Parcours Strade wheelset

The Strade is the first wheelset from Parcours that has been designed fully in-house, and it's a very impressive one. They handle well in all conditions, the aero data seems to stack up, and they're bang on trend by being disc brake only, tubeless-ready and optimised for 28mm tyres. For their sub-£1,000 price tag, I couldn't really have asked for more from them over the test period.

While many carbon wheels you'll find for under a grand will use a rim profile that is widely available for any company to use and badge up as their own (known as open mould), the Strade was the result of a year-long research and development project in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, involving CFD analysis and extensive wind tunnel testing.

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Parcours set out to offer an aero wheelset that would offer plenty of comfort as well as speed, and led by its analysis of real-world conditions and the impact of yaw angles on the ride, it arrived at a front and rear wheel that are different depths and rim profiles.

Parcours found it's the front wheel that takes most of the impact from crosswinds that can affect handling, therefore it made the rim U-shaped to deal with the higher yaw angles, with a conservative depth of 49mm. As the rear wheel is less exposed, this allowed for a deeper 54mm rim with a more old school, sharp V-shaped profile, which is better suited to low yaw angles.

Parcours tested the Strade in the wind tunnel against its existing 56mm deep Passista Disc wheelset, using a set of Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels as a baseline, and found the Strade outperformed the Passista across the board: over a distance of 40km, Parcours claims the Strade will make a 58-second saving against the baseline with 28mm tubeless tyres, compared to a 37-second saving for the Passista. The Strade even outperformed the Passista with 25mm tyres by a couple of seconds, and analysis of the handling performance showed the Strade's front wheel had a 15% reduction in sideforce impact compared to the Passista.

While it would have been nice to see a test against a similar aero wheelset from a competitor, Parcours insists that this would always be open to criticism because testing procedures differ between brands. Even so, it's so confident that the Strade is the real deal it felt it was no longer possible to recommend the Passista Disc wheelset in any circumstance, so discontinued it straight away when the Strade went on sale.

If you want to see Parcours' testing for yourself, it's published the full details of the Strade's development along with wind tunnel results here.

All about the width

The other main objective was to make the Strade as wide as possible, while staying within current guidelines laid out by the European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation on maximum width for running a 25mm tyre. This, says Parcours, is because some riders may still run 25s out of habit, so it wouldn't currently make sense to make a wheelset that couldn't run 25mm tyres safely when they're still the most common road bike tyre width. (You can't run 23s, if you wanted any more evidence that skinny rubber has been consigned to history.)

> Why you need to switch to wider tyres

This maximum allowable width turned out to be 22.5mm internally for both wheels, with a 32mm outer rim width on the front and 30.5mm on the rear. The Strade is optimised for a 28mm tyre, and Parcours says that a 28mm Continental GP5000TL (its base tyre for all its aero testing) will have an 'implied' measured width of 30.3mm on the rim.

Build

The wheels arrived with rim tape provided and a freehub spacer for 8, 9 or 10-speed cassettes. They weighed in at 1,520g for the pair, so not the lightest set of wheels on the market around this depth, but certainly not heavy either. Parcours promises smooth running in all weathers from the machined alloy hubs with EZO cartridge bearings and a Centerlock disc fitment, and, as with pretty much all road disc brake wheelsets nowadays, they're fitted for 12mm thru-axles out of the box (adapter kits are available for other axle standards).

Parcours has selected tried and tested Sapim CX-Ray aero spokes front and rear, in a 24-spoke 2-cross pattern to ensure strength and longevity as well as speed. The blacked out decals look stealthy and cool in my opinion, and will match with anything, but Parcours offers customised options if you want a flash of colour.

Warranty

Should you encounter any problems, Parcours doesn't really go wildly above and beyond when it comes to warranty and crash replacement, but it's all fair and square. The Strade wheelset comes with the standard-fare full two-year manufacturer's warranty should anything be faulty, and in the event of a crash, it offers a 'substantial discount' on any replacement rims, and wholesale pricing for replacement parts.

Tyre fitting

I used Continental GP5000TL tyres set up tubeless throughout the test period. As this was Parcours' tyre of choice for its development phase I expected fitting to be pretty fuss-free... which was mostly the case, with a lever only required to get the last little bit of tyre snapped onto the rim for each wheel.

I wasn't able to blow them up first time with a regular track pump (which might be possible with some tyre combos), so used an air blaster initially. I started my rides with the pressure between 70-80psi throughout the test period.

On-road performance

Out on the road, the stability was evident straight away and I was really impressed with their performance in crosswinds. It seems like we've had a particularly blustery spring and summer this year, and I felt completely confident running the Strade wheels no matter what the weather was doing, not once sensing that handling was compromised.

They're also impressively stiff with little to no flex evident on my bumpy regular training routes, even out of the saddle. The 28mm tyres that blow up to around 30mm on the wide rims will help greatly of course, but the wheels seemed to offer plenty of comfort to take the edge off dodgy road surfaces too. This became even more apparent when I sadly had to give them back, and swapped to another similarly priced mid-depth carbon wheelset with 25mm tyres on my Specialized Tarmac test bike; the difference in comfort was evident straight away, and the Strade also felt much smoother in my opinion.

> Buyer’s Guide: 20 of the best disc brake road wheelsets

I was pleased to find that the freehub has a nice whooshing sound, not too intimidating but folk will definitely know you're there. The EZO bearings engage quickly and proved durable and smooth throughout my lengthy test period. Parcours offers a Kogel ceramic bearing upgrade for £275, but for me and 99 per cent of Parcours' customers, this luxury probably isn't going to be necessary.

I can't prove anything with regards to Parcours' aero claims through my own testing on the road, but I can confidently report that my average speeds went up compared with my training wheels. Of all the race wheels I've tried over the years, the Strades are probably the most balanced I've used to date; they offer plenty of free speed compared with bog standard wheels, plus enough comfort, strength and crosswind stability that would make me consider ditching training wheels altogether. I'd rather use these year-round for a faster commute!

Value

In terms of value, the Strade wheels are among the most affordable aero wheels out there unless you buy direct from the Far East, but there are some highly recommended options that are even more wallet-friendly.

Hunt's 4050 Carbon Aero Disc wheelset received a glowing road.cc review back in July, and they're considerably cheaper at £819 and a bit lighter (1,472g a pair), though the depth is 40mm on the front and 50mm rear, so the Strade's deeper profile could potentially offer more aero benefit.

Zipp also now offers a carbon wheelset, the 303S, at a surprising £985, but they are shallower still, and only compatible with tubeless-ready tyres.

At the other end of the scale, Vision's Metron 55 SL Discs are £1,699.95. 

Conclusion

I was really pleased with how the Strade wheels performed, and the R+D that has gone into them is impressive for a relatively new brand. The only reason the score isn't perfect is because there are similar carbon wheelsets from competitors that are more affordable still, although it could be argued that Parcours' Strade project is more exhaustive than any that have come before it for a sub-£1,000 carbon wheelset; and it shows in the performance on the road.

Verdict

Impressively fast, cutting-edge carbon wheels at a very impressive price point