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Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 wheels in detail: wider carbon, tubeless & road disc brakes

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We had a pretty good look at the new Dura-Ace R9100 group when it was unveiled over the summer, adding a proper top-level set of hydraulic disc brakes to Shimano’s premium road race groupset both in electronic Di2 and mechanical shift options, as well as an integrated power meter crankset among other drivetrain redesigns. But less attention has been paid to the accompanying Dura-Ace wheels.

Shimano has effectively added two new wider carbon rim families the C60 & C40, that will join the carry-over C24 to mesh with the new groupset. But even then with options for tubular, tubeless & clincher rims and both rim & disc brake setups, there are a lot of different wheelsets coming in the R9100 & R9170 groups. Get the details including claimed weights & pricing, plus another good look at those new disc rotors, and a sneak peek at what looks to be Shimano’s own quick release thru-axle solution…

R9170 disc brake profiles

A lot of the new innovation in the new Dura-Ace wheels came out once they started to make the move to ditch the brake track. These are the first road wheels to be developed that didn’t need to deal with rim braking forces or rim heat build up, so got a clean slate design. That also gave Shimano the flexibility to start with a wide profile, so they chose to grow out to 28mm at the widest point. They didn’t give us much more width details, whether inside or out, but also mentioned widths of 24mm at times, so we’ll be anxious to put a set of calipers to the wheels in the next few weeks.

Both of the two new rim platforms – C60 & C40 – were said to be developed around the new 28mm outer width profile better suited to the growing use of wider tires for lower rolling resistance. The new shapes were then optimized through CFD & wind tunnel testing to deliver improved aerodynamics over the current C50 wheels.

The new deeper 60mm C60 tubular beat out the previous 9000 generation tubulars by 16W, while also trimming off more than 40g from the wheelset. In addition to the race-ready tubulars, Shimano has developed the new full carbon rim for disc brake use to be compatible with road tubeless. As more tire testing is showing lower rolling resistance tubeless even compared to tubulars, the new R9170 wheels will give one more reason to opt for disc brakes.

With disc brakes, the new full carbon tubeless C60s will sell for $2080 a pair at a claimed weight of 1644g. Their tubular version drops the weight back to just 1492g with a retail of $2670.

Aerodynamically,even the more shallow profile 37mm deep C40 wheels are still claimed to offer a 2W savings vs. the C50 at the same 7.5° wind angle that Shimano claimed delivered the best real world sprint approximation. The wheels carry the same 28mm wide rim, but also go to a dramatically asymmetric rim that Shimano claims improves stiffness greatly paired with the wide flange disc hubs.

The new carbon disc tubeless C40s will sell for $1970 at 1557g, while the tubular option will drop down to just 1389g at a retail of $2450. No disc brake version of the carry-over C24 will be offered.

Shimano sees the C60 disc as the ideal race wheel for the performance-driven roadie or triathlete who are looking for the added braking security offered by discs in hilly events or unpredictable weather. At the same time with light overall weights and excellent aerodynamics, the mid-depth C40 is the best balance for an all around road disc wheelset with responsive acceleration.

R9170 hubs

The move to disc brakes finally brings a centerlock hubset to Dura-Ace. Showing a strong family resemblance to the most recent XTR 9000 wheels where they clearly pull some of their design ideas, the new R9170 hubs get slimmed down hub shells with the same offset straightpull flanges. The disc brake wheels look to be only offered in 12mm E-Thru thru-axle for now (142mm rear spacing), with the rim brake wheels sticking with QRs (130mm only).

All of the new Dura-Ace wheels also incorporate bladed stainless steel spokes for improved aerodynamics. Update: So far, these tubulars we see here do indeed have internal nipples, which anyone who has glued up tires knows is at least an inconvenient idea. That said, we’ve seen some images of new D-A wheels that have visible external nipples. We’ll get more info on nipples as soon as possible, and hope to be able to report back in a month or so once we’ve had a chance to see more of the different wheels available in person.

 

Both rim and disc brake wheelsets use Shimano’s OptBal spoke systems to varying degrees. That means that spoke numbers and their lacing patterns vary depending on the application. For the disc brake front hubs, the wheels get effective 3-cross lacing out of the straight pull hubs, while the rear hub is effectively 3-cross on the driveside and radial on the disc side.

