Lightweight wheels announced on rest day at the Tour de France - avoiding 'Lab test'

Lightweight, the German ultra-premium carbon wheel manufacturer, has chosen rest day at the Tour de France to launch what it’s calling a “new era in carbon wheel engineering”.

Those that remember the last time we saw a Lightweight wheel at the Tour de France was possibly in 2007, when German pro-rider Marcus Burghardt collided with a yellow Labrador, tacoing his front wheel and sending him flying over the bars.

Since then, despite some controversy at the time, wheels like their Obermayer 50’s have remained an exclusive and arguably cult product, where their legend in hill climbing and sprint circles is only truly revealed to those that can afford them, and the odd lucky journalist. For many diehard fans and some of those in the know, Lightweight make the best carbon wheels in the world.

Even for journalists, they’re as rare as rocking horse deposits, and we have to go as far back as Simon Smythe, one of my most esteemed predecessors, to find evidence of their lore. Simon reviewed them for Cycling Weekly back in 2018, saying that “as a pure climbing wheel they simply cannot be beat”.

The new wheels, not unlike the otherworldly pricing of the outgoing models, retail at an extraordinary €6,990 for the top spec Meilenstein Art Schwarz ED wheelset, or just €6,550 for the base spec model.

Lightweight, as it did in the Obermayer, uses an innovative construction method which sees the spoke bonded into the rim, at opposite points in the rim of the wheel. In this case, the spoke passes through a special flange on an aluminium hub body (based on the DT Swiss 180) where the passing spoke is bonded with adhesive to the hub shell, permanently.

The unconventional manufacturing approaches continue in this latest incarnation of their wheels, where the rim itself, measuring 45mm in depth, uses reusable inserts to mould ribs inside the rim profile – called Alpha Rib Technology or ART for short – which they claim adds class leading lateral stiffness. This should worry unattentive pedigree breeds everywhere.

The brand also claims that CfD and wind tunnel work done in the design of the now more conventional, contemporary, aero rim profile puts them ahead of the competition when lateral stiffness is set against aero performance and weight.

The Obermayer wheelset measured just 18mm internal and 19mm external. Dimensions which would be a blade to the shoulder of an errant dog now that they're presumably unfoldable.

Thankfully, the new rim design is more blunt, and brings the much girthier rim profile into the range of recent wheel launches from other brands – with an internal rim width of just shy of 23mm (22.9mm) and external rim width of 28.6mm. The wheels are designed around a 28mm and larger tyre profile and are of a hooked design.

Lateral movement on a wheel rim is usually measured by assessing the deflection when weighted. If the data is to be believed, these wheels are not just stiffer than the outgoing model in that plane, but stiffer than the similarly expensive Partington R-Series MKII, which retail for a similarly interstellar sum, but are in the same miniscule ball park when it comes to mass. If the weight claims prove to be accurate too, Meilenstein Art will now be some 70g+ lighter than the outgoing model they replace.

We asked for aero data to support the performance claims in respect of the 20 spokes, which appear wider gauge than conventional carbon spokes. This was not available at the time of going to press, but these wheels are marketed for the purposes of sprinting, and climbing, where the brand clearly chose to prioritise, or perhaps more fairly, consider, both stiffness and aero, over out-and-out aero numbers. The wheels are it claims, 20% more aero than the last model.

Saying the weight is extremely competitive understates the facts somewhat. The wheels come in lower than much shallower profile wheelsets like Roval’s Alpinist, which tips the scales at 1250g.

Whilst the Lightweight’s stay true to their brand name at a meagre 1190g +/-3%, claimed weight, the similarly bonkers Partington’s must have been on their radar throughout the development of this wheelset. Those, worry the scales at around 1170g, so these extremely exclusive wheels, from a brand already known for creating some of the stiffest riding, lightest and most exclusive disc brake wheels in the world, are certainly still in the game.

We've yet to ride them of course, but with the new figures in hand, I'd not bet against the front wheel if these new Lightweight's comes up against a wandering Labrador ever again.

Specifications

Wheelset Weight: 1.190 g (+/- 3%)

FW: 550 g | RW: 640 g

Rim Depth: 45 mm

Internal Rim Width: 22,9 mm

External Rim Width: 28,6 mm

Rim Design: 700C | hooked | closed rim bed

Optimized Tire Size: 28 mm+

Tire Type: Tubeless-Ready

Spokes: 20 Full-Carbon Front/Rear

Hub: Proprietary Penta-Fly | DT SWISS EXP 180

Freehub Systems: Shimano | Sram | Campa

Brake System: Disc Centerlock

Spacing: 12x100 | 12x142