Fulcrum Racing 3 review
Fulcrum Racing 3's are a decent wheelset but the lack of tubeless compatibility marks these down
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The Fulcrum Racing 3's are a great wheelset that'll improve your ride over the standard supplied wheelsets on bikes. Although, the lack of tubeless ready features the wheels seem to be stuck in the past.
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Good build quality
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Light
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Fast rolling
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Not tubeless ready
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Fulcrum has given the Racing 3’s a nice upgrade and offer a real edge to the ride that feels fast and performance lead. I really enjoyed my time riding with them and felt a true performance upgrade despite their robust nature.
Out of the box the Racing 3’s felt super light but added with the skewers came out a little heavier than the Cero AR30’s at 1.67kg. Despite that the wheels felt fast and that could be down to a number of technologies applied by Fulcrum; anti-rotation system, differentiated rim height, 2:1 Two-To-One to name a few!
I need to get the elephant in the room out, however, the Fulcrim Racing 3’s are not tubeless ready! Which goes completely against the rest of the industry, although its disc brake version is tubeless. I think this is a big oversight from the Italian brand and don’t see a good enough reason not to make them tubeless ready. It isn’t like either the Specialized Turbo Cottons or the Conti GP4000’s I used where easier to get on the rim.
That ride quality is good enough though to over come this problem, as long as you don’t want to go tubeless any time soon, as out on the road I say that the Fulcrums hands down out performs the likes of Shimano's Ultegra wheels and Cero AR30 Evo's. The rim is wider too and suits a 28mm profile better according to Fulcrum.
That rings true and actually give an ever so slightly larger contact patch on the road 25mm being closer to 26mm and 28mm again that bit larger. Testing back-to-back with the Cero’s I found the Fulcrums zipped up to speed faster and had an all-round more agile ride.
However, the Fulcrums Racing 3’s are the most expensive here that with the fact they are not tubeless ready I can’t hand them the group test win.
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Symon Lewis joined Cycling Weekly as an Editorial Assistant in 2010, he went on to become a Tech Writer in 2014 before being promoted to Tech Editor in 2015 before taking on a role managing Video and Tech in 2019. Lewis discovered cycling via Herne Hill Velodrome, where he was renowned for his prolific performances, and spent two years as a coach at the South London velodrome.
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