Rims
Rims
As we said at the start, at this price point we’d say aluminium is a far better option than carbon. If you can find a full carbon rim at this price point then you’ll probably be suspicious.
Another trend over the last few years is towards wider rims. Understandably, due to issues in keeping the weight down, most alloy wheels still tend to live in the 22-23mm-wide vicinity, although British wheel makers Spin do a rather nice set called the K2 Koppenberg Max 25s (£549) that come in at 25mm wide and still weigh in at a pretty light claimed 1,525g.
Wider rims have various benefits. One of them is that when your rim and tyre width are closely matched, airflow around the whole system is improved, so if you like to ride 25mm tyres, it makes sense to pair them with a wider rim. If you do make that switch to a wider rim, and with it a wider tyre, then other more subjective benefits include improved stability and lower rolling resistance.