Cadex 42 Disc wheelset review
New-world wheels
GBP £2,500.00 RRP | USD $3,200.00 | EUR €2,600.00 | AUD $4,120.00 Skip to view deals
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The rim of Cadex’s 42 Disc wheel is, as you might expect, 42mm deep, and has a slender 23mm outer width and a 19.4mm inner: dimensions designed to work optimally with 25mm and 28mm tyres. So far, so normal.
The rim itself is a clever design: a hook on a rim is designed to ‘catch’ and hold the bead of a tyre ensuring proper retention, but this hookless design relies on the air pressure pushing out and forcing an air-tight seal, it’s how tubeless works best.
These are among the stiffest wheels I’ve ever tried. Drop your shoulders and lay them into a corner and on exit the bike wants to stand up, forge ahead and go straight. At first it feels odd but when it clicks the 42s are devastatingly rapid.
The lack of mass is most telling when you get to the hills. A light set of wheels is a boon to any climbing task but combine lightness with the solidity of the 42s and it’s an amazing feeling, as if every ounce of your energy is finding its way to the tyre’s contact patch.
I’ve ridden plenty of light wheelsets before, but these tyres with their lack of lateral flex feel incredibly efficient. Weight-wise, the bare wheels tip the scales at an impressive 1,327g and with tubeless valves and tape fitted that rises to 1,430g.
- Front: £1,100 / $1,400 / AU$1,800 / €1,200
- Rear: £1,400 / $1,800 / AU$2,320 / €1, 400
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Product Specifications
Product
| Price | br_price, 5, 3, Price, AUD $4120.00EUR €2600.00GBP £2500.00USD $3200.00 |
| Weight | br_weight, 5, 6, Weight, 1,327g, Array, g |
| Brand | br_brand, 5, 10, Brand, Cadex |
Features
| Brake type | br_brakeTypeSimple, 11, 0, Brake type, Disc |
| Freehub | br_freehub, 11, 0, Freehub, Shimano 11 / SRAM XDR 12 |
| Hubs | br_hubs, 11, 0, Hubs, CADEX Low Friction |
| Rim depth | br_rimDepth, 11, 0, Rim depth, 42mm |
| Rim internal width | br_rimInternalWidth, 11, 0, Rim internal width, 19.4 |
| Rim material | br_rimMaterial, 11, 0, Rim material, Carbon |
| Spoke count | br_spokeCountFront, 11, 0, Spoke count, 21 front, 24 rear |
| Spokes | br_spokes, 11, 0, Spokes, Aero Carbon Spoke |
| Tubeless compatibility | br_tubelessCompatibility, 11, 0, Tubeless compatibility, Tubeless ready |
| Tyre type | br_tyreType, 11, 0, Tyre type, Tubeless |
| Wheel size | br_wheelSize, 11, 0, Wheel size, 29in/700c |
Authors
Warren Rossiter is BikeRadar and Cycling Plus magazine’s senior technical editor for road and gravel. Having been testing bikes for more than 20 years, Warren has an encyclopedic knowledge of road cycling and has been the mastermind behind our Road Bike of the Year test for more than a decade. He’s also a regular presenter on the BikeRadar Podcast and on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel. In his time as a cycling journalist, Warren has written for Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Urban Cyclist, Procycling, Cyclingnews, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike and T3. Over the years, Warren has written about thousands of bikes and tested more than 2,500 – from budget road bikes to five-figure superbikes. He has covered all the major innovations in cycling this century, and reported from launches, trade shows and industry events in Europe, Asia, Australia, North American and Africa. While Warren loves fast road bikes and the latest gravel bikes, he also believes electric bikes are the future of transport. You’ll regularly find him commuting on an ebike and he longs for the day when everyone else follows suit. You will find snaps of Warren’s daily rides on the Instagram account of our sister publication, Cycling Plus (@cyclingplus).