R9170 rotors and E-Thru axles

It can never hurt to get another good look at those new Dura-Ace, next gen Freeza disc brake rotors. Mounted up on the new R9170 hubs gives us a better sense of the look of the vented alloy cooling fins and aluminum carrier.

A closer look also reveals a sneak peek at Shimano’s own quick release E-Thru thru-axle. It uses a newly shaped QR lever to match the aesthetics of the new D-A group with a traditional internal cam for smooth action. On the driveside you can see that the QR axle doesn’t appear to thread into the interface at the fork, but rather looks like it has an expander that clamps it into the dropout. This is certainly different to the thread-in axle interface that we have seen on other disc brake, thru-axle Pinarellos, and is likely a new solution developed to allow for faster wheel changes in the pro peloton.

Out back we can see the same QR lever, plus another couple of views of the new rotors and the straight pull bladed spoke lacing.

R9100 rim brake profiles

Interestingly, while the disc brake wheels have gone full carbon even for the tubeless versions, only the tubular rims for either of the new C60 & C40 rim brake wheels go full carbon. The deeper rim brake C60 uses an ultra-shallow doublewall aluminum rim extrusion that is them bonded to a complete carbon airfoil that looks very similar to the accompanying tubular. The more shallow rim brake C40 on the other hand uses a complete, but thin aluminum rim extrusion that gets wrapped in carbon to deliver its desired rim stiffness.

Also if note, the composite aluminum/carbon rim brake clinchers are not tubeless ready as the disc brake versions are.

For the rim brake wheels, the new C60 will sell for $1650 a set for the clinchers at a claimed weight of 1770g and $2630 for the 1471g tubulars. The new C40 clinchers will run $1580 at 1527g, and $2400 for the 1343g tubular version. The 1412g alloy C24s will carry over for $1150.

All of the new Dura-Ace R9100 rim brake & R9170 disc brake wheels are slated for early 2017 availability. We’ll have the chance to get some riding in on the new wheels hopefully by the end of January, so we’ll report back out impressions then.

Dura-Ace.com 

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rideifbikes
rideifbikes
7 years ago

I always thought it strange that shimano charges more for the tubular then for the clincher. The clinchers are a more complicated construction. Either in the carbon bonded to an alloy extrusion or in a full carbon tubular rim bed. Those are all more difficult to construct then a carbon tubular rim bed. Yet the clincher always costs less.

Wonderbread
Wonderbread
7 years ago
Reply to  rideifbikes

they sell far more clincher versions, the cost per unit goes down as the scale of production goes up

Juan Sevo
Juan Sevo
7 years ago
Reply to  rideifbikes

Making tubular carbon rims is so much easier than making a clincher that even the supply/demand argument is moot. Especially at a $500 price difference between wheel sets.

My educated guess is they want to encourage clinchers moving forward.

Filipe Alberto
Filipe Alberto
5 years ago
Reply to  rideifbikes

Could it be that the new C60 clincher is actually the exact same wheel as the old C50 and new tubulat C60 is actually new and wider?

Pete
Pete
7 years ago

@rideifbikes Wouldn’t it be nice if production cost was the only thing we ever had to pay for? (supply and demand)

STS
STS
7 years ago

Oh boy, they went back to internal nipples. A clear NoGo for both tubulars but even more for TL tires, and you would have thought that they have finally learned the lessons pro mechanics taught them with regards to this years ago. Some teams went as far as rebuilding their Shimano wheels with conventional Dura Ace hubs after increasing the spoke holes so that they could use external nipples.

Greg
Greg
7 years ago
Reply to  STS

Good eye, I didn’t notice til I read your comment.
Bad move, Shimano.

TheOracle
TheOracle
7 years ago
Reply to  Cory Benson

Please stop carrying tthe tourch for Shimano. If people want to voice their opinions, let them. At the very least, maybe Shimano will listen.
Furthermore, even without the internal nipple discussion there are plenty of reasons to condemn Shimano.

