Miche Syntium Aero wheelset (with tubeless kit) review

The Miche Syntium Aero wheelset is claimed to offer a blend of lightweight performance and aerodynamic efficiency, with a healthy dose of durability.

So far, so regular – but the Syntium Aero, with tubeless kit installed, costs £469.99 / €649 – a cheaper price than aero-leaning competitors from DT Swiss, Hunt and Ere Research.

If tubeless isn’t your thing, it can also be had for as little as £429.99 / €599 without the optional upgrade kit installed.

However, niggles include the 19mm rim design, which feels a little outdated against some rivals, while the rear wheel’s adjustable hub requires the use of a specific Shimano lockring for the disc rotor – which Miche doesn’t provide.

Factor in the overall sense of performance – satisfactory, but not standing out from the crowd – and the Syntium Aero is a decent road bike wheelset.

Miche Syntium Aero details and specifications

The Miche Syntium Aero alloy wheelset uses asymmetrical 29mm-deep rims, which measure 19mm across, bead to bead.

The asymmetry is seen in the cross-section of the rim, beefed up on the driveside at the rear wheel for improved distribution of power.

Not long ago, 19mm diameters would have been considered on-trend, but with wider tyres becoming ever more prevalent in recent years, 20mm (see the DT Swiss AR1600 Spline or Hunt 34 Aero Wide Disc SL) or even 21mm (as on Ere Research’s Explorator GCR40) now represents the cutting edge of alloy rim design.

Miche says the upper tyre-width limit for this wheelset is 700x34c. This shouldn’t affect many road riders today, but those wanting to go any wider than that may be out of luck here.

Given the ETRTO currently suggests 19mm internal-width rims can be used with tyres up to 62mm wide, you may be fine to push this limit, but doing so could void your warranty and it’s not something I tested as a result.

The rims are tubeless-compatible, and can come fitted with tape and valves to render them tubeless-ready as an optional upgrade.

Alternatively, customers can opt to have the wheelset without the kit applied – in this case, Miche will supply rim tape in the box, but not the valves.

The hubs use sealed steel bearings. Inside the freehub is a 3-pawl system with 30 teeth, translating to a 12-degree engagement angle.

The rear hub features an adjustable bearing preload ring, but this means a standard Shimano Center Lock rotor lockring won’t fit over it.

Instead, the wheel requires the use of the externally threaded SM-HB20 model, which will need to be bought in addition, should you not already have one.

It’s also worth noting that these require a specific tool (such as a Shimano TL-FC32 bottom bracket spanner) to fit, as opposed to the standard lockring tool, which is also compatible with Shimano’s HG cassettes.

The hubs and rims are attached via 24 stainless steel, bladed straight-pull aero spokes, arranged in a 2:1 pattern.

All in, the wheels weighed 1,784g with rim tape and tubeless valves fitted, 38g heavier than the claimed weight.

More critically, this is 212g heavier than the similarly priced Hunt 34 Aero Wide Disc SL wheels mentioned earlier, which also have slightly wider and deeper rims.

Miche doesn’t offer a crash replacement scheme on the wheels, but in the UK the Syntium Aero is currently covered by distributor Chicken CycleKit, which offers a 40 per cent discount on repair or replacement work in the event of a failure.

Miche Syntium Aero performance

Getting 28c tyres on the rim was very easy – on both wheels, my Hutchinson Challenger TLR tyres fitted without the use of a tyre lever (a rarity in my case).

Creating the necessary initial tubeless seal wasn’t quite as simple, however. The space afforded to get the tyre on the rim seemed to create a little more slack for air to escape when pumping up the tyre with a track pump.

As a result, I had to resort to a stronger blast of air from my tubeless pump to pop the beads into the rim hooks.

Once there, the wheel-tyre combination held air well. The side benefit of having a slightly looser-fitting system is that, if your tubeless setup fails and you need to fit a tube, unseating and refitting the tyre by the side of the road should be a bit easier.

On the road, the Miche Syntium Aero wheelset performed solidly, if unspectacularly, compared to some of its test-mates.

At the £469.99 / €649 asking price, perhaps that’s to be expected, but given the merits of wheelsets costing only slightly more, competition is fierce.

The weight penalty versus the lighter Hunt 34 Aero Wide Disc SL wheelset I've also tested is noticeable when climbing, for example. The Syntium Aero couldn’t match the sense of efficiency on flatter terrain achieved by the 40mm-deep Ere Research Explorator GCR40 wheelset either.

Both offer a more specialised ride experience for a similar price, while the DT Swiss AR1600 Spline wheelset provides a slightly more composed experience over poor tarmac.

Although the AR1600 Spline costs £100 more in the UK (but, interestingly, €50 less in Europe) than the Syntium Aero, the 350 ratchet hub in the former is a well-proven design worth paying more for too.

But, the fact that all these wheels have 1-2mm wider internal-rim diameters meant my test mule tyres exhibited a narrower, more rounded shape at the same pressures on the Syntium Aero.

On paper, this results in a longer, less efficient contact patch with the road, and the flexibility to run slightly lower tyre pressures for improved comfort is reduced.

The Mavic Ksyrium S Disc is similar in this respect, with an identical internal rim width, although those wheels (thanks to the shallower rim depths, perhaps) are a little lighter.

It’s true that the differences are marginal in most cases, perhaps better revealed through the benefit of back-to-back testing, and may not be noticeable in isolation.

Fundamentally, the wheels offer a good blend of performance across key areas. I never felt unduly hindered or disappointed and they represent a big improvement on the wheels some entry-level performance road bikes are often lumbered with.

The aero rim profile seems to do the trick on flat terrain, while the smooth-sounding freehub is also a plus point for those who don’t want to freewheel ostentatiously.

That said, it’s a shame the Syntium Aero doesn’t stand out in any particular metric, save for price, relative to most of its rivals.

This becomes a little more palatable if you’re wedded to the idea of a clincher setup (you won't need to spend the extra on tubeless kit installation, or do it yourself), but this won’t suddenly transform the wheelset into a category leader.

Miche Syntium Aero bottom line

The Miche Syntium Aero wheelset offers competent performance whether climbing, riding on the flat or navigating rougher tarmac.

The price is relatively low versus some of its competitors, but the trade-off is middle-of-the-road performance – good, but unlikely to excite to the same degree as many of its rivals.

Given this is the reason many of us choose to upgrade our wheelsets, the case for the Syntium Aero above others isn’t clear-cut.