After reading the @cyclingnewsmag and the Grand Fondo Road Wheel aero testing articles, here are my reflections on what I learnt, or want to know more about. Those @ScopecyclingOfficial wheels are getting noticed and achieving great results in testing at least. I also learn where @princetoncarbonworks1235 really sit in terms of weight, price and aero.
the Cycling news article is here: https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/wind-tunnel-tested-road-bike-wheels-2024/#section-the-test
the grand fondo article is here:
The big 2024 aero wheel group test – 11 high-performance carbon wheels head to head
learn more about us at mapdec.com or our main channel @Mapdec
37 Comments
I'm not convinced… carbon rims are for racers and sponsors buy wheels for racers
Additional info… The test couldn't be conducted with 25mm tyres because the hookless designs would be unsafe by ETRTO recommendations. Princeton say their wheels are optimised around a 25mm tyre and that the aero gains in from the narrower tyre outweigh that of any rolling resistance gains from the wider tyres. Interesting.
7:47 Tarmac SL7 owner here with Zipp 353 hookless 25mm internals running Pirelli 30mm TLRs and the clearance is fine. I could go 32 and probably beyond as there's still plenty of clearance around the chain stay and derailleur. The Tarmac is spec'd for up to 32mm.
I am concerned that you continue to give your view on what is good to ride. Would you say your ability on a bike is good enough to critique wheels to the degree required. Yes you can have your opinion but you talk like you are of a standard that really can make these judgements. I suggest you are way out of your league recommending wheels. When you say fast or faster, how fast do you mean?
Were any chinese brands included in the test?
not a great test, you'll see that basically all the wheels with rims wider or really close to the tyre width preformed better than those where the tyre blew up notably wider than the rim. Also there must have been somekinda error with the tresting of the roval because it performed way worse than any test out there and they just kinda brush that aside
Forget Syncros Capital, it’s Roval Rapide for the win and Hunt for best customer service 💪 🛞
🤔 im after a new set of wheels for next year, narrowed it down to ffwd ryot 55 with 240 hub or roval rapide CL ii, possibly Reserve, cant afford silly money so ffwd ryots look good and did well in a previous test, shame the test is not more comprehensive with all brands available in uk. Im running alpinist 33 deep with 32 mm tyres, they are so fast and smooth for a shallow rim, would be nice to see some more tests on all depths of wheel
Love your notebook.
Top effort, good eloquent summary with well reasoned brave opinions.
I've owned Scribe 70mm and the 'equivalent' Parours, the Chrono. The Scribe wheels handled terribly in comparison, in corners because of how flexy they are and straights because of how unstable they are. The Parcours are just slightly quicker in low wind but when the wind picks up they are far quicker because they are so incredibly stable, they just don't move.
If I ever get in the draft of a car the Scribe wheels are all over the place whereas the Parcours are planted.
Very good follow-up to the test. And as you said all the wheels are not optimized for 28 tires as was universally used which really clouds the results.
What I didn't learn was how slow the princeton wheels are, I already knew that.
Did they test the Reserve 52/63?
Speaking about those Scope wheels, something I bet nobody is thinking about is cleaning them would be a bitch with all those textured surfaces on the rims and hubs. I imagine they look like crap too once they get dirty.
What about Enve wheels? They're significantly less expensive, handle side winds well and ride with strong confidence
in that test, if you sort the wheels based on internal width, then do the position in the stats remain the same?
Just bought a set of yoeleo sat nxt for my new disc brake road bike and they checked everything i was looking for :
wide (25 internal 32 external)
simple (regular spoke / hubs / bearing)
light (1350 for a 60mm)
they're now a well established brand for whoever is into that sruff.
The shape is super similar to enve ses 4.5 and makes sense. Usually they test well in wind tunnel but i did not found a test of that specific rim.
The Syncros Capital SL are hookless, so they can go in the bin.
Also, listened to @ChrisMillerCycling recently saying he doesn't think his next wheels will have carbon spokes, weight advantage isn't worth the disadvantages and risks.
