The most expensive road bike wheels in the world — the most eye-wateringly expensive carbon upgrades you can make to your bike

As we’ve said many times before, the best way to increase your average speed on the bike is with regimented training and improving your body position; however, if you are looking to buy some speed, then a set of deep carbon wheels is probably the most effective way to do it. For all you lottery winners out there, or those who are just curious about how much cash you can drop on a set of hoops, here's a round-up of the most expensive road bike wheels on the market right now...

> Are expensive carbon road bike wheels worth the money?

More expensive doesn't necessarily mean faster, we've done the tests to prove it! It does compute, though, that the bike wheel manufacturers' latest and greatest go-faster tech is also their most expensive. This year we've put many of the latest wheelsets through their paces, and it got us wondering how much it is possible to spend on a new set of wheels for your road bike.

Many of these options have been featured in our recent "Money-no-object wheels comparison." Give the video above a watch to see which ones came out on top, and then check out our more exhaustive round-up below.

1. Lightweight Fernweg Evo 63mm Schwarz Edition (£8,400)

Lightweight wheels haven't made an appearance in the upper echelons of pro road cycling in the last few years, but they did have a brief taste of glory at the 2019 Tour de France under Team Ineos riders.

The German company may have started from a tractor garage in Munich, but now makes plenty of expensive wheelsets - enough to take up quite a few spots on this list!

> Testing deep carbon rims vs classic aluminium

This particular set is 63mm deep and designed for windy and hilly time trial and triathlon courses. They have carbon spokes (there are plenty more of those further down the list), CeramicSpeed bearings, and a not incredibly light weight of 1,695g.

The good* news is that they're available in both rim brake and disc brake form as well as tubeless, clincher or tubular.

*Good if you're one of the very few people who can afford them...

2. Partington R-Series MKII (£5,500)

Partington reckons its R-series MKII wheels are "the lightest, stiffest and fastest wheels on the planet." They also have some rather interesting spokes that wrap around the hub.

Available in either 39/44mm deep or 31/31mm deep options, both will set you back a cool £5,500, just a bit less than the cheapest Specialized Tarmac SL8 at RRP.

> The most expensive road bikes in the world — here are some of the priciest production bikes you can buy

The 31/31mm option tips the scales at a claimed weight of 1,060 grams, which is light, but not as light as your wallet if you were to purchase them...

3. Princeton Carbonworks Peak 4550 Evolution (£4,899)

> Review: Princeton Carbonworks Peak 4550 Evolution

Next on our list is the Princeton Carbonworks Peak 4550 Evolution Disc Brake Wheels, a wheelset with a name almost as long as the price tag. The set that we reviewed had Tactic hubs, perhaps the best-looking to ever grace the road.cc office!

As you'd hope for the price, their performance was excellent and we particularly liked the solid rim bed that eradicates the need for tubeless tape.

This also means that the spoke nipples need to be inserted through the valve hole and then teased around the rim to each spoke hole with a magnet. (Before you ask, the nipples aren't magnetic, they're aluminium and hence a small magnet is threaded into each one and replaced by the spoke when in position). 

4. Syncros Capital SL Aero (£3,830)

Syncros also thinks that the ultimate wheels are integrated, once again blurring the lines between the hub, spokes and rim.

The 60mm deep Capital SL Aero wheels have a claimed weight of 1,290 grams, and are firmly on team hookless. The wheelset has 23mm and 25mm internal widths front and rear respectively, and Syncros says the minimum tyre size that you can use is 28mm.

> Hooked vs hookless wheels at the Tour de France — which rims are the pro peloton hooked on in 2024?

Despite weighing less than many wheels of this depth, Syncros says that the Capital SL's are also capable of gravelling and can take up to 50mm tyres. Now that could be a very expensive rock strike!

5. Scope Artech Series (£3,498)

Scope's Artech wheels were released earlier this year and are designed for road/allroad use. They're available in 22mm, 45mm and 65mm depths and are said to have been inspired by nature.

