Halo Carbaura RC35 wheelset review

Carbon wheels have changed out of all recognition over the last few years. For the better. The 35mm deep tubeless-ready Carbaura RCs from British company Halo are every millimetre the modern aero road bike wheel with their wide, bulbous profile Toray T700 carbon rims. And while aerodynamics are more important than weight, these are decently light too.

The front weighs 620g, the rear 830g, which compares with Zipp’s 1,450g 202s and 1,417g for Hunt’s 36mm deep rims.

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Designed for 25 to 32mm tyres, the Carbauras have a 19mm internal/25mm external rim width, which pushed my 25mm Giant Gavia tubeless tyres to just under 27mm in practice.

They run smoothly, comfortably and quietly and the curved rims not only offer a performance advantage you can feel but they shrugged off the effects of even severe sidewinds and sudden gusts superbly. That scary sail-like effect of yore is, thankfully, a thing of the past.

Another area where improvements have been marked is stopping. In the past you needed to book braking in advance. No more. With the supplied SwissStop Black Prince brake pads, braking is impressively smooth and powerful, accompanied by nothing more than a gentle whirring sound.

Halo claims these are the most efficient wheels it has made, thanks to the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics and, er, actual riding.

It’s difficult to assess how many watts you save, but the Carbauras accelerate sharply, keep their speed very well and were noticeably quicker than the non-aero wheels that they replaced. The build quality also appears to be very good and they’re stiff too, with no noticeable flexing even during high-torque efforts.