Fulcrum Red Zone Wheelset review

Light yet tough hoops

Our rating

3.5

419.98

Russell Burton

Published: June 28, 2010 at 1:00 pm

Our review
The Red Zones’ light weight belies their ability to stay true even when you totally hammer them

These Red Zone wheels are designed for when you want to ride up hill and rage back down! The hardcore hoops spin on sealed bearing hubs, with quality bearings that were problem-free during our test period. Miniature threaded collets on the axles allow a small amount of pre-load to remove play as the bearings begin to wear.

A serviceable, three-pawl freehub body engages rapidly with a pleasantly subtle whirr. Double-butted, straight-pull stainless spokes tie the hubs in place, and use brass nipples instead of alloy for easier servicing and better reliability. Fulcrum’s 2:1 spoke pattern puts 16 spokes on the rear drive side and front disc side, with eight on the other sides, keeping the strength where the load is greatest.

The tubeless rims seated and sealed tyres very easily, although we found that a 2.35in tyre was as wide as we could go on the 21mm rim without the tyre lacking support. They’re pretty light – 990g for the rear and 830g for the front – but this didn’t make us hold back. We stomped corners and rattled rock gardens, and didn’t need to show the wheels the spoke key once.

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