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HED Vanquish 6 is their first full carbon clincher, claims ultimate aerodynamics

HED Cycling Vanquish 6 is their first full carbon clincher made in house at Minnesota factory
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Building on 10 years of aerodynamic testing and in-house carbon fiber manufacturing, the new HED Vanquish 6 aero road bike wheel is a tubeless ready, disc brake model that’s their first-ever full carbon clincher rim. Prior to this, HED had stuck with an aluminum rim bead hook and bed, flanked by carbon fairings at various depths. They simply weren’t convinced carbon fiber was the right application for a braking surface that also needed to hold high pressure. Now, with the move to tubeless and disc brakes, those concerns are gone.

In fact, making it disc brake only is the sole factor in moving to a full carbon rim. Like their other carbon rim parts, it’s made in house in their Roseville, Minnesota, factory. They worked with the layup, resins and put a specific arcing shape on the top of the rim to improve impact resistance.

2018 HED Cycling Vanquish 6 carbon tubeless ready disc brake wheelset for road cyclocross and gravel bikes

Basic specs are:

  • 21mm inside width
  • 30mm max outside width
  • 60mm depth
  • 545 Disc hubset
  • 1,598g wheelset weight
  • 475g rim weight
  • $2,500 retail
  • Available now

2018 HED Cycling Vanquish 6 carbon tubeless ready disc brake wheelset for road cyclocross and gravel bikes

Recommended tire sizes range from 23 to 28mm wide tires for optimum aerodynamics, but they say you’re safe running up to a 42mm for gravel. Meaning they’re fine for cyclocross, too. Max recommended tire pressure is 90psi, which sounds low, but they say the added air  volume coming from the wider rim and deep center channel means it’ll ride best around that limit. However, they said you could pump it a little over 100psi and it’d be just fine.

2018 HED Cycling Vanquish 6 carbon tubeless ready disc brake wheelset for road cyclocross and gravel bikes

2018 HED Cycling Vanquish 6 carbon tubeless ready disc brake wheelset for road cyclocross and gravel bikes

The 545 Disc hubset uses a 5-pawl, 45-tooth engagement system with larger 6902 bearings. They’re Center Lock only, but a 6-bolt rotor adapter is available separately. They’re 24 hole front and rear, and you can get Shimano, SRAM XD or Campagnolo 11-speed freehub bodies. Pick from 12/12 and 15/12 thru axle combos, with a QR adapter kit available separately.

HEDcycling.com

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Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
7 years ago

Finally! Full carbon clinchers… [head slapping forehead!] jeez, who wudda thunk! In the same realm as waiting 12 years for Shimano to finally get around to aero route gear cables.

Bill
Bill
7 years ago

I actually thought the opposite. Carbon clinchers are just completely unnecessary to me. HED’s aluminum C2 rim with a carbon fairing had plenty reasonable weight to it, handled excellent, and braked like a normal, predictable aluminum rim in all weather conditions. At least they’re only getting on this stupid bandwagon for their disc rims for now.

And for what it’s worth, the “aero routing” adds unnecessary cable friction, and is often a pain to recable. More marketing based engineering.

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
7 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Your response is so full of holes it resembles Swiss cheese.

Tom
Tom
7 years ago

are these a good value at $2500 with house brand hubs?

Craig P
Craig P
7 years ago
Reply to  Tom

HED wheels have been know to go 20,000 miles without problems, so I’d say yes. These are now at the top of my list ! I love my Ardennes + wheels ( and my wife has Jet 6 / 9 wheels on her tri bike ).

tyler
7 years ago

awesome specs!

carbon looks a little resin-dry but im not an engineer

comrad
7 years ago

I really love the dudes at HED and some of their stuff (ardennes) but these wheels just continue down the “meh” road that HED has been going down wheel-wise recently. There’s nothing that leaps out and tells me to buy them over other $2,500 wheelsets in the market.

Meh weight
Meh hubs
Meh price
Meh

augsburg
7 years ago

One spec I never see listed or represented in the manufacturer’s videos. The noise of carbon wheels. Can always hear them a mile away. Would be great if a way to dampen the noise was developed.

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