Super Hoops

Wheels for smooth roads and bumpy surfaces

Wheels for smooth roads and bumpy surfaces

Cadex 42 Disc Tubeless $4,000

Ifirst saw the dynamic balance lacing (dbl) system in 2015 when it debuted on Giant’s wheels. Cadex, which brings together premium technology from the Taiwan-based company, has dbl on its hoops, including the 42 Disc Tubeless. These wheels came out in 2019 before the Tour de France. Before I rode them this past summer, Jeff Schneider, Giant’s head of product and marketing for gear, brought me back up to speed on dbl.

dbl, after all, is about getting a wheel up to speed quickly. Certain sets of spokes are arranged in groups of pushing spokes and pulling spokes. “When you are pedalling and load up the hub, because you have a longer leverage angle on the pulling spoke, it tensions up the spoke quicker. You don’t get a windup in the hub body,” Schneider says. That windup marks a slight delay in power transmission throughout the wheel system. According to Schneider, dbl takes care of that.

In 2015, dbl was only on the drive side of the rim brake wheels I tested. Now, that lacing is at work at the rotor side of disc-brake wheels as well. “We have specific leverage-angle differences on the pulling and the pushing spokes so that when you brake, you get a quicker braking response out of the rim,” Schneider says.

Other features on the Cadex wheels include a continuous carbon-fibre structure throughout each rim creating stronger and lighter rims. Each carbon-fibre spoke, made by Cadex, is 46 per cent lighter than a stainless-steel spoke, and stiffer, too. Cadex says everything weighs 1,327 g. All that makes for more reactive wheels.

Giant, and by extension Cadex, have been strong proponents of tubeless. I must confess, I’m often tubeless-tentative. Road tubeless is evolving quickly, and some developments still have kinks that need addressing. With the Cadex hoops, I also ran Cadex 25c tires. Setting them up tubeless was shockingly simple. The company has really made its system work. The drawback is that, at the moment, only Cadex and certain Giant treads are approved for use on the wheels.

The Cadex 42 Disc Tubeless are likely the most refined wheels I’ve ridden this year. The attention paid to each detail makes these hoops smooth and fast. With the right tires, the wheels are also a pleasure to work with at the maintenance stand. ( cadex-cycling.com/ca)—matthewpioro

Hunt Limitless 48 $2,139

Hunt’s Limitless 48 wheels are in line with the current wisdom surrounding wheels and tires: wider is better. Not only do wider tires offer you better grip, they have a lower rolling resistance than narrow treads. While the Limitless 48 wheels can run tubeless with a variety of tire brands – Hutchinson, Panaracer and Maxxis, for example – Schwalbe worked closely with Hunt on the rims. Matching the wheels with 28c Schwalbe Pro One tires is a marriage made in heaven. Almost too good. The bead of a tire sits in a rim perfectly, making this pair somewhat inseparable, which also means a quick change is virtually impossible. Punctures happen, so easy roadside repair is a key aspect when considering the setup and associated performance of a wheelset. Thankfully, the 48 Limitless’s hooked rims make the transition from tubeless to clinchers relatively easy and help speed up the process of getting back on the road.

Hunt tested the aerodynamics of its wheels at a realistic speed of 35 km/h and found they performed better at a wider variety of yaw angles than their competitors. Working with a 25c or 28c tire, the 34.5-mm external rim width reduces the turbulence associated with the airflow from the tread through to the spokes. The Pillar Wing spokes with their aerofoil shape further enhance this aerodynamic advantage. On the road, it’s surprising how good the wheels feel. I did find that at lower speeds, the 48 Limitless seemed to feel the effects of crosswinds. But with a little momentum, there appears to be a threshold wherein wheels glide into smooth and seamless action with little effort.

A low-density polymer in the sidewall adds strength to the rims, while a reinforced freehub body guards against damage from the cogs. The set weighs in at 1,618 g. Another detail, because these wheels are all about the details, is the Ceramicspeed bearings in the hubs. It all makes for quality package and ride experience. ( huntbikewheels.cc)— Lorenajones

Shimano GRX RX570 700c $520

On one particular ride, I took the Shimano grx RX570 wheels on asphalt of various qualities, well-maintained gravel, crushed gravel and a bit of easy singletrack. It was a microcosm of almost all the surfaces the wheels can take on.

In the spring of 2019, when Shimano launched its grx gravel component lineup, the company revealed a mix of cutting-edge technology and tried-and-true standards. The brake/shift levers were new, as were the hydraulic interrupter brakes for the handlebar tops. But elsewhere, the company stuck with its “this works great so why change it” ethos. You see that in the wheels.

The RX570 are new wheels, but they feature tech common to Shimano’s hoops. The rims are aluminum, a material that’s strong and easy-to-work-with (compared to carbon). The hubs use cup-and-cone bearings, in contrast with most wheel builders who opt for cartridge bearings. Shimano argues, quite convincingly, that the cup-andcone setup, or angular contact bearings, manage the side-to-side forces that affect the components within a turn. Shimano makes durable bearings, so these should turn smoothly for a long time. Also boosting durability are the 24 straight-pull spokes on both the front and rear wheels. The claimed weight for the pair is 1,720 g.

The recommended tire widths for the grx wheels range from 32c to 40c. The internal rim width is 21.6 mm. My wheels ran 37c Vittoria Terreno Zero tires that measured closer to 40-mm wide with a good semicircle shape to maximize grip on solid surfaces, as well as ones that were a little loose.

