Miche is a brand steeped in history, founded over a century ago in San Vendemiano, Italy, by Ferdinando Michelin.
Miche has reinvigorated its road bike wheel offering for 2023 with the Kleos Racing Division range.
The Kleos range is intended to bring Miche back into the foreground of high-performance aftermarket road wheel technology, combining the brand’s wealth of knowledge with modern technologies to create what it calls a new engineering vision.
Miche Kleos RD range overview
The all-new Kleos RD range consists of three wheelsets, in depths of 36, 50 and 62mm.
All three wheelsets have been subject to aerodynamics testing at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub wind tunnel. They share the same material, hub and spoke technologies, with the differences being in rim depth and profile.
All are designed and manufactured at the Miche factory in San Vendemiano.
Miche Kleos RD 36
The lightest wheelset in the Kleos range, Miche describes the Kleos RD 36 as “designed for all riders who love uphill challenges”.
The wheels have a claimed weight of 1,390g, a 36mm-deep profile and 21mm inner width.
Miche Kleos RD 50
The all-rounder of the range, the Kleos RD 50 is designed to tackle any racing conditions, with a 50mm depth, 21mm inner width and claimed weight of 1,455g.
Miche Kleos RD 62
Miche describes the RD 62 as “the symbol of speed”.
The 62mm wheelset has a claimed weight of 1,560g and, differing from the two shallower rims in the range, a 23mm inner width.
Miche Kleos technologies explained
Rims
The Kleos range’s rims are manufactured using a combination of Toray T1000 and T700 carbon fibre, with a unidirectional finish.
Toray is one of the world's leading carbon fibre manufacturers. Its T1000 material has extremely high tensile strength and is used in high-stress areas of the rim, such as along the face of its nipple seats.
The rims are decked out with smart and understated gloss black decals. After being applied, the water transfer decals undergo heat treatment.
This eliminates a step between the rim and the decal, and increases wear resistance, according to Miche.
Miche has opted to use a retention hook, which meets ETRTO (European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation) standards for rim and tyre compatibility. This broadens the wheels’ compatibility to all commercially available tubeless and clincher tyres, according to Miche.
The brand claims that due to the high speeds and relatively high tyre pressures used in road wheels, a hooked bead is the safest technology.
They are recommended for use with tyres from 25 to 28mm, with 28mm being aerodynamically optimal, and have a maximum pressure rating of 109psi.
Hubs
The wheelsets in the Kleos range use all-new Miche hubs.
These are manufactured using heat-treated 7075 aluminium alloy, with a titanium pawl carrier to save weight and aid durability. The hubs use three pawls and have 30 points of engagement.
Freehub bodies to fit Campagnolo N3W, Shimano and SRAM XDR are available.
The Kleos RD hubs utilise bearings from CeramicSpeed, designed to boost smoothness and durability.
The brand has opted for 30mm and 26mm OD bearings, which are claimed to balance speed and durability. The regular (non-RD) Kleos hubs will use EZO bearings.
Both front and rear hubs feature an adjustment ring nut, which enables hub-bearing preload to be finely adjusted. This should result in improved hub-bearing life.
They are serviceable using a 2mm hex key to remove the adjustment nut and a 12mm hex key within the axle.
The front wheels use what Miche calls ‘Aero-Blade technology’. This shield covers the spoke ends on the disc side of the wheel, which the brand claims reduces aerodynamic performance at low yaw angles.
As with the rims, these new hubs are designed and manufactured at the Miche factory.
Spokes and build
Every wheel in the Kleos range is built using 24 straight-pull spokes in a 2:1 lacing pattern.
This sees 16 spokes laced in a 3x pattern on the driveside of the rear wheel and the disc side of the front wheel. This is paired with eight spokes laced in a radial pattern on the lower-load non-driveside rear and driveside front.
This is a widely adopted pattern, which is intended to improve the wheels' stiffness-to-weight ratio.
The spokes themselves are custom-made by Belgian manufacturer Sapim to meet Miche’s specific design. They are straight-pull, double-butted and feature a bladed profile that differs from front to rear for claimed aerodynamic improvement.
The spokes are mated to the rims using Ergal 7075 aluminium nipples, which are said to provide a modest weight saving over the alternatives.
The Kleos RD Range makes it clear Miche is serious about rejuvenating and stepping up its high-performance offering.
The brand describes the Kleos RD wheels as “the first steps in a new dimension that combines past know-how with today's technology.”
