HED Cycling, the American wheel manufacturer, has just added to its gravel range with the 700c only Emporia GC3 Performance. These carbon hoops are targeting the more affordable end of the spectrum – which has become increasingly competitive in recent years.
Retailing at $1,650, these still don’t quite match the cheapest carbon gravel wheels on price. But then again, the Emporia GC3 Performance wheels are built by hand in Minnesota and the design draws heavily on cues from the premium Emporia GC3 Pro wheels – so you can at least see where your money is going.
(Image credit: HED)
Now, onto that rim profile, it is monstrously wide with an internal rim width of 26mm, which makes it one of the widest gravel wheelsets currently on the market. Perhaps surprisingly, despite this huge width, the wheels are still compatible with tyres down to 32mm – so there’s potential for setting them up in more of an all-road guise or dabbling in a bit of CX. Naturally, they are tubeless compatible.
At 30mm deep, these wheels are fairly shallow. There’s a broad consensus at the moment that the external rim width should be a little greater than that of the tyre to achieve optimal aerodynamics, but coming up at 31mm wide externally, there’s no scope for that with the Emporia GC3 Performance.
That said, with the slower speeds of gravel riding compared to on the road, aerodynamic optimisation is of lesser importance. Low weight for the steeper climbs you get off-road and for snappier feeling acceleration is a greater priority, and tipping the scales at a claimed 1,523g for the set, the Emporia GC3 Performance wheels are competitive in that regard.
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Interestingly, the front and rear weights given here don’t add up to the claimed weight of the full wheelset.(Image credit: HED)
After winning the 2019 National Single-Speed Cross-Country Mountain Biking Championships and claiming the plushie unicorn (true story), Stefan swapped the flat-bars for drop-bars and has never looked back.
But his favourite rides are multiday bikepacking trips, with all the huge amount of cycling tech and long days spent exploring new roads and trails - as well as histories and cultures. Most recently, he’s spent two weeks riding from Budapest into the mountains of Slovakia.
