Pete Matthews Antigera wheels review

Pete Matthews has been designing and building custom wheels for decades. His list of clients includes Sean Yates, Robert Millar and End-to-End record breaker John Woodburn.

Pete’s wheel building is essentially a bespoke service, as rider weight and riding style are factored into each design before spoke count and rim weight are decided. 

For example, the test wheels were specified for our 80kg rider and were based on V-section clincher rims sourced in Italy. They were built using aero-elliptical spokes in a two-crossed pattern, laced to the basic but highly regarded Ambrosio hubs.

Despite our assertion that 20-spoke wheels weren’t going to be enough for cyclocross, the high wall thickness of the Pianni rims allowed Matthews to achieve a high spoke tension on them. As a result, they remained perfectly true and lateral stiffness was the best of all the hand-built wheels on test.

Crash damage aside, Matthews virtually guarantees his wheels against defects so they are a very sound, longterm bet.