HED has broadened (literally and figuratively) their product line with their all-new Stinger 5 and 7 carbon tubular wheels.
The new Stinger 5 has a fat, 50mm-deep rim built up with extra layers of carbon fiber and designed for 25mm or wider tires. The thicker carbon layup claims to offer a more comfortable ride on rough surfaces. Wheelset weight is 615g F / 775g R or 1,390g for the set. (claimed) Cyclocross and cobbles, anyone?
The Stinger 7 (shown) comes from Team HTC-Columbia requests for something super stiff for sprinting. The sidewalls are reinforced for better lateral rigidity, helping it hold up to fast cornering and sprinting in a aero package. As the numbered moniker implies, it’s 70mm deep and is the deepest wheel they’ve made that can be called a “road” wheel (as opposed to an aero-only type TT or Tri wheel). No, you probably shouldn’t use this one for ‘cross.
Both wheels claim to have great crosswinds performance thanks to their SCT technology, which essentially tunes each wheel depth for neutral handling in crosswinds without negatively affecting performance in other areas. For 2011, the existing Stinger 4, 6 and 9 are also SCT tuned, too.
In other news, they’ve lumped all of their alloy wheels into the Ardennes family rather than having a bunch of different Belgian-area city names. For 2011, all of their wheels will be laces 2X on both sides. Previously, some models had radial lacing on one side, but HED says the current crop of road frames and rims are so stiff, that the wheels needed an upgrade to keep up (not that they were slack before, but you know, can’t stop progress…).
We’re working on images for all this and will update when we have them.
