these carbon-alloy wheels spin up quite well. Out of the saddle I can especially feel a noticeable difference over my last wheels. These transfer power from the crank to the rear wheel exceptionally efficiently, while the 16 butted, bladed front spokes radially laced make the front wheel pretty aerodynamic.

The wheels are pretty stiff and don’t flex, even in turning at speed. Even with the substantial weight and reasonable power I transfer to my back wheel, they feel strong.

Even though carbon is known to absorb road chatter, I felt more numbing in the hands more often, especially in my most recent ride on these wheels, though this may or may not be the wheels at fault. I slightly lowered my riding position at the same time that I swapped these wheels out, so that may be at least partially to blame.

Visually, the wheels are pretty nice looking, with a pretty standard black and silver decals. The only real “bling” to the wheels are the shiny red nipples. Because the brake surface of the wheel is aluminum, no special (read: expensive) brake pads are needed. My Ultegra brakes stopping power was good and quiet with the new wheels.

While a lot more miles are needed to really run these through tests, my first impressions leads me to believe these are a good wheel upgrade at a reasonable price, along with a good introduction to carbon wheels. They’re not a full carbon wheel, but because of that allow for no switchover in brake pads, and are strong and stiff wheels, even for bigger riders, like myself. These are a great upgrade to your wheels for under the grand mark street price.