Following up on last fall’s addition of a carbon rim to the Racing Zero family, Fulcrum is back again delivering a wider, tubeless disc brake version into the lightweight, relatively low-depth carbon wheelset. The 2019 Fulcrum Racing Zero Carbon DB packs all of the same feature-rich tech found in the rest of the Racing Zero family, now in a top-tier wheelset with the benefits of disc braking.
Fulcrum Racing Zero Carbon DB disc brake road wheels
Racing Zero has been Fulcrum’s go-to all-around race wheel line for several years with their alloy rims, spokes & hubs and premium ceramic bearings. First that solid construction got a 17mm wide internal non-tubeless carbon rim for rim brakes. But this year there has been even more progress. Back at Sea Otter we saw the first 19mm wide internal wheels with the new Zero DB alloy wheels sliding towards higher volume road racing tires and even gravel bikes.
New Fulcrum Racing Zero Carbon DB Tech Details
And now the 2019 Racing Zero Carbon DB brings that 19mm internal width to a lighter carbon wheelset, with the carbon rim now also becoming 2-Way Fit certified tubeless. Since Campag Fulcrum builds their wheels with a solid rim bed, it won’t need rim tape. And based on our previous 2-Way Fit experience, they should be fairly easy to get tires onto, whether with or without tubes.
The carbon DB wheels get oversized alloy hub flanges over a twill-reinforced carbon front hub shell and as part of the one-piece machined rear shell, and get centerlock (AFS) rotor mounting. The wheels spin on USB ceramic bearings and are compatible with QR, 15×100, 12×100, 12×135 & 12×142 axles.
Those premium hubs are laced to the all-new 30mm deep carbon rims with 21, 2:1 oversized double-butted alloy spokes.
Those carbon rims are mostly constructed of ultra hi-mod T800 carbon, but get a new twill reinforcing locally at the spoke holes, plus a protective UD outer layer. The 19mm internal, max 26.5mm external rim is optimized for aero performance with 25-28mm road tires, but Fulcrum also expects riders to mount up wider gravel tires too, up to 50mm wide as a premium gravel race wheel option.
The Fulcrum Racing Zero Carbon DB wheels have a rider weight limit of 109kg, are available with Campy, Shimano, or XDr freehubs, and they have a claimed weight of 1450g.
The new disc brake carbon wheels are set to retail for $2529 / 1990€ and should be available to order through distributors now We are still waiting to hear back with official pricing & estimated availability, and will provide an update here when we receive more detail. And then we’ll likely try to get a set dirty ourselves to see how they stand up to some tough European groad riding.