It sounds like the biggest factor affecting aero performance is the rim/tyre width, and sticking close to Josh Poertner's 95% rule – or am I missing something new? And given we should be choosing tyres for a particular course/event/type of riding, it seems we should first choose tyre width, then select a rim that works best, rather than the other way around.
I'd be interested to know what the rough spread of results is between the best and worst wheels, excluding any outliers? IE what's the benefit/cost (in terms of watts) to having the best/worst wheels?
Wheels is an area where the Chinese brands are at the leading edge… no doubt partly due to their agility. It's a shame not to have some of them here… CRW, Farsports etc. I'm pretty sure they'd be up there for aero and winning for value.
But everyone watching this could lose a bit of timber and can't get out on bike as much as they'd like due to UK weather.
Good. Screw hookless.
What about real world testing tunnel testing is fine
The Swisssides use DT Swiss hubs and they share their rim design with DT Swiss so it wouldn't have been worthwhile testing them separately.
I’ll give up the 100 grams in exchange for the fact that every local bike shop is going to have a Sapim CX Ray spoke in stock.
I have 3 sets of Hunt wheels (2 alloy and some 50mm deep carbon ones – the cheaper ones with the rachet hubs). I swapped out the hubs axles from QR to through axles on one when I changed one if my frames. This is about 6 years ago and they were very helpful on getting the new axle to me and fitting instructions. Appreciate some people have had a bit of a time with them but I have always found them helpful. My only criticism is that the hub on the Carbon 50’s is really loud 😂 and that is not to my taste
I love my Hunts but they are a bit heavy these days
I believe the syncros wheels are hookless also
Be cautious regarding the true independence credibility of the reviewer. So many YouTube channels take compensation for a favorable review. Chinese online sellers are notorious for "seeding" reviews and the results rarely match real world performance, quality or support.
Enve absolutely sitting at the top. Proven in real word also. Hookless not an issue. Expensive yes but not the most expensive. Princeton sealed rim also from a mechanics point of view you can’t be happy with that sealed rim 😂
Had such good experiences with FFWD and DT swiss in the last 25 years, won't switch anytime soon
Can you get hold of a MICHE set and test them on your channel ? Thank you
Could you recommend me a nice set of carbon road/gravel wheels with QR option, light as poss, Shimano free hub ? not to expensive ? Thanks Pete 🙂
Nice review!Â
I recently got a set of ENVE SES 4.5 wheels fitted them with Conti Aero 111 29mm front and 28mm GP5000STR rear and am running them on my LOOK Blade RS2. Without doubt they are very fast, comfortable and great handling wheels.Â
I have trialled them against the Corima WS EVO 47 (which weren't in the test) that come with the LOOK Blade.
Interestingly, whilst the ENVEs are slightly lighter (mine are built with DT Swiss 180 hubs), they 'feel' less responsive.
The ENVEs are more comfortable though (especially the front), most likely because I have a 26mm Conti Aero on the Corima front, and the tyres don't 'blow out' as much on the Corima rims, front and rear. Lastly, with the tyres currently fitted to the Corimas actually feel like they handle better than the ENVEs, unless there are very, very strong cross winds.
Summary, swings and roundabouts! The ENVEs do look damn good though with the white decals on the Team black blade frame 🙂
Princeton wake 6560 with Continental S TR 32mm is what I’ve been running for 25,000 plus miles on SWorks SL7. Completely happy and no issues. Had to replace the bearings on the I9 hubs at about 8000 miles so my next set will be white industries. I’m also gonna try the 5550. The wheels are great however the repair replacement is a downer. Friend had a cracked 6560 on his first ride after hitting a hole in the road. Princeton was extremely difficult and demanded a 500 usd replacement fee. So if that’s an issue for you go to a different brand. BTW, I’ve hit potholes at 40 mph with no issues so I really assumed a manufacturing imperfection but Princeton wouldn’t clarify and still said five hundred bucks please !!
majority of hookless issues have been on Zipp 353 NSWs… I've been hookless since 2018 and have many sets of hookless ..enve, cadex and Zipp(firecrest not 353s) no issues.