Last summer Fulcrum brought some top-level tech to alloy-rimmed Red Power & Passion XC wheels, and now they are taking that a step further. Two new levels of aluminum Red Zone 5 & 7 wheels aim to get more short travel cross-country & trail riders on reliable performance wheels. At the same time a more burly Red Fire 5 enduro wheelset is said to be light enough to comfortably spin up the neutral sections, while ready to bash down the downhills in a race against the clock…
Fulcrum Red Zone cross-country mountain bike wheels
The new Red Zone 5 and Red Zone 7 fill out the lower end of Fulcrum’s XC wheelsets. That’s not really a negative though. Fulcrum still calls them XC race wheels, and their weight, rim dimensions & expected build quality should make for a solid upgrade for many riders looking to replace worn out stock wheels on their XC bikes.
Both XC/XCM rated wheelsets are 29er only, 2-Way Fit tubeless, and share the same straight pull AFS (aka centerlock) hubset that looks a lot like a slightly beefier version we saw on the higher-end Fulcrum Racing road disc wheels last week, but this time available in QR, thru-axle & Boost-spaced versions. They both get 20mm deep rims and 28 spokes front & rear with the same number of spokes on each side unlike the road wheels.
The Red Zone 5 are a bit more premium with a 1800g (1815g in Boost) total weight, with a fairly narrow 23mm inner rim width (28.5mm outside), rated for 2-2.35″ tires.
The Red Zone 7 wheels should come down in price with a slightly heavier rim. It’s the same 20mm deep and 23mm inside, but this one is 27.5mm outside and gets a less refined cross section we assume, because this wheelset adds 60g to 1860g (1875g) while all of its other stats look unchanged.
Both wheelsets are available with Shimano or SRAM XD freehubs, and both are rated for 109kg/240lb riders.
Fulcrum Red Fire enduro mountain bike wheels
The new 27.5”-only enduro wheelset wants to bring more technical trail capability to the Fulcrum wheel line-up. In order to excel at Enduro the Red Fire 5 wheelset claims to climb like an XC wheel and descend as if built for DH. It shares a lot of the tech of the Red Zone wheels to try to hit those lofty claims with a more solid, wider rim.
The Red Fire 5 wheels still go with 2-Way Fit tubeless for their 20mm deep rim. But here the inner width climbs to 27mm (32mm external) to handle tires up to 2.5″ wide. Weight comes up just a few grams over the XC wheels to 1890g for a standard spaced wheelset, or 1905g in the more likely Boost configuration. The wheels use the same hubset as the Red Zone wheels, and with that comes the same 28 spokes, alloy nipples, axle & cassette options, plus the 109kg/240lb rider+gear weight limit.