Robin
Robin
7 years ago
Reply to  TheOracle

Did Shimano assault a child, steal someone’s dialysis machine, or use slaves to make weapons for some war Shimano intends to wage? If not, “condemn” is a really dumb word choice. Yeah, it’s a dramatic word choice, but one that is completely inappropriate.

r|b
r|b
7 years ago

I’m sure they work much better but the new Dura Ace disc rotors are sinfully ugly…at least while not in motion.

Also maybe it’s just me but by going with a black-on-black look for the entire. R9100 & R9170 groupset Shimano has lost the ‘special-ness’ (sic) that the titanium/black scheme used to command. From afar you’d probably mistake it for Ultegra.

For me the only must upgrades from 9050 are: new junction box, in-line D-Fly (if features not incorporated into new junction box), seatpost battery and rear Di2 derailleur. New hoods/levers might be worth a try but honestly they should have incorporated the junction/D-Fly into the design of the hoods/tri levers…instead of having 4 different junctions and two different D-Flys.

Cherk Chup
7 years ago
Reply to  r|b

They should do wireless to remove all junktions…

Corey
Corey
7 years ago
Reply to  Cherk Chup

More batteries = NOPE!

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
7 years ago

those rotors look wicked

veganpotter@mail.com
veganpotter@mail.com
7 years ago

Finally…rims that are actually wide.
And yes, quantity matters for cost but they’ll make enough of every model for the price to already be nearly as low for clincher and tubular rims. Clinchers still take much more time to produce and more time to develop. They should still be noticeably cheaper than tubulars. That said, I’m also happy they’re making wide rims with an aluminum brake track. The price is actually pretty good with those clinchers.

VeloKitty
VeloKitty
7 years ago

Bring back j-bend spokes. Those hubs look hideous.

Max
Max
7 years ago

Any comments on the rear hub internal and freehub mechanism? The freehub body looks like having replaceable splines. Maybe you covered that question in an earlier post, but I didn’t find anything with the search engine.

hjb1000
hjb1000
7 years ago
Reply to  Max

Good question- the freehub in the images does indeed appear to have replaceable stainless steel splines. I assume the freehub body is aluminium. This is in keeping with the rumors of the ‘Sylence’ ratchet hub design. Will be great if they offer these as a stand-alone FH-M9100 rear hub with normal J-bend spoke holes.
Interesting that the front hub with TA does not have the ‘digit click’ bearing adjustment, which is a shame. I guess too difficult to have TA and digit mechanism?

Max
Max
7 years ago

Yeah, I was wondering if they did make use of this patent in their new rear hub?

John
John
7 years ago

Why are their tubulars so expensive? Aren’t tubulars easier (and presumably cheaper) to manufacture?

Rob Boydston
Rob Boydston
7 years ago

I’m disappointed that the rim brake C40/60 aren’t tubeless ready. I’ve been riding the C24 TL since they were released (as the wh 7850.) They’ve been terrific, but I’ve always longed for a deeper (and wider) option. I was going they would update the C35 in this 9100 release to address both of those. But no such luck. Seems odd.

davechopoptions
davechopoptions
7 years ago

TheOracle – there’s far more to thank them for, than to criticise them for in terms of product offering. Nothing I can recall to justify being a drama queen and “condemn” them for?!
They’re bicycle parts not weapons of mass destruction?

haromania
haromania
7 years ago

Nicely dun dave!! Agree 100%

Raidboss
Raidboss
7 years ago

The true tell here will be in the internal widths have grown with the widest external width. So if they have grown the widest part of the profile yet failed to grow the internal width of the rim I think that will be a fail. I would love to see a 21 internal width on these bad boys. With brands like Enve going all the way to 25mm and others going to 21, now is the time to dump 17 and dare I say 19mm internal width rims, unless you are looking for absolute aero gains, in which I would say 19.

Pedro
Pedro
7 years ago

Cory, you should really read and *report* on this thread: http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1292884#p1292884

Shimano is engaging in a spectacular level of misinformation/deception about the “new” C40/C60 clinchers, which are really just the old narrow C35/C50 rims with new hubs and stickers.

Consumers need to be informed and Shimano is doing nothing of the sort, but instead silently updating their website while keeping the product names as they are and not informing neither buyers, retailers or media. I would hope you are enraged that much of the reporting in this article of yours turns out to be completely false because Shimano lied to you.

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