Scribe has announced an update to its road bike wheel lineup for 2026, introducing the Elan Ultra and Core Ultra ranges. The brand makes bold claims for the new lineup, describing them as amongst the “most aero wheels on the planet”, and adding that the 65mm depth wheels may be the fastest UCI-compliant wheels currently available, while cutting claimed weights down to 1,150g. The wheels feature a new wavy spoke design, with prices starting at £1,499.
The range is led by the Ultra Elan 5 and Elan 6, available in 50mm and 65mm depths. Both feature Scribe’s new OSL8 wavy carbon spokes, which the brands says balance stiffness, compliance, and aerodynamic efficiency. Alongside them are the Ultra Core 5 and Core 6, which share the same rim depths but use Italian-made Alpina steel spokes instead.
Claims of being “the lightest”, “the fastest”, or “the stiffest we’ve ever made” are common in the cycling world, but Scribe has gone a step further. It describes the 65mm Elan Ultra 6 as “the fastest UCI road-compliant wheelset currently available”, while also claiming significant weight reductions.
As aero gets lighter, and lightweight gets more aero, the Elan Ultra 5 claimed weight of 1,149g makes them light for a 50mm deep wheelset.
In comparison, the Roval Rapide CL III (51mm front/48mm rear) is a claimed 1,555g, while the higher-end Rapide CLX III weighs a claimed 1,305g. The Elan Ultra 5’s are also lighter than Hunt’s Sub50 Limitless Aero Disc Wheelset, which we weighed at 1,430g.
Scribe says it spent extensive time testing the new range in the wind tunnel at Silverstone’s Sports Engineering Hub. According to the brand, the Elan Ultra OSL8 carbon spokes are the fastest bladed spokes it has tested. Benchmarked against a flat 5mm carbon spoke, Scribe reports improvements of 0.5 watts at 0° and 5°, 0.4 watts at 10°, and 0.2 watts at 15°, measured at 45km/h.
The rims feature a 24mm internal hooked profile and a 30mm external width, which Scribe says is optimised for 28–30mm tyres as is common with most modern road wheels.
Pricing and availability
The Ultra wheels are available to pre-order now, with delivery expected from January 2026. Prices start at £1,499 for the Core Ultra wheelsets, and the range topping Elan Ultra 5 and Elan Ultra 6 are both priced at £1,999.
That makes them around £1,000 less expensive than Roval’s Rapide CLX Sprint wheels, also billed as “the fastest road race wheels in the world”.
The wheels come with a three-year warranty and a lifetime crash replacement programme. All the details can be found on Scribe’s website.
9 thoughts on “Scribe claims new Ultra wheels are “the fastest UCI road compliant wheelset currently available””
This looks like a hub
This looks like a hub attached to a rim with loads of carbon springs.
Are the spokes bumpy? As in a single thread of carbon with waves added or are they literally just a piece of carbon that’s been bent and made wavy?
They just look stripy to me
They just look stripy to me
It’s so hard nowadays to know
It’s so hard nowadays to know which world’s fastest wheels are fastest. I’ve no doubt that these and competitors’ wheels are super-fast, but the pseudo-scientific statements do annoy me a bit.
I suspect the difference
I suspect the difference between these and their nearest competitors will be in the realms of a rounding error.
More would be gained by dropping your head 10mm or making sure you’re riding the right width bars.
I ride 32cm bars and the width at the shifters is 21cm. Mainly due to having super narrow shoulders but the aero benefits are way above whatever aero benefits a wheelset could have.
I’d be interested to know
I’d be interested to know what Scribe can demonstrate from real-world handling tests… my assumption would be those thick spokes will be quite frisky in cross-winds.
In answer to the headline, i
In answer to the headline, i’d wager Scribe are wrong. Or at least can’t verify they’re right in any way, shape or form.
so in the first paragraph its
so in the first paragraph its suggested that these are “amongst” and “may” be …which later transforms into “are” …so i wonder where the misrepresentation is coming from, the journalist, the manufaturer or the PR team….
The press release might have
The press release might have gone further, but on their (currently quite cranky) website they make two claims:
1. “The CORE Ultra 6 Carbon Disc wheelset was engineered to be the fastest UCI-compliant 65mm wheelset available” – that reads to me like their mission statement, not something they necessarily achieved / can prove.
2. “The CORE Ultra is… proven to be amongst the fastest available” – which sounds like what they can actually back up (same claim made for the Elan Ultra).
Light AND cheap. What was
Light AND cheap. What was the other variable Mr Bontrager mentioned? ?