Rose has just launched its own range of carbon aero road bike wheels and, for the specs on offer, they look impressively affordable.
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Details on the wheels are fairly thin on the ground, but the price alone is worth talking about. The wheels start at just €1,399 (approx £1,270, international pricing N/A), which is pretty impressive for a claimed 1,350g carbon aero wheelset.
The 19mm-wide (internal) tubeless-compatible rims are available in either 37 or 47mm depths. Rose makes no quantified claims about the aerodynamic qualities of the rims, but their fairly conventional aero profile is claimed to provide excellent stability, stiffness and speed.
There are four wheelsets available: the Forty Disc, the Forty/Fifty Disc, the Fifty Disc and a rim brake version of the Fifty.
- Rose RC-Forty disc — €1,399
- Rose RC Forty-Fifty disc — €1,399
- Rose RC-Fifty disc — €1,399
- Rose RC-Fifty — €1,499
The wheels are intended primarily for road riding, but Rose claims they’re also suitable — particularly the Forty disc — for gravel riding.
The wheels are built around Newmen hubs that have been custom-specced for Rose.
Glancing at the specs, the straight pull hubs, which are made in Germany, look like a considerable step up in quality compared to conventional OE-spec hubs; they use a star ratchet system — similar to DT Swiss’s signature internals — feature a 17mm oversize butted axle and have a nifty preload adjuster.
The disc wheels are built with Sapim CX Sprint spokes. The rim brake wheels use these on the rear but opt for lighter CX Ray spokes on the front.
In the name of improved aerodynamics, the nipples are accessed internally on the wheels and are supported with Sapim MS-washers. These distribute forces more evenly around the spoke hole and are claimed to “make spoke breakage almost impossible" — a bold claim indeed.
There are similarly specced wheels available for less (Hunt’s Carbon Aero range springs to mind) but these are still a welcome addition to the aero-yet-alarmingly-affordable wheel market.