I love the simplicity of these wheels. They’re designed well, and they work well, even after getting treated no-so-well. Their price, $520, is unbeatable. That amount of dough gets you a whole lot of wheel. ( bike.shimano.com)—mp

Reserve 50 $2,750

This past summer, Reserve added road wheels to its lineup. You’re probably familiar with the company’s mountain bike wheels, the ones Danny Macaskill set out to destroy, a process that the trials rider found to be, well, a trial. Reserve designed these hoops with the help of Cervélo. Remember, Reserve comes from Santa Cruz Bicycles, which like Cervélo, is owned by Pon Holdings. There’s a certain Reese’s peanut butter cup combination in these news wheels: Reserve’s history of making durable wheels and Cervélo’s expertise with aerodynamics. According to Benny Cruickshank, media consultant with Reserve, Cervélo already had the designs for what would become the new road wheels, the Canadian company just didn’t have the time to get the wheels developed.

So what does durability mean to Reserve when it comes to road wheels? Macaskill isn’t likely going to slam these hoops until they fail. The kind of impacts

a mountain bike wheel faces aren’t the same as a road wheel. “We took the same moulding technology and similar materials that were originally developed for mountain bike wheels, and then adapted them to the energy levels representative of road and gravel riding,” says Nic Mccrae, Santa Cruz and Reserve senior composites engineer. “One of our wheels can sustain more than 10 repeated hits at 150 per cent the energy of the uci impact-test standard. The uci test only requires one hit at 40 J; Reserve road rims will all pass 10 hits at 60 J.”

The rims I tested were laced to DT 350 hubs. These journeyman hubs did a good job of getting things to spin up, but I’m sure the 240 or 180 options, which Reserve offers, would be a bit snappier. I remember when I really noticed these wheels, seemingly in their element, when I was cruising up a long false flat along an open road into a headwind. I felt fast, steady and stable.

You’ll likely see Reserve road wheels on Cervélo bikes, such as second-tier builds of the Caledonia 5, before you see them on their own at your local shop. Production, in Wuhan, China, was disrupted earlier this year. Look for Reserve road wheels to be available in early 2021. ( reservewheels.com)—mp

Campagnolo Bora WTO 33 $3,265

Here’s something for all of you in the Rim Brake Preservation Society, you bulwarks of traditional stopping methods on road bikes who are holding steady against the surging tides of disc-brake rotors. The Campagnolo Bora wto 33 came out at the beginning of the year in both rim-brake and disc-brake versions. I put a set on my own rimbrake rig. The process reminded me of that old adage: nothing transforms a bike like new wheels. Not that the wheels I had been running were that shabby – an older Campy aluminum pair that I tend to press into service during the off-season. But the change in performance – between the basic aluminum wheels and the Bora wto 33 – was much more noticeable than a swap between two high-end carbon-fibre numbers. My old bike was new again.

I first caught a glimpse of Campy’s wto line in 2018. The Italian brand started with wind-tunnel optimized rims with depths of 77 mm and 60 mm. Subsequent models have been getting shallower and shallower: 45 mm in 2019 and 33 mm this year. The Bora wto 33 brings aerodynamics to climbers with claimed weights of 1,450 g for the disc-brake pair and 1,395 g for rim-brake set. (Take that, disc brakes!) The aluminum hubs house cup-and-cone bearings with ceramic balls.

The inner rim width of 19 mm is fairly narrow for a contemporary wheel, as is the recommended tire range: 23c, 25c and 28c. The rims are compatible with tubeless and clincher tires. I had one heck of a time getting tires on. I’m still looking for the right treads for maximum ease of mounting with minimum cursing by me. Once I got tires on the Bora wto 33 wheels, they were a pleasure to ride. The hubs are quite smooth, so I had little trouble rolling up and down hills on my old bike.

The wheels ship with brake pads, of course. Their stopping abilities are pretty good in dry and wet conditions. Not as good as disc brakes though. Sorry rbps members, but it’s true. ( campagnolo.com)—mp

Bontrager Aeolus RSL 37 $3,200

I was able to perform an interesting test with the Bontrager Aeolus rsl 37 wheels. In June, I rode the latest Trek Émonda slr 7 with Aeolus Pro 37 wheels. Later, I put the top-end rsl 37 wheels on the bike to see how they compared.

The new Aeolus wheels came out at the same time as the Émonda. The products share similar features: they’re light and aerodynamic. The designers at Bontrager wanted to beat their Aeolus xxx 2, a 28-mm-deep carbon clincher launched in 2018. The rsl 37 set is 1,325 g, 55 g lighter than the Aeolus xxx 2. The rsl 37 are also 9 mm deeper. Bontrager says the new wheels are 17 per cent faster than their predecessors, and close to the performance figures of the 47-mm-deep xxx 4.

The rsl 37 and Pro 37 have the same rim profiles, so their wind-slicing abilities should be the same. The Pro is a bit heavier because it uses a lower-grade composite and hub (DT 350). The rsl 37 spin on the new DT Swiss 240 Ratchet exp hubs. They help to keep the weight low. Their bracing angle is such that they allowed designers to take some more weight out of the rims.

I have to admit, the change from the Pro 37 wheels to the rsl 37 seemed subtle at first. But rsl 37 wheels revealed their benefits more as I rode them longer and farther. A drop in weight, 180 g in this case, always helps when covering long distances and climbs. And the little efficiencies add up, too, like the faster engagement of the Ratchet exp hub. The rsl 37 wheels help to make a great ride better, which is no small feat. ( trekbikes.com)—mp