Review: Campagnolo Khamsin C17 G3 wheelset

First of all, this is not a paid review. I bought these wheels with my own money.

I've used a lot of different wheels over the years. Recently I bought a Campagnolo Khamsin wheelset with Shimano freehub. Although I've ridden these wheels only around 200 kilometers I have to say that they are very good. Campagnolo wheels are always hand built which is a rare thing in this price range. When a wheel is built by hand they will stay true longer and spokes are in correct tension, equally.

My road bicycle with Khamsin wheelset

Although these wheels are not the lightest (around 1900 grams) they accelerate well. Khamsins inner width is 17 millimeters which is, again for this price range, very good. They work very well for 25c to 32c tyres. Personally, I like to use 28c tyres.

Khamsin wheelset comes rim taped installed (very well installed) and with quick release skewers.

Spokes

Spokes are round spokes and the rear wheel is laced what Campagnolo calls Mega G3 lacing. I truly believe it makes the wheel more stable and strong. It also looks nice. There are 24 spokes rear and 18 front.

As the spoke count is not very high, this might not be the best wheelset for very heavy touring, but for my purposes they are pretty much perfect. I don't carry heavy stuff with me and I like to ride with minimal gear. A bivy bag rather than a tent and so on.

One thing I like about Campagnolo wheels is that it's easy to buy spare parts (spokes or hub bearings). With Khamsin one could use standard spokes, but it's easier to buy Campagnolo spare spoke sets. Same goes with the bearings. It might be slightly more expensive route to take but at least you know you're getting quality stuff.

Hubs

The Khamsin wheelset hubs are good quality with sealed cartridge bearings. As with all Campagnolo wheels they are easy to service although to change the bearings you will need a special bearing press tool. Luckily they are not very expensive. Freehub does have a really nice, quite loud, sound.

Summary

To be honest, there's not much to add. Khamsin wheelset retails around 240€, but you can often find it less than 200€. Great, strong wheelset for the price.

I will keep this post updated as the wheels gain more kilometers.

Comments

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