The rims themselves have a fish scale-esque texture which is said to reduce drag, and Scope hasn't held back on the claims: "The Artech wheels have "been tested at three different wind tunnels. GST in Germany, the SSE hub in the UK and A2 in the USA. The Artech 6 wheels are the fastest, most side wind stable wheels on the market."

> 3D printed cycling tech — what 3D printed bike products have taken off, and what's coming in the future?

The lightest of the hooked clinchers have a claimed weight of just 985 grams, but perhaps the most interesting thing about these Dutch wheels is the hubs, which are 3D printed and use generative design. It's safe to say that they look like nothing else on the market!

6. Zipp 454 NSW (£3,369)

The Zipp 454 NSWs are also hookless, and despite being a few years old still sit at the very top of Zipp’s range.

The most obvious visual difference between the NSW range and cheaper Zipp wheels is the sawtooth rim design. Zipp says that varying the rim depth between 53mm and 58mm "simultaneously reduces both aerodynamic drag and side force for the ultimate in Aerobalance". 

> Review: Zipp 454 NSW Tubeless

We reviewed these back in 2022, and although their performance and low weight were impressive, a few quality niggles brought the overall score down to a 7/10.

7. Enve SES 4.5 (£3,350)

If you haven't watched the video above yet then spoiler alert: I think that these are the best money-no-object road wheelsets that money can buy in 2024. They're also the choice of Team UAE Emirates, and at the 2024 Tour de France Pogacar used the 4.5s for every road stage whether mountainous, flat or gravel.

Despite having 24 spokes both front and rear, as well as an internal rim width of a whopping 25mm, these still weigh in at under 1,500 grams, not bad considering the 50mm and 56mm rim depths front and rear respectively.

This latest generation features ENVE hubs with 40, 60, 80 or 100T ratchet options and moulded rather than drilled spoke holes. The SES 4.5s were originally designed to endure Paris-Roubaix, but with the world slowly but surely migrating to higher-volume tyres on the road this is likely what a lot of pure road wheelsets will look like in the future.

8. Campagnolo Bora Ultra WTO 60 C23 (£3,300)

It's little surprise that Campagnolo makes this list, and the updated 2024 Bora Ultra models are "handmade with every drop of Italian artistry, the super-premium, aerospace-grade carbon fibre is used to achieve top performance and lightness."

To keep weight down, the front hub is made from carbon fibre and the rims are instantly recognisable with their C-LUX finish. Campagnolo says that their high gloss, mirror-like surface is not only high-quality but is so "flawlessly smooth that it doesn’t require lacquer, saving weight."

> Best road bike wheels 2024 — transform your road bike with some shiny new hoops

Once again you'll find ceramic bearings residing in the hubs, internal spoke nipples for additional aero gains and the iconic Campagnolo G3 spoke lacing pattern.

9. Black Inc FIVE (£3,150)

Black Inc says the FIVE was designed to leave jaws on the floor and your friends in your dust. Their looks are sure to divide opinion!

The concept behind the wheels is that despite its mere 30mm depth the wheel is as aero as conventional spoked mid-depth thanks to NACA profiled 'blades'. It's little surprise that these are not allowed in UCI races.

You might ask why Black Inc has gone to the trouble of making a monocoque wheel that can't be raced. Their response was: "because the team at Black Inc have a passion for cycling, engineering and innovation that’s overflowing… and because they can." 

Fair do's! 

10. Cadex 50 Ultra (£2,649)

Another wheelset hot from the Pro peloton is these Cadex 50 Ultras, and we've just received a set to review... can they live up to the price tag?

Like a number of the latest wheelsets these are hookless, and as the name suggests the rims are 50mm deep both front and rear. Cadex says these wheels have best-in-class efficiency and that the super-bladed carbon spokes "deliver wind-slicing speed" and help to keep the eight down to 1,349g.

Let us know if you think a bike component can ever warrant this kind of price tag in the comments below, as well as which set you'd most like to fit to your bike.