Farsports 2025 Evo5 S Series wheelset

The Farsports Evo S5 wheelset is a super lightweight 50mm-deep option that proves quality and class-leading performance are no longer the preserve of established Western brands. With their modern internal and external widths, a solid rim bed, carbon spokes and pretty (yet functional) hubs housing CeramicSpeed bearings, I’m confident that if these had one of their competitors’ names on the side they would sell at twice the price.

> Buy now: Farsports Evo S5 wheelset for $1,699 from Panda Podium

A few months ago we made a video comparing what I think are the best value Chinese carbon road bike wheels with the best value Western wheels. In response, we had all kinds of comments arguing the toss about my decisions and urging us to try out a set of Farsports wheels. Well, we listened, and for the last few months I’ve been using this range-topping set of Evo 5S wheels, and the specs are seriously impressive…

Spoiler alert: in that video I concluded that when it comes to value for money, Asian options can be seriously competitive. They don’t always have quite the same level of post-purchase care but in my mind as long as you buy from a reputable brand then there’s no question over the quality or performance of these direct-to-consumer wheelsets; it is, after all, very often the same factories producing the wheels as the established brands we’ve come to know and love over the last few decades.

> Buyer’s Guide: Best road bike wheels

One of the brands with the best reputation is Farsports and in fact it was one of the first Chinese brands to sell direct-to-consumer wheels and rims back in 2007. Like many of these wheel brands, it also makes OEM wheels for other brands, and that means it works really closely with lots of Western brands, for example CeramicSpeed, which provides the bearings in the hubs.

The Evo S series is Farsports’ flagship range and these 2025 S5 versions are 50mm deep front and rear, boast carbon spokes, are 30mm wide externally, with 24mm wide internals, and weigh just 1,190g, which is even more impressive considering that they’re hooked rather than hookless.

That leads me on to…

Five things I really like about these wheels

They are really light – we weighed them at 1,205g on the road.cc Scales of Truth; for reference, even the limited edition Team version of the Roval Rapide CLXs weigh in at a claimed 1,360g, though the rear wheel is a little bit deeper. In fact, there are very few hooked 50mm-deep wheels that can boast this kind of weight; the hookless Cadex 50 Ultras are a fair bit more at 1,415g on our scales, the hookless Hunt Sub50s 1,430g, and even the impressively light (and hooked) Scribe Elan SL 50s were 1,348g on our scales.

The next thing I like is this solid rim bed design, which means you don’t have to add any rim tape. That’s good because a) it means you don’t have to add additional weight, and b) you don’t have to tape your wheels which is something that I just hate doing!

Arguably the best thing about these Farsports wheels, though, is that if you want a different depth you can get it. I went for the S5 set, which are 50mm deep front and rear, but there’s also a shallower 35mm option which is even lighter for days in the mountains, or a 58mm, the S6, for occasions when you want maximum aero. Better still, you can mix and match – for example, you could get a 58mm at the back and a 50mm for the front. I like that!

Another highlight of the wheels has to be the hubs. They just look amazing in this gunmetal finish and have garnered more attention than just about every other wheelset I’ve used; that’s cool for a wheelset that is half the price of many that boast similar specs. They’ve been reliable, too – buying Chinese wheels doesn’t mean you have to compromise on bearing quality. The ceramic option is by CeramicSpeed, but I’d probably go for the cheaper stainless steel Enduro bearings, the same brand that Hunt has just switched to for its latest Aerodynamicist wheels.

There are many other things I like about these wheels, but my final highlight for this list has to be the fact that the carbon spokes are replaceable. There are carbon-spoked wheels that are this light but very often the spokes are integrated into the rim or hub. For example, not long ago I used a set of Syncros one-piece carbon wheels that were very impressive but the price was near obscene and they’d have been a complete write-off if a spoke got broken in a crash. With the Evo S5 wheels you can purchase spare spokes and they’re trued using external spoke nipples.

Five things that could be better

So, the wheels are very good, but there are a few things that I think could be better. Though I think I’ll struggle to get to five…

Firstly, the sticker near the valve holes. It just sort of doesn’t sit with the rest of the premium finish. Peeling stickers are something that should be reserved for wheels under £300 or, better still, not at all.

Secondly, and it’s not really a problem that is exclusive to Farsports, carbon spokes do just seem to ride a bit harsher. With the same tyres and same pressures as on the steel-spoked Light Bicycle Turbo wheels I’ve been using recently, the Farsports are undoubtedly a bit less absorbing when it comes to bumpy British roads. Farsports does make some steel spoke wheels, which might be better suited to UK roads.

