Parcours Strade Wheelset
£999 Progressive aero wheels from a British brand
The Strade is a new aero carbon disc-brake-only wheelset. Developed in collaboration with the sports engineering department at Nottingham Trent University, the rims were designed around data collected on real-world wind conditions. The result is a 49mm deep, 32mm wide, U-shaped front rim and a 54mm deep, 30mm wide, more V-shaped rear wheel. A shallower front rim is affected less by crosswinds.
Parcours benchmarked the Strades against a Fulcrum Racing 5 wheelset and its own previous all-round aero road wheelset, the Passista Disc, in a wind tunnel. The results were impressive. The Strade wheels with 28mm tyres were the fastest combination, saving 58 and 21 seconds respectively over the Fulcrum and Passista wheels. Being able to use bigvolume tyres without an aerodynamic penalty is a real boon in the UK, where road conditions are generally poor, but the wheels were tested solo, without bike or rider.
The wheels are built around Parcours’ own hubs, which run on EZO steel bearings, with 24 Sapim CX-Ray straight-pull spokes. The hubs can be serviced with basic tools. Setup is easy with both clincher and tubeless tyres, but you’ll need to buy tubeless rim tape and valves separately (Parcours sells its own tubeless kit for £23.99) to use a tubeless setup. As standard, the wheels ship with clincher rim strips.
With an internal width of 22.5mm, tyres pump up slightly wider than their marked size, with a nice, round shape that makes for a healthy contact patch. They handle well for a wheelset of around 50mm deep too, being stable in blustery conditions. At 1570g (with tubeless rim tape and valves), they’re competitive in the weight department and they feel fast on the road.
The Strade wheelset impresses with its modern design and performance and its premium looks wouldn’t be out of place on a set costing far more. A few years ago, £999 would have represented fantastic value for a set of progressive carbon aero wheels. However, with ever more brands offering similar wheelsets around the £1000 mark, they stand out from the pack slightly less but are still a solid choice.