I have a set of American Classic victory road wheels on my Audax Mk3 at the mo, as transferred over from my old road bike. They run 25mm panaracer paselas, but I need some objkective advice.
These wheels do the job - they're round, and true!!! And also quite light weight. But they're road race wheels and as I am doing longer and longer rides on country roads, and have the possibility now to do some light weight touring, I have spoken to Mick Madgett at Madgetts in Diss (my local-ish bike shop), about getting some handmade touring standard wheels made up, prob on Deore hubs of some grade (135mm wide). He has shown me a couple of the kind of 700c touring rims he uses, and reckons on a starting price of about £150-170 a pair.
The issue I suspect with my present wheels is comfort (they are medium section and this very stiff), and weight (they aren't designed for carrying weight).
So....if I were to invest in a new set of wheels, would the increase in comfort be noticeable? Would the weight be significantly greater than a set of roadie wheels? What grade of shimano hubs would propel recommend, Deore, 530, XT?
Thanks...