Parcours Alta Gravel Wheelset review

Parcours says the Alta wheelset has been designed to embrace both road and gravel riding.

The British brand puts emphasis on the Alta's versatility, stating it's suitable for hard-packed surfaces, rocky fire roads and British mud (depending on your tyre choice).

On balance, the wheels have good all-round capabilities, but lean more towards performing on well-treated gravel than the toughest terrain.

Parcours Alta details and specifications

Parcours says the Alta’s rim’s 23.5mm internal width is optimised for gravel tyres from 28-50mm wide, while still being able to handle road bike tyres.

At 37mm deep, the Alta provides a nod to aerodynamics, exhibiting a blunted aero shape. The hookless rim design is intended to make for a smooth interface between rim and tubeless tyre.

The rims are built up using 28 spokes front and rear, which are laced to Parcours’ branded Center Lock aluminium hubs.

The hubs use EZO cartridge bearings, which have a good reputation for smoothness and ease of replacement (when needed).

The freehub offers a fairly quick 13.8-degree engagement angle so there's very little lag in pickup when pedalling.

At 1,532g, including rim tape and valves, the Alta is competitively light – as a point of comparison, Reynolds’ slightly deeper (but significantly more expensive) ATRx wheelset tipped our scales at 1,606g.

It comes with a lifetime warranty and a discounted crash-replacement scheme.

Parcours Alta ride impressions

Parcours supplies the rims pre-taped, which saves time on setup. Tyres go on easily and stay up, and the wheels I tried were good to go with no spoke pinging or creaking from new.

The combination of deeper rims and 28 spokes makes for a stiffer construction and that was borne out in the ride quality.

On roads and hardpack, these are fast wheels. Climbing is easy and putting the power down has precise engagement that transfers quickly to speed.

The bearings are super-fast out of the gate, with no drag even when new. They started the test journey smooth and have stayed that way, even after the most hostile conditions.

For all the sense of efficiency and stiffness on the road, however, I would hesitate to call the Alta smooth or comfortable when venturing off it.

There’s always some feedback and it doesn’t absorb any buzz or chatter.

On longer descents over stony ground, my wrists hurt. There is little ‘feel’ for the trail and it struggled to hold a line on anything other than the smoothest forest roads.

I did play with the tyre pressures, varying from my standard test measure and going as low as 23-24psi.

Doing so improved available tyre grip somewhat, but not comfort.

It is a measure of how much I disliked the Alta off-road that on one test ride I switched my route to head home on tarmac.

Here, the relief was instant, transforming from compromised gravel wheels back into a responsive, nippy and more forgiving road wheelset. The Alta took the edge off the country-lane buzz and suddenly made the entire ride less effort and less fatiguing.

Parcours Alta bottom line

The Alta is a wheelset that will suit riders whose gravel riding takes in a mix of tarmac, green lanes and hard pack.

You’ll need to be prepared to compromise on a degree of comfort in order to maintain pace. It’s not a great choice for any routes that involve meeting a loose or rocky surface.

That said, should you desire a wheel that performs best on the road with some light-gravel capability, the Alta should meet your needs for less than £1,000.