Saturday, May 28, 2011

Fulcrum Wheels Weblog - Fulcrum Red Stainless steel Zero XRP

By Paul Harris


When the Campagnolo arm of wheel manufacturing decided to develop its range and use its in house technology to advance into the mountain bike market, out came Fulcrum. Rather than launch a Campagnolo range of mountain bike wheels they obviously felt that it needed a fresh approach into a very competitive market. Rather than use the name Campagnolo, a brand famously associated with performance road cycling parts, they used Fulcrum as their launch pad.

Since ding so Fulcrum bike wheels has grown as a major player in the wheel market and now produces some of the best products available and within this range is the brand new Fulcrum Red metal Zero XRP. Packed full of features and more than aesthetically pleasing, this new wheelset has burst onto the scene and is punching above its weight and rivalling some of the more established brands and coming up with the goods to compete.

By making any wheelset lighter it increase the reactivity and responsiveness of the wheel, making any bike handle and accelerate much better. Fulcrum have started this theory on their new wheelset by making the hub body from carbon fibre to decrease the weight. They have also fitted a titanium free hub body which is not only stiffer and stronger but also lighter than a standard steel one and even and aluminium version. They can also reduce weight by using less spokes. The Fulcrum 2:1 spoke ratio system is used on all of their rear wheels and is now used on all of their front wheels that use disc brakes. By doubling the amount of spokes on the side of the wheel that feels to most stress they can in turn use less on the opposing side, in turn using less spokes overall. Overcoming this drawback the spokes will be able to transfer the forces exerted at the rear by the pedalling traction and at the front by the torsion torque of braking, and give the front wheel previously unknown stability.

This latest version with the Fulcrum red metal range weighs about an overall weight of just 1470 grams, 130g lighter than in comparison to the 2010 Red Metal Zero creating it the lightest XC aluminium wheelset accessible. It may be applied with a 9mm QR skewer at the front accompanied by a 15mm bolt as a result of option when employed in tandem together with the supplied kit.

This wheelset which has a retial value of 899.99 definitely inst affordable, but whenever you look at the product in deeper detail you surely cannot argue that you simply do not get what you pay for.




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