RALEIGH CALAVERA DISC

£809.98

The build

Raleigh’s Calavera Carbon CC35D wheelset has tubelessready carbon clincher rims designed for road, cyclo-cross or gravel use. The Chosen sixbolt disc hubs have two sealed cartridge bearings up front and four in the rear, plus 15mm and 12mm thru-axle adaptors, other adaptors are available, and they’re laced with 28 Mach 1 double-butted stainless steel J-bend spokes.

The numbers

The rims are 35mm tall, 26mm wide externally and 17.9mm internally, and once we’d convinced our Schwalbe Pro-One 28mm tyres to seat properly, they had a 29mm measured width. With thruaxle adaptors and the optional tubeless rim tape fitted, our wheelset weighed a decent 1595g.

The ride

The 150 point freehub body has almost instantaneous pick-up, but when freewheeling makes a noise somewhere between a swarm of mosquitoes and a remote-controlled car at high speed. It gives the impression of being less robust than the usual more baritone ratchet sounds. The Calaveras are keen to accelerate or power up a short climb, and are no hindrance on longer drags, but when trying to sustain speed, they come up short. Despite being 35mm tall with a blunt rim profile, they are less immune to strong crosswinds than expected.

The verdict

The Calaveras offer reasonable carbon performance for the money. Our rear wheel was far from true after one ride, but easily fixed, and discs mean that’s not an issue while riding.