Parcours Grimpeur Disc wheelset

The latest Parcours Grimpeur Disc wheels are light enough to excel on the tarmac while being so tough that you can smash them over rocks and tree roots with little concern for their wellbeing. They won't break the bank either.

• Pros: Excellent weight and build quality
• Cons: Err...

We've been seeing some brilliant, lightweight carbon fibre disc wheels coming through the office lately, and these Grimpeur Discs are some of the best.

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With a 40mm-deep U-shaped carbon rim they weigh in at just 1,406g with the tubeless rim tape fitted, which ties in well with Parcours' claimed weight of 1,390g bare.

Fitted to the Flanders Forte cyclo-cross frameset that we had in for testing, the wheels offered snappy acceleration, and their low weight helped the whole bike feel flickable at the front and rear for hopping over potholes, rocks and other obstacles.

Obviously, being fitted to a cyclo-cross bike they spent most of their time off-road and they took the knocks and bumps from the gravel tracks and tree roots of the local singletrack without issue.

Parcours has gone for a build of 24 Sapim CX-Ray spokes front and rear in a two-cross lacing pattern which certainly feels stiff and gave no issues with trueness even after a fairish amount of abuse. Hard acceleration and heavy braking did little to upset them either, from a stress point of view.

In the interests of fairness I swapped out the knobbly tyres for some slick 25mm Panaracer Race C Evo 3 tyres for a bit of climbing and descending on the local roads.

The results on the steep hills were impressive, that lack of weight meaning they felt sprightly as I clawed my way up, with loads of stiffness for when I was cornering and braking hard on my way back down.

The EZO bearings inside the machined aluminium alloy hubs roll smoothly even after seeing plenty of rain, mud and grit over the test period, and the 40mm-deep rim gives you a slight aero advantage over a standard profile wheel. The engagement of the pawls is fast too.

The rim itself has a maximum external width of 27mm but edge to edge where the tyre meets measures 25.5mm, so it does make the tyre sit a little wider than the width states on the carcass. The 25mm tyres came out at about 26.5mm, for instance.

Both tubeless and tubed tyre setups were easy to fit and remove, without the need to use tyre levers or anything when fitting.

As standard, the Grimpeurs come with a Shimano/SRAM freehub but you can choose a Campagnolo one at the time of ordering. Removing the cassette to weigh the wheels after about 400 miles saw no damage to the freehub body from the cassette digging in under load; it still looked pretty much brand new – I've definitely seen a lot worse.

The Grimpeurs are impressive value, when you take everything into account, including the weight and build quality.

I absolutely loved the JRA Gecko carbon wheelset, which is the same weight, albeit with a shallower 23mm rim, and with just as impressive build quality. The Geckos cost £850, which is very good for such a set of wheels, but the Grimpeurs manage to beat that with a price of just £819.

> Buyer's Guide: 34 of the best road bike wheels

The similar weight (1,490g) Acros Road Disc C 28 wheels will set you back a total of £1,549.99, showing further how well priced the Parcours are.

Overall, the Grimpeur Discs pretty much offer it all, whatever type of riding you like to do.

Verdict

Lightweight race wheels that are just as at home on the gravel as they are on the road