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I bought a 1k Cannondale road bike on bike to work a year ago. As standard it has Shimano RS10 wheels which look nice but are pretty flexy. Also the spoke tension has never been that even and the wheels tinkle and ping under load. Last night a front wheel spoke snapped completely spontaneously whilst riding on smooth Tarmac. It's cheap enough to repair but I sense this might be the start of their decline. I have little idea about road components, so was after some upgrade ideas which are proportionate to the value of the rest of the bike ie less than £250. Are hand built wheels worth it at this point?
Depends what you want. Handbuilts will probably be easier to maintain assuming they use normal hubs and a standard 32 spoke lacing pattern. You can get some very good factory wheels in this price range as well.
Personally I would go look for some factory wheels at a discount. Higher end shimano would be good.
Fulcrum Racing 5.
Hope hoops with open pro rims would be fairly standard. Strada had something around that price on sale last time I looked.
The superstar road wheels get a very good write up on bikeradar ...
Handbuilt or shimano Ultegra would be. Worthy upgrade.