Just by looking at Lightweight wheels, it’s hard to imagine they have rather humble beginnings in someone’s garage. In the 90’s the wheels were quite revolutionary, enough so that pro teams were buying the wheels out right to use in the biggest races. Eventually, the company was sold to Carbon Sports in 2003 which is part of the Wissler group. Known for much more than just fancy bike parts, the Wissler Group has their hands in Aerospace, Communications, Healthcare, and even Military applications. Combining the knowledge of their 20 engineers and technology supposedly not available to most wheel companies like access to the most advanced carbon fiber which requires aerospace certification, Lightweight has been able to produce some of the most ridiculous wheelsets on the market.
Continuing with their quest for superlatives, the new Meilenstein C Disc wheels claim to be the lightest and stiffest disc brake wheel on the market. After riding them, that may not be far from the truth, but depending on your use, you might just want to hold out for a bit…
Built around a 47mm carbon clincher rim, it turns out that this is the same rim used for their Meilenstein rim brake clinchers. Not only does that mean the rims still have a brake track, but it means the rims have a fairly narrow profile at 20mm external, 17.8mm internal. However, Lightweight says they will have a wheelset with a wider and shallower rim coming near Eurobike. The rims are not tubeless ready, though without spoke holes you might be able to make it work.
Like other Lightweight wheels, the spokes are bonded into the rims and hub shells to offer a massively stiff wheel. New to the disc wheels though is the pentagon hub which uses a hub shell with 5 sides instead of one that is round. This is said to be make the hub stronger since the hub shell is held in place not only with the bond of the epoxy, but also with a mechanical bond of the flanges around the pentagon shell. It was important to make the hubs stronger and safer due to the fact that braking heat is now concentrated at the center of the hub rather than at the rims.
Sold with DT Swiss 11 speed hub internals, the wheels can adapt to most standard road and cross thru axle standards with end caps from DT Swiss. All hubs are Centerlock but will ship with an adapter to run 6 bolt as well.
Weights for a complete set are claimed at 1390g which includes the integrated computer magnet in the rim. Wheels will be available in the White and the upgraded Black edition which includes a Ceramic Speed bearing upgrade from the standard industrial steel bearings. U.S. pricing is TBA.
In spite of the miles of Sedona singletrack that was beckoning upon arrival at Magura’s press camp, I was convinced to hop on this Pinarello Dogma F8 disc that was absolutely loaded for a 40 mile spin around Sedona. It turned out to be a great call – there were plenty of fun roads and amazing scenery, and even a mid-ride off road adventure to the creek which required wading through to get to the other side!
The Dogmas were outfitted with the Rotor Uno hydraulic group and the Lightweight Meilenstein C Disc wheels. In spite of how narrow the rims made the Vredestein 25mm tires feel, they provided a feel unlike any other disc brake wheelset I’ve been on. Other than carrying a few extra grams compared to their rim brake models, the disc brake hoops seemed to be every bit as stiff offering knife edge precision. Obviously, one ride is hardly a durability test but I wasn’t easy on the wheels as I wheelied, bunny hopped, and generally hooned around on wheels that are surely more expensive than many bikes. What it did show is that these aren’t going to break at the first sign of abuse – which is good news for anyone dropping this level of coin on a set of wheels.
If your plans are specifically for a set of disc brake wheels for the road these look like a good choice. But if you’re looking for the benefits of a wider tire for mixed terrain, we suspect that the wider versions coming this fall will the be ones to get.