I think it’s also the carbon spokes that are responsible for the slightly lower stability of the wheels in crosswinds when compared with the best in class. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not unstable, but put them up against those Rovals, which are probably the best in the business when it comes to crosswinds, and you do notice a bit more steering moment. That’s probably not too surprising given the fact that each of the carbon spokes is 5mm deep.

Is there anything else? Well, like most Chinese wheelsets they will take a few weeks to arrive… Oh, and one other thing, they don’t come with proper wheelbags – you do get that with the premium Western brands such as Roval.

Ride impressions

I’ve already talked about weight a fair bit and so it might surprise you that I don’t think wheel weight is the be-all and end-all. I think lateral stiffness and aerodynamics make a far bigger difference to performance on UK roads where there are no mountains. That said, the Farsports wheels are light everywhere that you want a wheelset to be light, the rims are superlight, and the spokes being made of carbon again helps to keep the weight down.

What that means is you have a really low rotational weight, which, leaving inertia to one side, just feels good. The easiest way for me to describe this is when you accelerate – some bikes and wheels just feel sluggish, whereas these have some real get up and go, as tested by yours truly on every signpost sprint for the past few weeks (sorry, riding buddies).

As for aerodynamics, well, we still don’t have a wind tunnel at road.cc, and to be honest the difference in watts between most 50mm-deep wheels is inconsequential to most riders. What I can say is that they hold speed well – everywhere. It’s a great depth for a wheelset that can do it all, whether that’s a high-speed chain gang, local hilly loop or criterium race.

Farsports has clearly thought long and hard about the specs of the wheels and it’s paid off. This 50mm option will fulfil most riders’ needs, and as I said earlier, there’s a shallower option for mountain goats and a 58mm option that is still mind-bogglingly light if you want a more aerodynamic option you can still use day to day.

As for rim width, that’s well considered, too, and bang on the money for what I would expect from a carbon wheelset in 2025. A 24mm internal width and 30mm external width pair really nicely with a 28mm tyre, and I’ve also fitted a set of 30mm tyres to the wheels without any dreaded ballooning. The external width is narrower than the Roval Rapides or Hunt Sub50s, though, which could be a contributing factor towards the stability.

To be honest, the crosswind stability is probably the only area where the wheels aren’t class leading. A combination of the super bladed spokes and front rim width mean that while they’re not like carbon deeps of old, and I’d still happily use them in all conditions, it is an area where they’re just a bit behind the Roval Rapides and Hunt Sub50s, which kind of have this area nailed. Without back-to-back testing with the following wheelsets it’s hard to say with certainty, but I’d put the steering moment performance on a par with the Zipp 454 NSW or Cadex Ultra 50 wheelsets – not bad but not THE best.

This certainly wasn’t enough to put me off taking them to Mallorca for the 312, and so for the first time in nearly four years I did a road event on an alternative wheelset to my Roval Rapides, and that is just about the highest praise I can give a wheelset. As a side note, I also used a Farsports F1X bar, a full review of that will be up on here soon.

Value 

I guess there’s only one thing left to do and that’s to talk about price. The latest Roval CLX Team wheels have an RRP of £3,000, the Cadex Ultra 50s are £2,650, and the Hunt Sub50s with carbon spokes and ceramic bearings, a brand synonymous with value for money, £2,289.

We got these Evo S5s through Panda Podium, a trusted site for buying bike stuff from the Far East, and they’re listed for $1,699, which works out as just under £1,300 and although they don’t make it very clear on their website if you’re buying them through Panda Podium the price for UK customers includes pre-paid VAT and and customs charges. Honestly, put a different logo on the side and I think Panda would sell plenty for twice that price!

Conclusion

To conclude, China hasn’t just mastered bang for your buck when it comes to carbon road bike wheels, but direct-to-consumer wheels are now on a par with the big boys when it comes to performance as well. You get a three-year warranty, and there’s a crash replacement programme – it’s getting hard to see why you would ever spend more.

If it wasn’t for a few weeks’ wait to receive the wheels, and the crosswind stability being just a tiny bit less than the best in the business, these would have been getting my first ever perfect score. The new wheel order is here sooner than expected.

> Buy now: Farsports Evo S5 wheelset for $1,699 from Panda Podium

Verdict

Superlight premium wheels that are probably laughing in Mandarin

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