Ceetec is no longer exclusively a premium carbon mountain bike component maker, branching out onto the road with a new aero carbon R50 disc brake road wheelset. Built in-house in Switzerland, they pull from the same lightweight & durable expertise as their World Cup level MTB wheels, with the addition of aerodynamic engineering thrown in.
Ceetec Revolution R50 aero carbon road bike wheels
Many of the mountain bikers racing on Ceetec carbon wheels have been hounding the small Swiss company to add a road wheelset for mixed use training & racing. Ceetec has been looking to branch out of the XC scene, and after years developing rims for other manufacturers as well, the new R50 aero carbon road wheels look set to give them a foothold on the tarmac. Ceetec is small enough that they can’t really justify the expense of building multiple road wheels in-house, so they picked a single road wheel in a sweet spot that they thought would most benefit from their light & strong approach.
Revolution R50 – Tech details
The resulting wheel uses a relatively deep 50mm disc brake specific rim, with a 21mm internal width and a hooked, tubeless ready bead and a “high-toroidal” shape. (Think most recent wide, blunt-nosed aero profiles.) The carbon rim is asymmetric with a ~2.7mm offset (switching side front to rear), and a max 26mm overall width optimized for aerodynamics around a modern 25mm tire.
Developed & tested in the wind tunnel for predictable aero gains (together with a bigger team collaboration project touching up for the Tokyo 2020 games), the deep wheels are still remarkably light at a claimed 1379g for the set.
Ceetec is based right on the Swiss/German outside of Basel, and their carbon rims are laid up just across the border in Germany in their own factory, while everything comes back to Switzerland for final wheelbuilding. The R50 wheels use 24 DT Swiss Aerolite spokes front & rear, laced exclusively to DT Swiss 180s hubs with ceramic bearings.
Ceetec Revolution R50 – Pricing & availability
Swiss manufacturing & premium European components don’t come cheap at 3288 Swiss francs for the wheelset (~$3500 3105€.) The wheels are rated for riders up to 120kg, and are UCI tested and approved for elite racing. The Ceetec Revolution R50 come with a smooth matte UD carbon finish with either gloss black or team-edition white decals.
Ceetec promised us that they aren’t done expanding into other disciplines, besides XC & road. While they don’t anticipate any other depth road wheels for the time being, they’ve mentioned looking to downhill, enduro, triathlon & ultra cycling as well.
