Race Face Era wheelset review

The Race Face Era wheelset has seen a lot of attention to make a laterally compliant, strong and lightweight offering. These wheels manage to blend excellent power transfer through rotational stiffness with enough compliance to dampen harsh trail feedback. The result is a comfortable, durable and tough wheelset that has stood up to some harsh situations admirably. They’re by no means cheap for a wheelset, however, for this price point, you really couldn’t ask for more.

• Best mountain bike wheels 2025
• Hope Fortus 30 SC Pro 5 wheelset review
• How does wheel compliance work? Why stiffer isn’t better

Race Face Era wheelset – Technical Details

The Race Face Era wheelset is a lightweight, carbon rimmed offering aimed at trail, all mountain and gravity applications.

Starting with the rims, Race Face’s intentions here are to balance compliance with strength. A compliant rim helps to dampen trail deflections, such as an off-camber route or the corner of a rock, where too much stiffness could make tricky and technical lines hard to run straight through. This compliance is lateral – a sideways flex – which tuned into the rims, allow the wheel to better conform to the ground, generating improved grip.

Race Face Era wheels 2.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Between the front and rear, the rims have different jobs and will see different loads applied, therefore, their tuned compliance will need to account for this. The Era wheelset has specific front and rear rims with different profiles – the front seeing a shallower 18.6mm depth and 22.6mm at the rear, all in aid of getting the compliance versus strength balance right. Whilst we’re talking about profiles, the usual 30mm internal width is used on the Eras with a 37.2mm external width.

The carbon tune isn’t the only tech going on in the rims; they also use an asymmetric cross-section to offset where the spokes sit. Rather than being in the centre of the rim profile, a 4mm offset is used, which helps to balance the spoke tensions from left to right, resulting in a stronger and more durable wheel.

Race Face Era wheels 6.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Moving onto the hubs, the Vault hubs feature oversized shells, which increase torsional stiffness, to mitigate twisting loads during braking and during power transfer. They roll on the usual 6902 bearings and feature low-drag labyrinth seals to keep the elements out.

In terms of drive, the rear hub uses a traditional ratchet and pawl setup with a 60-tooth drive ring with six pawls, resulting in a responsive three-degree engagement. This hub uses a more traditional construction than the increasingly common DT Swiss-style star ratchet setup, where the ratchet ring is part of the freehub body, and the pawls are mounted into the hub shell. The pawls use low-drag springs to ensure freewheeling is as smooth and fast as possible. The hubs are only available with a six-bolt rotor mount, however, Race Face says there is a centre-lock version coming.

Race Face Era wheels 8.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Finally, the all-important build, which comprises 28 straight pull, double-butted spokes. These wheels are machine-built, which Race Face says results in a precise and consistent process, however, there are still strict quality control checks. Claimed weight for the full 29 set without tape or valves is 1750g.

All the current standards are covered with the Eras being available in 27.5 or 29 front and rear, along with boost front and boost or super boost rear spacings. Freehubs offered are SRAM XD or Shimano Microspline, whilst the older style and more affordable HG freehub can be bought separately as an aftermarket option.

Whilst these wheels are suitable for e-mountain bikes, Race Face has a maximum drive assistant limit of 65Nm, so any full-power e-bikes are not covered here. A maximum system weight limit is also imposed at 140kg (rider and bike). Race Face covers these wheels with a lifetime warranty, which includes crashes. This applies to the expected life of the wheelset, where they’ll replace damaged parts for free in the event of a misjudged gap or clash with a nasty pointy rock.

Race Face Era wheelset – Performance

Getting the wheels built up was a reasonably simple affair, nothing out of the ordinary. The disc flanges on the Vault hubs are noticeably thinner than other hubs, which causes visible excess bolt – by no means a problem, just an observation. As a point of note, the front wheel weighed in at 784g and the rear 995g with tape and valves fitted. At 1779g they’re not a featherweight trail wheelset but by no means heavy.

Race Face Era wheels 5.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

When it came to fitting the tyres, asymmetrical rims can sometimes cause issues when it comes to airing up tubeless setups. I’m happy to report no such issues here, where a reasonably high-volume track pump was able to seat the tyres. The rear was certainly a tighter fit and required more air pressure before the tyre popped fully onto the bead, but nothing out of the ordinary.

My initial impressions from the first roll were positive. The freehub has a premium tone with plenty of engagement, and the reduced weight from my previous wheelset certainly helps the bike feel more spritely off the line.

Race Face Era wheels 1.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Although Race Face has worked to build in lateral compliance, the wheels feel plenty stiff enough when it comes to power transfer. That speedy freehub engagement means there is effectively zero delay when getting on the pedals, and rotationally, they’re plenty stiff enough.

The lateral compliance is certainly noticeable when riding more technical terrain. The previous wheelset I ran was very stiff, which had its advantages, however, I was thankful for the Era’s softer side, which helps to calm down some of the trail chatter, particularly when riding roots and pointy rocks. Another nice benefit to the lateral spring is being able to load up the wheel in a corner, and it’ll “spring-back”, which helps the bike feel more lively, firing you out of the corner. How much difference this really makes is questionable, but it is noticeable, particularly on smooth berms with lots of support.

Whilst these are on the lighter side, they’ve stood up well to some serious abuse. I’m not a light person, and they’ve taken on some chunky trails and heavy side loading without any fault. From a durability standpoint, the spokes have maintained their tension, and after a long dusty summer, I’ve seen no dust ingress or grease egress. The pre-fitted brown rim-tape has been excellent too, sometimes a failing of wheelsets.

Race Face Era wheels 4.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Whilst rock-strikes have been strangely tuneful out on the trails, the rims have proven to be tough, with the outer layer not marking or chipping as easily as other carbon rims I’ve experienced. The decals haven’t faired quite so well and are looking a little tatty, but that’s to be expected, after plenty of loose rock riding.

Race Face Era wheels 7.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Race Face Era wheelset – Verdict

Wheels are bought individually, with the front coming in at £799 and the rear at £849, so the Era wheelset will set you back £1648. There is a lot of tech in these wheels, and considering the strength and weight on offer, they’re a competitively priced carbon wheelset.

Another trail-oriented carbon wheelset worth considering is the Hunt Proven Carbon Trail H_Core. They’re only available in 29” and only use a centrelock format for the disc mounts, however, they’re effectively the same weight as the Eras and come in at £1,200.

DT Swiss is always a firm favourite for wheels, and the XMC1501 Spline One wheels are a solid all-rounder offering. They’re a little lighter and come in all the diameters, hub spacings and freehubs you could need. At £1550, they’re not bad money but are aimed at lighter duties than the Proven and Era wheels.  

The Race Face Era wheelset has proven to be a tough and reliable option for heavy-duty trail and enduro duties. It’s a reasonably lightweight offering which blends a lively feel with noticeable compliance, which helps to quieten down trail feedback to the bike. The ping out of corners is a nice benefit, and the rear hub offers excellent engagement with a pleasing premium buzz. At this price point, the Race Face Era wheelset is a very well-rounded option offering performance and reliability for competitive money.

• www.raceface.com
• The reader’s guide to off.road.cc’s review scoring system

You might also like:

• Reynolds Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro wheelset review
• Halo Skelta wheelset review
• Silt Enduro Alloy wheelset review