EliteWheel Drive Helix - March 29th?

[CJosephB]

Interesting...so a Princeton/NSW like wave rim profile and the newer wider carbon spikes? Optimized for 28-30mm. Guessing a profile width of 30 and over.

Aesthetics is very personal, IMO, from a visual view the Princeton's and these wave like rim shapes look good with the Pinarello frame shapes in general so these would as well.

Just thinking out loud since GCN is sponsored by EliteWheels and GCN is also Pinarello sponsored, this will get a lot of air time. Good for EliteWheels!

There's fish scales (Scope), humpback shapes (NSW, Princeton), curious what's next from the sea... (kidding)

[Jaisen]

The new Superteam S-All wheels claim to draw inspiration from Falcon wings. They also have some ripples and dimples. Companies are being more brazen in using the Zipp tech now that Princeton won the lawsuits vs SRAM. Both the new Elite's and new SuperTeam wheels look really nice. Hopefully the big brands catch up in design, they are starting to fall behind.

[toxin]

You can see the specs on their site. I like that they increased external width while keeping internal width at 21mm, too many rims are now going too wide with internal widths resulting in aero penalties when the tire blows up too wide. Not a believer in undulating rims personally and the hub-spoke interface is largely unchanged so the hubs are still pretty heavy. Spokes got wider but spoke counts remained the same.

A few other refinements but mostly a sidegrade in my eyes. New freehubs sound interesting though

[Jaisen]

You can see the specs on their site. I like that they increased external width while keeping internal width at 21mm, too many rims are now going too wide with internal widths resulting in aero penalties when the tire blows up too wide. Not a believer in undulating rims personally and the hub-spoke interface is largely unchanged so the hubs are still pretty heavy. Spokes got wider but spoke counts remained the same.

A few other refinements but mostly a sidegrade in my eyes. New freehubs sound interesting though

My guess it is either exactly https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/roa ... tchet-hub/ or a based on a similar design.

[toxin]

Sound similar and great for mtb, but completely unneccessary for a road bike. Looks like it needs tighter tolerances too.

[stevesbike]

I have their BWT RXL45 rim brake wheels as everyday training wheels which has a similar undulating profile - been great and excellent crosswind stability.

[toxin]

Yes they sacrifice crosswind speed for stability by reducing the stall angle

[UrgentDelay]

That's a huge internal-external width gap. Too narrow imo, sacrificing comfort for no aero again, as the result on a 28mm tire will be a dimple between the tire and the rim.



I trust Elitewheels quality though, they will be fast nonetheless. Roval Rapide CLX IIs have 21mm internal too and they are the fastest on the market. I'll consider the 68D ad a racing-exclusive wheelset - the front rim is 55-61mm deep, the wave pattern also increases crosswind stability so it should be plenty stable when racing.

[Hexsense]

That's like $400 more expensive than Light-Bicycle AR565 fly-weight with carbon spokes (around 1370g for 56.5mm deep, 21mm internal and 30mm at widest point external).
Albeit it's different kind of wavy pattern.
Elite is visually up and down like Zipp and Princeton.
Light-Bicycle AR565 has consistent depth. But undulating via rim shape/width at the spoke holes side.

[toxin]

It's not a huge gap at all and it's actually an approach that spesh did intentionally with roval clx II and hunt outlined as being more aero in their whitepaper. The point is to get the cross section of the wheel and tire looking as close to an ellipse as possible

[Hexsense]

It's not a huge gap at all and it's actually an approach that spesh did intentionally with roval clx II and hunt outlined as being more aero in their whitepaper. The point is to get the cross section of the wheel and tire looking as close to an ellipse as possible

Right. And upon release of Rapide CLX. They say eventhough the rim is 35mm wide externally. 25-26mm tires are recommended for the rim. Yeah, they design 35mm wide wheel for 25-26mm tires, not 28, not 30.
If we fit 25mm tires as recommended at the launch event, it'd be quite an eliptical shape. Visually would be way more eliptical compare to something like 28mm tires on 25mm internal and 32mm external which is more like a flat plane that taper at the spoke end.

[EtoDemerzel]

It's not a huge gap at all and it's actually an approach that spesh did intentionally with roval clx II and hunt outlined as being more aero in their whitepaper. The point is to get the cross section of the wheel and tire looking as close to an ellipse as possible

Right. And upon release of Rapide CLX. They say eventhough the rim is 35mm wide externally. 25-26mm tires are recommended for the rim. Yeah, they design 35mm wide wheel for 25-26mm tires, not 28, not 30.
If we fit 25mm tires as recommended at the launch event, it'd be quite an eliptical shape. Visually would be way more eliptical compare to something like 28mm tires on 25mm internal and 32mm external which is more like a flat plane that taper at the spoke end.

that's interesting. I've never heard it put that way but making an elliptical cross section makes sense for stability.

[PedaleurPat]

Do you have a discount code for us?

That's a huge internal-external width gap. Too narrow imo, sacrificing comfort for no aero again, as the result on a 28mm tire will be a dimple between the tire and the rim.



I trust Elitewheels quality though, they will be fast nonetheless. Roval Rapide CLX IIs have 21mm internal too and they are the fastest on the market. I'll consider the 68D ad a racing-exclusive wheelset - the front rim is 55-61mm deep, the wave pattern also increases crosswind stability so it should be plenty stable when racing.

[PedaleurPat]

Do you have a discount code for us?

That's a huge internal-external width gap. Too narrow imo, sacrificing comfort for no aero again, as the result on a 28mm tire will be a dimple between the tire and the rim.



I trust Elitewheels quality though, they will be fast nonetheless. Roval Rapide CLX IIs have 21mm internal too and they are the fastest on the market. I'll consider the 68D ad a racing-exclusive wheelset - the front rim is 55-61mm deep, the wave pattern also increases crosswind stability so it should be plenty stable when racing.

[CJosephB]

It looks good on a Pinarello frame like any of the wavy rims.