Wheels

[ekcjwc]

I have had my bike for three years now and my friend at the LBS tells me I should upgrade my wheels. I have a Cannondale Synapse WSD. It looks like wheel prices vary a variance likes bikes - not too bad to expensive. Thoughts and/or help appreciated. I tried to attach a picture of the bike.

[indysteel]

I almost always recommend custom wheels when someone asks on TE about wheel upgrades. A lot of prebuilt wheels are simply arguably overbuilt, i.e., too stiff, for the average woman, and I think if you choose wisely, you can get a better and lighter wheel for the money with customs. Do a search on "custom wheels" if you'd like to read more. Even there are no local builders in the area, there are a number of non-local builders out there. Wait times might run a bit long this time of year, however.

[TxDoc]

Upgrading from what to what?
What I mean is, usually the need to upgrade reflects that your current equipment is no longer suitable for your objectives in terms of performance. Which in turns means that it is your goals that determine what to upgrade and how.
So what I am asking I guess is -
1-what is your current wheelset?
2-what are your cycling needs at this point (casual riding, touring, loaded touring, road racing, time trial, triathlon...)?

Knowing what you want to do with your bike will tell you what your bike needs to be capable of, and then which wheelset to pick.

As a general guideline, Indysteel is correct about custom being a great choice. You cannot go wrong with custom because the builder will ask you what you need to do with the bike, your weight, equipment, etc - and determine how to build the best possible wheel for you.

That said, not everyone needs custom wheelsets. I am one of the people that almost always uses pre-built wheelsets. I have used customs here and there because my sister liked her wheels custom built, but never found them to perform any better than my pre-built wheels. My personal preference goes to DT Swiss and Campagnolo - I used both for years and they work well for me. Whoever you ask will have his/her favorite that work for them.

My recommendation for you is to decide what you want your bike to do - and then evaluate whether you can obtain the desired results with a pre-built wheelset, or maybe it is worth working with a builder and purchasing a custom wheelset.
Good luck :)

[indysteel]

Those are good questions TxDoc.

I would note that my custom wheels are a pretty basic build. What I found in researching wheels is that I could get a lighter wheel by going custom for the money than I could get with pre-builts. There is, howvever, nothing particular blingey about them. I didn't choose custom because I needed it; I chose it because it made the most economic sense.