Reynolds

58/72 Aero Carbon Road Wheelset - Tubular

You've signed up for the bi-weekly time trials out on the canal, scoured the race schedule for weekend fitness test, and set your training to hit the rockets just in time for masters nationals. All you need now is a lightning fast set of wheels that won't see you thrown off course when the winds come out to play. The Reynolds 58/72 Aero Carbon Road Tubular Wheelset fits that bill perfectly, with aerodymanic rim profiles and a depth pairing that will have you confidently flying towards the finish line.

Up front, the 58 Aero holds court with a unicorn-like balance of wind slicing speed and confident handling in all manner of airflow, while the 72 Aero brings up the rear with a deeper profile that pushes even harder for speed. Despite the depth differences, both wheels share what the Utah-based manufacturer calls Dispersive Effect Termination (DET), a design that is arguably the key to the Aero lineup's legendary speed and stability.

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 to reduce stall. DET also means that this stall-free sweet spot extends to 20 degrees of yaw—a full 7.5 degrees more than the competition.

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 — an effect that's far more noticeable when the rims get over 50 millimeters deep. You're choosing a deep rim because you want the aerodynamic benefits, but poor handling can make any speed gain come to nothing if you're thrown off the road or into another cyclist by sudden gusts.

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, and — while all deep rims are still affected by wind — the 58 Aero wheels are very predictable in how they respond, so you can ride confidently in windy conditions.

Since it's kind of jargony 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, the Achilles heel of many a carbon rim. The 58 and 72 Aero's braking is solid. Reynolds addresses the poor braking of most carbon rims with its 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 58/72 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.