by The CXM Test Crew
Cyclocross, gravel, mountain biking and disc brake pavement pounding are now all possible on one wheelset, and can help justify putting down more of your hard-earned money knowing the wheels could get year round use. In Issue 29, we rounded up many of the latest “do it all” wheels, hoops that promise to handle your rides and races on several different bikes, or in several different disciplines.
And in Issue 30 we looked at the go-anywhere disc brake tubeless wheel options seen here. These wheelsets are easily swapped between bikes or help extend the versatility and performance of a single rig. Want to enter a road race on your cyclocross bike? Or add volume to your rubber for some more gnarly adventures? High pressure-tolerant, aerodynamic or wider rims can help get you there. And of course, they can help you ride lower pressure, flat less and shed some rotating weight come cyclocross season.
Our test crew rode these wheels on trails, pavement, gravel and even up and down stairs to see if they’d remain round, true and burp-free under typical rider use and abuse. Read on to see if there’s a wheel here that's right for you.
BONTRAGER AEOLUS 3
If you’ve studied any of the many profiles we’ve done of Sven Nys’ or Katie Compton’s Trek Boone, you’ve seen their carbon Aeolus 3 hoops, shed with Dugast or FMB tubular rubber. Bontrager also makes a tubeless clincher version of this rim, and it’s one of the few carbon rims that can handle true narrow road tire pressure should we want to race against the clock or chase down some roadies. But there’s a compromise with building a rim to handle such high pressure stresses in that you need more carbon adding weight. And such engineering, manufacturing and testing adds to the price. The Aeolus 3 checks out with passing grades, but it doesn’t ace any of the tests—except aerodynamics—despite the hefty tuition bill.
©️ Cyclocross Magazine
TUBELESS: Bontrager rims rely on a molded plastic strip for tubeless use. This plastic strip takes up some volume and adds a lip to hold a tubeless tire’s bead in place. This plastic rim strip seems a bit more durable than tape, especially against a prying tire lever, but the strip’s molded bead-locking lip is far less secure than a lip molded into a rim’s shape. And the strips are harder to find the day before a race, unlike tubeless tape. The strips are relatively stiff, and can crease and kink if you’re not careful. Set up requires a bit more care and sealant than with other rims in this test, even with Bontrager’s own CX0 33mm TLR tubeless tires. That’s a lot of things to worry about with a nearly $3,000 USD wheelset. But the Aeolus 3 boasts a wind tunnel-tested pedigree (with road tires) that should be useful in the offseason. And when you do finally get your tire to seal with the rim, the ride is sublime. We just had to air up our tires before each ride, since with a few hard-edge sidewall hits we burped our tires and lost a bit of air.
©️ Cyclocross Magazine
DURABILITY: The benefit of going with a rim that can handle high pressure road tires is that there’s enough material to avoid maximum rider weight limits and the rim is stiff enough for adventures and cyclocross training and racing. The wheels themselves and the direct-pull spokes handled all the abuse we could throw at them, despite the aforementioned burps and resulting lower-than-desired pressure. Our biggest complaint in terms of durability might be with the molded rim strip. Install it and remove it a few times, and it looks worse for wear. But because the strip’s shape is essential for tubeless use, we can’t just replace it with a few wraps of electrical or Gorilla tape in a pinch. The Aeolus 3 have been just as durable as the much-heavier Easton EC90 SL wheels, and for just cyclocross racing, we’d go with the lighter option. But for year ’round use, for road, gravel and cyclocross, we’d prefer the hassle-free sealed Road Tubeless rim of the Easton wheels.
©️ Cyclocross Magazine
PRICE: $2,850 USD
WEIGHT: 1,510 grams
OPTIONS: QR or 15mm thru axle front, 12mm thru axle rear by axle swap
More info: trekbikes.com
