Wheels and Tyres
Used road bike wheels and tyres from sellers across the UK, covering wheelsets, front wheels, rear wheels, rims, hubs, skewers and tyres. Listings run from new old stock to second-hand upgrades, so the same page carries a first replacement wheel and a set of deep-section race hoops. Check the axle standard and freehub type against your bike before you buy.
What should I check buying used wheels?
Spin each wheel and watch the rim against the brake pad or frame — side-to-side wobble and up-and-down hop both point to spokes that need truing, which is cheap, but a rim that will not come true is not. Rock the rim side to side at the top to feel for play in the hub bearings, and squeeze pairs of spokes to find any that have gone slack. Look closely at the rim bed around the spoke holes for hairline cracks, and on carbon rims check the brake track and rim edges for chips or delamination. On rim-brake wheelsets, a braking surface that has gone concave or has reached its wear indicator is worn out.
Rim brake or disc brake wheels?
Rim-brake wheels have a machined braking track on the outer rim wall; disc wheels have no braking surface and instead carry a rotor mount at the hub. The two are not interchangeable, so match the wheel to the braking system already on the frame. Disc hubs use either a six-bolt rotor mount or Shimano's Centerlock splined fitting — rotors and adapters are available for both, but the hub decides which rotor you can run.
Which axle standard fits my frame?
Older and rim-brake road bikes almost always use quick release: 100mm spacing at the front, 130mm at the rear, with a 5mm skewer rod running through a hollow axle. Most disc road bikes use thru-axles instead, 12mm through a 100mm front hub and 12mm through a 142mm rear. Measure the spacing between your dropouts if you are unsure, and remember that skewers are sold separately from wheels — plenty of used wheels arrive without them.
Clincher, tubeless or tubular?
Clinchers use a separate inner tube inside an open-sided tyre and are the easiest to live with — a roadside puncture is a tube swap. Tubeless runs the same style of tyre without a tube, sealed by liquid sealant, and needs both a tubeless-ready rim and a tubeless-ready tyre plus tape and a valve. Tubulars are sewn closed and glued or taped onto a dedicated rim; they are light and ride well but a puncture usually means fitting a spare tyre rather than repairing on the road.
What tyre width should I run?
25mm and 28mm are the common road widths now, with 23mm mostly found on older race setups. Wider tyres run at lower pressures and take the sting out of rough surfaces, but only fit if the frame and fork allow it — check the clearance between the tyre and the fork crown, chainstays and seatstays, and leave room for mudguards if you use them. Rim internal width matters too: a narrow rim and a very wide tyre is a poor pairing.
Do freehub bodies matter?
Yes — the cassette has to match the freehub body on the rear hub. Shimano and SRAM's HG standard covers most 11-speed road cassettes, SRAM's 12-speed road cassettes need an XDR body, and Campagnolo uses its own splines. Freehub bodies can often be swapped on the same hub, so ask the seller which one is fitted and whether a spare is included before matching the wheel to your drivetrain components.