Corima Essentia 40 wheelset review

Corima launched the Essentia 40 wheelset in summer 2022, and it turned heads thanks to its distinctive design.

In a wheelset world dominated by unidirectional and layered carbon fibre, the Essentia 40’s 3K weaved rim construction stands out from the crowd. There are also design elements under the skin that are purported to improve strength and performance.

Aside from one significant glitch in testing, the Essentia 40 represents a decent-value all-road carbon wheelset investment.

Corima Essentia 40 details and specifications

The Corima Essentia 40 wheelset is designed and hand-built in France, at the brand’s plant in Loriol-sur-Drôme.

Unlike many wheelsets that are made further afield but often ‘assembled’ in the brand’s native country, Corima has developed and owned its own production techniques in France.

The raw carbon fibre originates from Japan and America, but the rims and hubs are all weaved and produced (respectively) at its headquarters in France.

Although that doesn’t necessarily result in any higher construction standard than a wheelset produced elsewhere, it might matter if you care about how and where your carbon wheels have been made.

The Essentia 40 is pitched as the brand’s all-road wheelset – primarily for road use, it’s also said to be suitable for all-road and gravel applications.

Like the similarly pitched Reynolds ATRx – a good benchmark in the ‘up to £1,500’ price bracket – it has a 40mm-deep rim and a 23mm internal-rim diameter.

Corima says compatible tyre sizes range between 700 x 28c and 700 x 50c – all available among the best road bike tyres and the best gravel tyres.

Unlike the ATRx wheelset, it has a hookless rim design, curving externally to 28mm wide (as opposed to 32mm).

As with other hookless rims, this limits you to solely tubeless tyres, though you can still use inner tubes to get you home.

The 3K carbon weave layup is distinctive thanks to its raw finish.

Corima doesn’t go out of its way to say whether this carbon weave has any specific performance benefits, but it employs the style across its carbon wheelset range. Some of these wheels have been ridden to victories at the highest level by Team Astana in recent years.

There are some tiny holes present in the construction – something the brand refers to as an “aesthetic porosity” – which I’m told comes about because it doesn’t apply a varnish layer to mask the imperfections once out of the mould.

Instead, it simply polishes the rims up, which Corima’s wheel category manager Hugo Poudrel says is better to show off the aesthetic. I’m assured by Poudrel there are no structural or reliability concerns with this approach.

The Essentia 40’s rim profile is relatively V-shaped – the rim curves slightly to the inner rim diameter, before arcing sharply back on itself.

Such a design used to be the norm for aero road bike rims (albeit narrower, and sometimes even pointier than this). However, it’s strikingly angular when you compare it against the broad spectrum of road bike wheels from ENVE, Hunt, Reynolds, Zipp, Mavic and Prime (to name a few).

The rim cavity features an aerospace-grade foam core, which Corima says improves the rim’s strength while also helping to dampen vibrations from the road.

Corima says the freehub has been designed to deal with the demands associated with all-road and gravel riding.

The internals use a star ratchet design, with 36 teeth for a 10-degree engagement angle. Corima says oversized steel bearings are employed for greater reliability in the face of gravel riding punishment.

The bladed spokes are laced in Corima’s distinctive R2 arrangement, which sees pairs fitted in close proximity at the rim.

The alloy spoke nipples are external for easier servicing, but the inner rim bed is undrilled, meaning there’s no need for tubeless rim tape.

Corima claims the wheelset weighs 1,600g, but mine came in at 1,679g including the supplied tubeless valves.

In terms of cost, at £1,390/$1,570/€1,490, the Essentia 40 is more of a mid-range wheelset.

It doesn’t compete for value with brands such as Prime or Hunt, but nicely undercuts premium wheel brands such as ENVE.

Corima Essentia 40 performance

The Corima Essentia 40 wheelset has demonstrated a keen ability on both road and light gravel.

The 23mm internal diameter enables road-going tubeless tyres to blow out wider than their nominal width – around 29mm at 65psi when ridden with 28c Continental GP5000 S TR tyres. It offers a good platform for the range of commonly used gravel tyre sizes.

My testing covered mainly road and some light gravel excursions, and I found the wheels to feel efficient and stiff enough to support higher-power efforts, yet not overly jarring on looser surfaces.

That said, if your idea of gravel edges closer to mountain biking than it does road riding, you will probably be better off with a less rigid wheelset.

Notably, on the road, the sharper-than-average rim design feels quick in calmer conditions, and responds sharply to sudden accelerations and power inputs.

There’s a small tendency for the wheelset to buffet in strong crosswinds – the more U-shaped Reynolds ATRx wheelset is a touch more stable. However, if pushed, the Essentia 40 could be more efficient when the wind is still (or coming at you head-on).

Ridden over poor UK tarmac and well-surfaced gravel, the Essentia 40 does a grand job of calming the experience down.

Much depends on the tyre size (and pressure) you choose to run, but the wide rim seemed to allow my Continental GP5000 S TR tyres to inflate with a relatively flat (as opposed to a rounded) shape, which gives a planted feeling.

Inevitably, using Continental Terra Speed gravel tyres at far lower pressures relaxes the ride behaviour – and, given that I tend to ride at slower speeds off-road, feel more aerodynamically stable in that scenario too.

Sadly, for a period of time, my review was curtailed by an issue with the brand’s new star ratchet freehub. One tooth broke under heavy load and caused the system to fail (I could turn my drivetrain freely with no engagement at all following the incident).

Corima investigated the issue and mentioned that while it had been seen once before due to a batch defect, the issue has since been rectified and shouldn’t be a problem going forward.

Poudrel tells me the design has seen action during the 2023 Spring Classics (including Paris-Roubaix) with no related problems. Pro riders will certainly stress the components more than I can.

Provided with a replacement wheelset to complete my testing, I’ve seen no further issues, and have otherwise been impressed by the solid pickup and smooth performance from the freehub.

While looks are subjective, I like the appearance of the 3K carbon. The R2 lacing pattern is eye-catching too.

Perhaps most importantly for the latter, spoke tension has remained consistent throughout springtime testing on road and light gravel.

Switching between the Continental road and gravel tyres, I was also impressed by how easy they were to set up.

With the gravel tyres specifically, I needed the assistance of two tyre levers to get the tyres on – but my grip isn’t particularly strong and this isn’t out of the ordinary. Most importantly, the tyres seated easily.

The Essentia 40 wheelset offers a lot of performance for a decent price. There’s little to choose between them, but compared to the Reynolds ATRx wheelset, you save over £100.

Shimano’s GRX carbon wheelset is lighter and wider on paper (albeit shallower), and is competitively priced at £1,224.98/$1,399.99. It also has a hooked rim if you’re still set on running clincher tyres.

Zipp’s 303 S is another strong contender in this space. It pairs a similarly deep and wide hookless rim design with its own hubs, but costs just over £1,000.

Corima Essentia 40 bottom line

The Corima Essentia 40 wheelset offers decent-value performance across road and light gravel.

Although I experienced an issue with the freehub on my original test wheelset, this problem would appear to be localised and not one affecting wheelsets now in circulation at all levels.

Otherwise, the Essentia 40 wheelset has largely impressed, with a keen price tag married to good all-round performance and easy installation.

Other, more bluntly profiled wheelsets offer more stable performance in windy weather, but when the conditions are calm, the Essentia 40 wheelset is certainly fast.