TRI GEAR

The latest tri tech tested by our expert revieweers

CHRONO ONO www.parcou urs.cc £889.00

UK brand Parcou urs launched last summer with the mission of making high performance wh heels affordable. Lower prices preclude expensive R&D so these are open-mould rims, but Parcours really did their homework in choosing their suppliers, even conducting their own wind tunnel test.

At 1,884g, the 86mm Chronos are a fair weight and, while their mass is tangible, it’s offset to an extent by the impressive lateral stiffness. Braking is good in the dry and adequate in the wet, with the usual carbon delay. Parcours use Toray carbon fibre and resin, and give a two-year warranty for peace of mind. The spokes are top-notch Sapim CX-Ray with J-bend and external nipples for ease of maintenance.

On the road they feel fast, so we ran carefully controlled timed tests to power against nothing less than the overall winners of last issue’s race wheels grouptest, the £3,300 Enve 7.8s. In three runs each, one of 12km and two of 8km, at 307 watts, the Chronos trailed the Enves by just one, two and five seconds. To be so close to the class leaders is phenomenal. Put utan other ao te way,ay, these te se area eat least east as fastast as thete market-a et favourite aouteZi pp pp 808 NSWs for less than half the money.

They’re stable, too, with a little more side pressure than the (slightly less deep) 7.8s but no more wind steer. Had they featured in last issue’s grouptest, they’d have pinched Hed’s Best Buy award. The Chronos are that good.