Home > Bike Types > Gravel Bikes

3T Discus Plus carbon gravel road bike wheels get wider, lighter

3T Discus Plus C30W wide carbon fiber bicycle wheels for gravel road bikes
14 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

3T Discus Plus C30W wide carbon fiber bicycle wheels for gravel road bikes

When 3T launched their new Strada aero road bike with a 1x drivetrain and disc brakes, it marked more than just Vroomen’s reentry to frame design. It marked a decision inside the walls of 3T that they would only work on interesting products. We get the impression there’s more to come, though it may trickle out as inspiration hits, but to start, all of their disc brake wheels are now tubeless ready.

That, and the next generation of the Discus Plus C30W they showed at Eurobike gets wider, measuring 30mm internal, up from 28mm. The idea is to reduce tire squirm on harder surfaces, like when you have to corner a large 47mm wide tire on the pavement…

3T Discus Plus C30W wide carbon fiber bicycle wheels for gravel road bikes

3T Discus Plus C30W wide carbon fiber bicycle wheels for gravel road bikes

Claimed weight is ~1440g, +/-15g depending on which axle and freehub body configuration you choose. That’s 200g lighter than the C28 thanks to new rim construction and shaping. The original was overbuilt and less optimized, using existing 650B mountain bike rim tech. This one reduces total material since it doesn’t need to be as robust as a mountain bike wheel. The alloy version stays the same, which we saw alongside an early version of this wheel at Taipei in March.

3T Discus Plus C30W wide carbon fiber bicycle wheels for gravel road bikes

Since then, they’ve finalized price ($1,900) and availability (July 2017). Available only for 650B tires, they measure 30mm deep and 36mm wide outside, 30mm internal.

3Tcycling.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

14 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
STS
STS
6 years ago

“This one reduces total material since it doesn’t need to be as robust as a mountain bike wheel.”
I seriously doubt that. Where you want to have tires on your gravel bike wide enough for such a wide rim you’re typically riding rough mountain or forest roads with all kinds of rocks, holes, ruts etc. And because you’re not on a singletrail you’re typically going faster than on a mountain bike. So you’re hitting those obstacles at a higher speed than on a mountain bike and you don’t have any suspension somewhat reducing the impact on the wheel.

STS
STS
6 years ago
Reply to  STS

But maybe that kind of riding is not what that lightweight 3T gravel “aero” (hahaha) bike is intended for. So that would make perfect sense for them to use wheels that won’t stand more abuse than the frame can take.

TheKaiser
6 years ago
Reply to  STS

It also seems odd that their bike is aero optimized, but these wheels are not. Maybe they are not intended for the exact same purpose, but that isn’t clear from the info provided, and how many more sub niches can you get in super premium “gravel” anyway?

Rowan
Rowan
6 years ago
Reply to  STS

Lol, what kind of mountain biking are you doing?

Greg
Greg
6 years ago
Reply to  STS

Wheels are strong head-on. You’ll have more air pressure than the low 20s (or lower) people run on their mountain bikes, so the rim is protected from bottom out.
Mountain bikes dig into corners, rail berms, and generally load a wheel laterally much much more than what a gravel bike will see. That’s when you need the extra burliness.

Seraph
Seraph
6 years ago

A 30mm internal width 650b wheelset is a straight up MTB wheelset. You’re not fooling anyone.

Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
6 years ago
Reply to  Seraph

If 18 inner works well for 23mm, than why shouldn’t 30 work well for 47? If anything, it seems a bit skinny…..

18/23=.782
47*.782= 36.7

By the numbers, these rims are way too narrow.

Frank
Frank
6 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

Interesting theory.

If you use the old Mavic ratio 14/23, these rims come in a little wide.

Dinger
Dinger
6 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

Tire casing / rim width ratio is probably not a linear relationship. Optimum width will be different for different use cases. I don’t think they really have it figured out yet. I’d bet my bike that no tire between 35 and 50c has ever been designed to a 30mm rim width.

Hexsense
Hexsense
6 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

23c Continental 4000sII even work great on my 21mm inner width rim.
It blow up to a 27.3mm wide tire. I currently use 25c Continental 4000sII on the same 21mm inner width rim which is just slightly wider at 28.5mm but it’s taller.

So 23 on 21 give you even more extreme ratio.

Thomas Chapman
6 years ago

I’m super glad they have built these, it reassures me that I’m not daft for wanting 30mm id rims on my gravel bike.

David
David
6 years ago
Reply to  Thomas Chapman

I wouldn’t mind 30mm id on my gravel wheels, but I run 700×40 and 700×45 & I don’t want to drop down to 650. Like others have said, I question lightweight on gravel wheels. I’ve bombed down some gravel roads at pretty high speed and I suspect that this may have contributed to some less that perfectly round wheels.

RaA
RaA
6 years ago
Reply to  David

If you’re lucky, the wheels will become ovals and save you money on oval chainrings.

Andy
Andy
6 years ago

Whether one chooses to love them or leave them, the extra R&D that the gravel road market has generated has certainly brought us some interesting products. The flurry of activity reminds me of the mountain bike explosion in the mid 90s when companies were flush with cash, there was a huge demand, and there was significant variety of new ideas floating around.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.