Reynolds

46 Aero Carbon Wheelset - Tubular

Very few wheels are foolhardy enough to make the claim to be a do-it-all wheelset: climbing, flats, 'cross, whatever. Fewer still are able to actually make that claim without falling flat on their faces. With its strength, aerodynamics, and tubular setup, the Reyonlds 46 Aero Carbon Tubular Wheelset manages to do both. Since this is an aerodynamic wheel, you're no doubt primarily interested in how it achieves lower drag, and no feature of the wheel is more responsible for this than what Reynolds calls Dispersive Effect Termination (DET), which we think of as an airflow babysitter.

DET Begins at the rim bed with a maximum width of 26.2mm, which brings the rim up to the tire's width and creates a generous cradle to glue it to. There are myriad benefits to this design, included reduced turbulence, which causes drag, and increased lateral rigidity and comfort. The rim's deep dish is shaped in a NACA-profiled, tapered V-shape that ends with a sharp trailing edge. The Aero's shape smooths airflow over the wheel, and when that air passes the spoke face, it's easily reattached at the rear of the rim. This alleviates the stalled pockets of dead trailing air that create a backward pull on the rim.

It's rare to have a real-world circumstance of a straight-on head wind. In reality, you spend 95% of your riding time between 0 and 20 degrees of yaw with a wind angle anywhere from 0 to 100 degrees in relation to the bearing. A lot of deep rims in this situation act as sails, pulling the bike sideways during sudden changes of direction in windy conditions. While it's impossible to completely cure this ailment, Reynolds' rim-shaping DET distributes side forces (read: cross wind) so that the center of pressure is pushed beyond the center of mass. This means the pulling due to cross wind and the like is much less pronounced. The DET shape prevents stall at angles before 20 degrees of yaw, while most competitor's offerings experienced stall between around 12.5 and 14 degrees of yaw. This means that the Aero's handling "sweet spot" is extended to a window of 7.5 degrees higher than the competition.

Since it's kind of jargon-laden information, you may not be interested to know that DET's center of pressure maximizes the forward thrust vector (a quantity that has direction and magnitude) and the rim shape increases lift and decreases turbulent flow. But you'll definitely enjoy the forward thrust that all that jargon translates into on the bike. Essentially, this system works almost like a turbine, generating extra watts of propulsion from the wind. The legendary DT Swiss internals of the Reynolds hubs mean that those watts won't be wasted.

And now for braking. You knew it was coming, because it always comes up eventually with carbon rims. So let's get this over with. The Aero's braking is — wait for it — actually really solid. Reynolds addresses the poor braking of most carbon rims with the Cryogenic Glass Transition Braking System (CTg). CTg incorporates a temperature-conductive laminate at the brake track's transition points that withstands higher levels of heat than typical carbon laminates (around a 100 degree dispersion). When paired with Reynolds' polymer Cryo Blue brake pads, this laminate makes braking more predictable and less finicky feathering on fast descents.

The Reynolds 46 Aero Carbon Tubular Wheelset includes two pairs of Reynolds Cryo Blue Brake Pads. Reynolds strongly recommends only using its proprietary pads, and the use of any other brake pads will result in a void of your warranty. The wheels also include a wheel bag, RC Race Skewers, and rim strips.