Giant SLR 1 Disc 65mm carbon wheelset review

Giant’s lower priced deep section wheels are an impressive package

Cycling Weekly Verdict

Giant’s lower priced deep section wheels add a pro look to your bike. They’re competitively light, stiff and reactive too, backing that up. But despite this, they were never harsh or nervy, lapping up the miles efficiently and enjoyably.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Light

  • +

    Fast

  • +

    Responsive

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Some buffeting in crosswinds

  • -

    Currently only Shimano 11-speed compatible

  • -

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

The Giant SLR 1 Disc wheels comes with big sections: at 65mm deep, they’ve got the proper go faster look.

That’s paired to a 19mm internal rim width, so the 25mm Giant Gavia AC 0 tyres which we’ve ridden with the Giant SLR 1 Disc wheelset have a wide stance and a fairly flat transition to the rim, a feature that’s also likely to make the wheels more aero.

Buy now: Giant SLR 1 65mm rear wheel from Cyclestore for £461.99

Giant SLR 1

19mm section helps spread out the tyre profile

With such a deep section, you’d expect the Giant SLR 1 Disc wheels to be a bit prone to crosswinds, but it’s nothing scary and didn’t significantly affect handling on exposed rides over the tops of the Chilterns.

>>> Giant SLR 0 42mm wheelset review

The Giant SLR 1 Disc wheelset is tubeless ready and Giant supplies long tubeless valves and tape, so you’ve got all that you need to set up tubeless. That leads to a comfortable, fast, smooth ride even over poor surfaces, although you do get a bit of carbon clatter from the rims when it’s bumpy.

Giant SRL 1

Giant's asymmetric lacing pattern is designed to even out forces acting on both the front and rear hubs

The rims of the Giant SLR 1 Disc wheelset are laced to Giant’s own hubs using Sapim Sprint aero spokes: in the front wheel seven radial on the right side and 14 two-crossed on the left side to even out forces from the disc brake rotor. The rear wheel is laced all two-crossed with 16 spokes on the drive side and eight on the side with the brake rotor, again to help even out forces.

It’s a clean, flashy look, although the internal spoke nipples mean that you need to strip the wheels down if you need to true them.

The Giant hubs are alloy and can be swapped between thru-axles and 100mm front, 130mm rear quick release, with Giant supplying the necessary adaptors and quick release skewers. But the rear hub is only Shimano compatible, so you can’t swap out for a Campagnolo or a SRAM XDR body (although the latter is due next year), the latter meaning that you can’t run SRAM’s latest 12-speed eTap AXS groupsets.

Buy now: Giant SLR 1 65mm rear wheel from Cyclestore for £461.99

Giant claims market leading stiffness for the Giant SLR 1 Disc. I definitely felt that great power transfer when riding, with fast acceleration and eager climbing, without any lack of ride comfort. At 1878g for the wheelset, including tape and valves (which will contribute about 40g to the total), the weight is pretty good, although that’s around 100g higher than Giant’s quoted weight of 1775g. Along with such a deep section, it makes for a fast, engaging ride, pepping up the Vitus Zenium CR test bike no end.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.