You are probably going to scoff at this next statement but I’m going to go ahead with it anyway and that is that wheels are very hard to review!
Ok, I know you are rolling your eyes thinking this guy is crazy, he gets sent a set of carbon rimmed wheels to test out and review and he says its hard! he doesn’t know he’s born!
Of course you are correct. But look at it this way, if you get sent a product and it lives up to all expectations and there are zero issues or anything you’d change it’s going to make for a pretty boring review right? Well read on and see. if you scroll away now you might miss out on something actually worth the money.
Halo XCD 35mm wheels are hand built in the UK, the rims are 35mm deep with a 26mm internal width allowing up to 50mm tyres and come pre-taped and tubeless ready. The spokes are a standard J-bend with brass nipples 28 front, 32 rear. The hubs feature sealed bearings, a 120 point engagement freehub, available in Sram or Shimano fitting and are 100/142 spacing.
Before starting the review properly I want to go through that list above and what it means. First off spokes, the fact that these wheels don’t come with a fancy one off standard spoke specific to the wheel is terrific, no apologies for the alliteration. This means pretty much anywhere in the world in the event of a broken spoke you’ll be able to find a replacement and if in a bike shop the mechanic won’t swear under her or his breath and start telling you how long it’ll take to find a replacement spoke. Believe me, I’ve been that bike shop person and seen the look on riders faces when you tell them how long it’ll take to get a spoke and how much it’ll cost. Brass nipples are the icing on the cake. Max points to Halo for this.
26mm internal width rims mean you can fit any gravel tyre on the market today, you can even fit 28mm road tyres if you are that way inclined. 35mm deep rims add stiffness in the right places (I won’t mention Aero, but that too) without acting like a sail for cross winds and also means you don’t get that awful rumble noise you hear from deep section wheel rims on tarmac. Add all this together to give max points again.
120 points of engagement on the free hub does two things, makes take up when pushing on the pedals almost instantaneous and makes a great sound a bit like an angry wasp trapped in a dangle mug, which strangely isn’t annoying at all to me but I have had comments from other riders who can hear you come up behind them! Sealed cartridge bearings mean the wheels should last longer between bearing changes and when it does come time to swap them it’s quite easy with the right tools, Points? go on then!
The Review I think you can tell I like the sum of the parts so when all that is put together how do they actually ride? I fitted Halo’s own GXC tyres and Halo tubeless valves and sealant. As mentioned above the rims come pre-taped so I took a risk and added the sealant to the tyres before they were fully seated on the rim. I usually seat the tyres then add sealant via the valve. I took up my standard track pump and went to work. The tyres seated first time! that does not happen very often at all and I’ve swapped a lot of tubeless tyres during various tests. Impressive. Since I received the wheels in February they have been put through some very dirty filthy conditions
From frozen mud, over the rim watery mud, clay that is so much like peanut butter like that the wheels wouldn’t turn to at last some dry and very bumpy singletrack and bridleways of summer riding.
I’ve got to say I’ve had absolutely zero issues with the wheels. They’ve stayed absolutely true despite my highly suspect riding style. They are light at Just over 1700g but not superlight where you’d be scared to take them on some routes. I’ve also had zero tubeless incidents since the first set up and the Halo sealant
has lasted in the tyres until the day I packed them to return some 4 months later. The valves also did not clog. The bearings were smooth throughout the review period despite some regular soakings in the early weeks. The rims showed a few battle scars at the end bit no damage and some soap and water always brought them back to their matt black best. despite a couple of absolute soakings and stream crossings the bearings have remained smooth and noise free.
So there you are, nothng to report which makes for a boring review really but when it comes to wheels boring in the reliability side of things is great! No one wants excitement from their wheels imploding!
The wheels at time of publishing have a price of £950 per pair recommended price but lower if you search around.
Nearly a grand for a set of wheels is a lot of money, but given that they are made without any propriatory spokes or weird size bearings that a lot of their competition have plus they seem reliable, again over some of their competition I’d go for a set of Halo Carbaura wheels if i was my money.
you can fnd out more details on the Halo Wheels site
UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE 