Prime RR-28 Carbon Clincher Disc Road Wheelset

The Prime RR-28s are good carbon fibre wheels for disc-equipped road, adventure and cyclocross bikes with a price that is significantly lower than many carbon clincher wheel alternatives.

Prime wheels are an in-house brand of Chain Reaction Cycles, and CRC's considerable buying power is why these wheels are so affordable compared to more well-known carbon wheel options.

Read more: The pros and cons of carbon fibre wheels

In the Prime range there's a wide selection of rim and disc brake options with a choice of rim depths. The RR-28 carbon wheels here use the company's shallowest, 28mm deep, carbon rim. It's a good rim depth for a general purpose wheel for training or climbing, as the weight is kept down compared to the deeper section versions but you're still getting some aero advantage.

The rounded U-shape profile is in keeping with the latest aerodynamic designs being touted by the leading carbon fibre wheel specialists. Prime isn't making any aero claims with their wheels, and while aero performance is difficult to assess without a wind tunnel, they provided an impressively swift performance with good stability in windy conditions.

Buy Prime RR-28 Carbon Clincher Disc Road wheels

The rim measures 25mm on the outside and 16.5mm on the inside. That's good for tyres measuring 25 to 33mm according to Prime, meaning they can be used for everything from road bikes to cyclocross and possibly adventure bikes. But they're not as wide as rims like the ones Hunt use for the 30 Carbon Disc wheels which have a whopping 21.3mm internal width.

Read more: 20 of the best 2017 road bike wheels — reduce bike weight or get aero gains with new hoops

Narrow rims are fine with narrow tyres, of course, but the surge in popularity of wider tyres has been followed by an increase in rim width. With a wide tyre a wider rim can provide better aero performance but the bigger benefit is improved ride quality, as the extra width increases the tyre volume which leads to better comfort and handling.

I tested the wheels with 25mm tyres on a road bike and 33mm gravel tyres on an adventure bike. They worked well with both. There's a hint of a light bulb effect with the wider tyres, but ride performance was good without too much squirming at lower pressures. I found they worked best set up with a 25 or 28mm slick road tyre and proved a good upgrade to a disc road bike with heavier aluminium stock wheels.

I'm a tubeless fan and these rims are tubeless-ready, so I immediately took advantage of the opportunity to ditch the inner tubes. The tyres inflated at the first attempt using just a track pump and air retention was excellent, with no noticeable loss over an extended period. You can use regular clincher tyres as well, and I did with no fuss or drama.

The rims are made from T700 unidirectional carbon fibre with reasonably understated decals, certainly not as shouty as some wheel brands I could mention. They looked smart on every bike I fitted them to. The durability was without fault throughout testing, particularly when fitted to an adventure bike and taken off-road. They fended off impacts from rocks and roots well.

The rims are built up with 24 DT Swiss double butted spokes per wheel laced to Prime's own hubs with DT Swiss Pro Lock nipples. Said nipples are external so tweaking the spoke tension is an easy task, though it was unnecessary during my time with the wheels.

The hub bodies are forged and CNC-machined from 7075 aluminium and the rear hub has a Shimano and SRAM compatible four pawl freehub with 26 points of engagement, and an Anti Bite Guard (a steel strip) to stop hard steel sprocket splines from digging into the softer aluminium. Inside the hubs are Japanese sealed bearings (four front, two rear) and outside we find replaceable end caps; adapters for quick release or thru-axle bikes are included.

Many wheel makers are opting for Shimano's Center Lock rotor mount on new models, but Prime has used the six-bolt standard. That's fine as six-bolt rotors are readily available, and while you can get adapters to fit Center Lock rotors to 6 bolt hubs, it would be nice if Prime included some in case you're upgrading a disc bike with Center Lock rotors.

The wheels ran nicely throughout testing. The hubs were smooth and reliable, with the freehub offering razor sharp engagement and the bearings standing up to much wet weather riding and hose pipe bike washing.

Wheel stiffness impressed, with good lateral stiffness when pushing the bike hard into turns or cranking on the handlebars in a sprint or powering up steep climbs. Vertical stiffness is reasonable as well and they dealt with the imperfect roads round my way and certainly didn't feel harsh or provide too much feedback through the contact points in the way that some carbon deep section wheels can.

Apart from the slightly narrow rim design compared to more progressive options, the Prime wheels worked well. They're a decent weight, provide an aero advantage over box-section aluminium rims and are stable in high winds. The hubs are smooth and reliable and the tubeless compatibility works a treat.

Priced at a frankly unbelievable £625, they effortlessly undercut most other carbon disc wheel options but you're getting the reassurance of buying from a large company like CRC, so if anything goes wrong they'll look after you with a full warranty.

Carbon wheels are a big step up from aluminium in terms of price but if you've got your heart set on carbon these are a good option.

Verdict

Fast, durable and tubeless carbon fibre wheels without a scary price tag