A perfect sign of things to come, Campagnolo now offers a disc brake wheelset. We already know that the company has been working on their own hydraulic disc brake system, but that’s still in the prototype phase. The new Zonda DB wheels are not. With Campagnolo calling it their first Campy branded disc brake product, the wheels will surely stand as the starting point for helping their Disc Brake Project make it from the Campy Tech Lab to the streets. In fact, the Zonda DB wheels themselves were born from the Disc Brake Project and represent Campagnolo’s take on what a disc brake wheelset should be. That means the proliferation of an asymmetric design, not just on the rear but on the front as well.
Designed from the ground up for use with disc brakes, the Zonda DB looks looks to be a great starting point for discs…
While complete specs aren’t yet available for the DB wheelset, Campagnolo has provided a snapshot of what to expect. Both the front and rear wheel utilize an asymmetric aluminum rim that is laced to their new aluminum disc brake hubs. Built specifically to use with disc brakes, the rims use an asymmetric profile that makes use of their Rim Dynamic Balance and MoMag technology to create a rim that has no spoke holes and is as light and balanced as possible. Spoke pattern comes in the form of their Mega G3 lacing with 21 spokes front and rear.
Built with the classic cup and cone bearings, the new hubs will be offered in both 6 bolt and AFS (their version of Centerlock), and will be compatible with both thru axles and quick release dropouts. The front hub will be compatible with 12 x 100 thru axles and standard 100mm quick releases, while the rear will utilize 12 x 142mm thru axle spacing and will apparently use a special 135mm quick release axle for QR frames.
No word yet on rim width, tubeless compatibility, pricing, or weights, but Campy claims they are 25g lighter than their closes competitor and more “reactive” when compared to the rim brake version of the same wheel. More when we have it.
