You’ve seen their bikes on our pages before, now Velocite has introduced their first wheelset with the RT50. Rather than just another carbon clincher wheelset, Velocite went all in, making a road tubeless (RT) compatible wheelset that can use regular tubes and tires as well. While Velocite claims that the RT50s are the only RT compatible carbon clinchers on the market, Corima has offered their Aero+ Tubeless S carbon wheelset (also sold as Hutchinson RT1), along with MadFiber’s clincher wheels that claim they can be run with or without tubes. It still doesn’t take away from the fact that there are very few carbon RT wheelsets on the market, and Velocite is certainly early to the game.
With more and more tubeless tires popping up every trade show, are carbon RT wheels the next big thing? Read on to see Velocite’s take on the matter.
Built on 50mm deep, 23mm wide rims, the wheels weight in at 1630g. That weight though is without the tubeless kit – which Velocite mentions contains rim tape and the valves. Rims are built with a mix of unidirectional carbon with a 3k carbon weave finish for a smooth finish. The RT50s have a fairly high Tg or glass transition temperature which is basically the point where the wheel starts falling apart from too much heat. Based on Velocite’s testing of the heat resistance of the rims, they established a Tg of 192.8 degrees Celsius which is apparently pretty high for a carbon clincher. Rims are finished with a clear coat, and for now the decals are not only reflective, but removable as well.
At the center of each wheel are Gram hubs, with a 20h, radially laced front, and a 24h, 2:1 laced rear. The 2:1 rear wheel has 8 radial laced spokes on the non drive side and 16 2x spokes on the drive side. Velocite claims the Gram rear hub has the widest non-drive flange hub spacing on the market which helps to brace the non-drive spokes.
Curious how the wheels go through testing – check out the RT50s going through Velocite’s testing protocol.
Wheelsets will retail for $1989, and should be available soon.
