Love it or hate it, the 3T Luteus disc brake cyclocross fork has kept its cable-running-outside design in its final form factor. Painted up, the cable tie holes seem to be cleaned up from the raw carbon fiber prototypes we’ve seen, and the deep gloss black should go well with plenty of ‘cross bikes.
The Mercurio wheels borrow Cane Creek’s now defunct oversized direct pull hub design with a unique drop in spoke slot on the rims that eliminates any drilling. Pics of both items after the break…
Max rotor size on the front is 160mm.
3T’s Mercurio Wheels use a side mounted spoke placement so there are no spoke holes drilled thru the rim, which they say makes them stronger and eliminates potential weak spots/stress risers. The top level LTD version will come in 40, 60 and 80mm depths, along with a 40 and 60 carbon/alloy Team level clincher.
The LTD has a veiled braking surface, which comes from Ferrari F1 braking technology and provides equal braking performance in wet or dry conditions, making them good for cyclocross. Yellow SwissStop pads are recommended and should ship with the wheels.
Coming mostly at the OE level will be the Pro alloy clincher wheels in 40mm only.
Look familiar? Why reinvent the wheel (lame pun intended) when you can borrow tech from a company that arguably had great design but poor marketing at the time. The Mercurio wheels use Cane Creek’s direct pull spoke design for a great looking hub that, combined with the rim’s spoke slots, should make servicing these wheels super easy.
What was reinvented, though, was the freehub body. Thanks to a unique design that uses a couple shims, a single freehub will work with SRAM, Shimano or Campy.
