Budget road wheels

Key considerations before you make your wheel upgrade

01

Tubeless or clincher?

● Will you run a tubeless or clincher set-up? A clincher system, which needs inner tubes to inflate, is the system most of us will have grown up with. It’s still one of the best and fastest options, and is relatively easy to fix by replacing an inner tube. It can be used on any kind of hooked (as opposed to hookless) rim. Tubeless tyres are better when it comes to built-in puncture resistance and avoiding pinch punctures, simply because there’s no inner tube to pinch against the rim. A wellmaintained tubeless system should seal small punctures from thorns and flints, as well as enable you to run lower pressures, resulting in more compliance. The downsides include the installation learning curve, potential mess by the side of the road should the worst happen, and the expense (tubeless tyres can cost slightly more than clinchers, but you need tubeless-compatible wheels too). All of the wheels on test have hooked rims and are tubeless-compatible, although that doesn’t stop you running a clincher set-up with them, if you wish.

02

Internal width matters

● You’ll often see numbers such as 700c x 25mm. This refers to the size of the tyre. 700c tyres mount on to 700c rims, the most common size for road bikes (some gravel bikes have 650b wheels). The second number refers to the nominal width of the tyre in millimetres once it’s inflated (though the internal width of the rim it’s mounted on also affects the actual size, so this is more of a guide). The internal rim width of a wheel is normally expressed in millimetres. This is important because the wider the tyre you intend to run, the wider the rim needs to be for safety. Recommended compatibility ranges are laid out by the ETRTO (European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation), but it’s essential to make sure that your chosen set-up aligns with both your chosen rim and the tyre manufacturers’ stated guidelines.

03

Depth also matters

● There’s a strong case to be made that aerodynamics, instead of weight, is the most important consideration when it comes to outright speed. While you’ll need to look at carbon wheels for the most aerodynamic performance, this test shows that alloy wheels can also be aero. All things being equal, a deeper rim will move through the air more efficiently than a shallower one, although the weight penalty is larger with alloy wheels.

04

External width counts too

● Consider also the external rim profile – external rim width is measured at the widest point, and a wider rim often leads to a wider-arcing, crosswind-friendly shape, which can mitigate against air suddenly detaching from deeper rims, causing wobbles. Some brands also claim that a wider external rim can be optimised (in tandem with the internal rim) for a certain width of tyre for maximum aero advantage.

“All things being equal, a deeper rim will move through the air more efficiently than a shallower one, but the weight penalty is larger with alloy wheels than carbon ones”

05

Central to the action

● The hubs are the central part of your wheels, to which the rim and spokes are attached. It’s encased within a shell. Up front, the axle in the hub’s centre allows the wheel to spin freely. A set of bearings at the end of its tube-like design rotate in sync with the rotation of the wheels to cut friction. In the rear wheel, these bearings are joined by a freehub system (and a cassette on the freehub body). When pedalling, the freehub system locks against a series of teeth, giving you the platform to push against the fitted cassette and gain momentum. The pawls or ratchets inside are oriented in such a way as to allow the wheel to spin freely on its bearings when you’re not pedalling – the buzz you hear from most freehubs is the sound of these pawls or ratchets sliding over the teeth inside.

06

Don’t neglect your tyres Wheels may be one of the first

“You’ll see numbers such as 700c x 25mm. 700c is the wheel rim size, and 25mm gives you a guide to the width of the inflated tyre”

things to upgrade on a bike, but don’t neglect your tyres. Put simply, better tyres result in a better ride. You wouldn’t fit budget rubber on a Ferrari, so don’t skimp on your bike tyres. Good-quality tyres can cost around £70-£100. That may not be cheap but, as they have a significant impact on how your bike rides, it’s a relatively affordable upgrade to make.