DT Swiss has launched the final piece in its wheel overhaul puzzle with the new Crossroad CRC1100 and CRC1400s, which look like seriously promising wheelsets for those riders looking to lighten their bikes off road.
The new carbon any-road wheel range is topped by the tubular specific CRC1100, aimed squarely at the CX racer, which features an all-new UD carbon rim that DT has worked on by shaping the tyre bed to best suit 32 and 33mm wide cyclocross tubular tyres.
This new shape means that the tyre bed is much, much shallower than a traditional tubular rim and also wider at 26mm. The claimed 38mm depth offers the best balance between strength and lightweight, and while DT admits that aero benefits have little to offer the cyclocross rider, the rim has still been optimised to handle the wind.
As the flagship of the range, the CRC1100s are aimed squarely at elite riders and have been paired down to minimal weight. At their heart they use DT’s lightweight 240 hub internals inside a spline body which is shaped to use straight pull spokes (DT Aero’s Lite up front and Comps at the rear), while the internals are uprated to use full (SINC) ceramic bearings.
The rear hub uses DT’s superlight freehub body and its much lauded 36-point of engagement ratchet system.
All of this adds up to a flyweight pairing of 589g for the front and 733g for the rear, a total of 1,322g. That’s light for a set of road climbing wheels, so for a set of wheels designed to take a hammering through 'cross seasons its all the more impressive.
Crossroad tubeless CRC1400s
For most of us though it’s the CRC1400s that will have more appeal. These share a similar design and finish to the 1100s but use an all-new tubeless ready rim.
The new rim is wide, very wide, it also uses a hookless design with an internal width of 22mm that will shape a classic CX tyre perfectly well, but should you go bigger the hookless shape means less pinching at the bead and therefore less ballooning of the tyre.
The 24mm deep rim is light at a claimed 390g, and when combined with the 240 based spline hubs makes for a super light set of tubeless wheels. To keep the price lower though the hubs here use stainless steel bearings and a standard freehub body (but using the same 36-point ratchet system) compared to the 1100’s more exotic build.
The Spline hub shell is a development on from DT’s existing RC Spline design, DT worked on the flange distance and the angle with the aim to improving strength to weight on the wheels.
DT claims that under testing the Spline hubs provide a 15 percent improvement in rear wheel stiffness. The 1400s tip the scales at 622g for the front and 767g for the rear, so 1,389g for a pair makes these some of the lightest ‘all-road’ wheels I’ve seen. They're so light in fact I’d be tempted to run them on my regular road bike when not heading off the beaten track.
DT Swiss Crossroad CRC1100 and CRC1400 pricing and availability
The DT Swiss Crossroad CRC1100 and CRC1400 wheelsets will be available from today with the CRC1100 priced at £2,070 / $3,103 and the CRC1400 £1,675 / $2,549.
