Dura Ace WH-7850 24mm Carbon wheel review
For some reason I've been treating myself lately to bike stuff. Probably has to do with my recent wedding (Wife bought me a Ridley Dean frameset), a birthday and almost Christmas.
One of the fun things was a new wheelset: Dura Ace WH-7850 24mm Carbon.
These wheels have an aluminum braking surfrace but carbon reinforced along the rest of the rim and eyelets. The rims themselves supposedly weight in at 380 grams and thus remove weight from the "heavy end" of the wheel. I wanted aluminum for braking so I wouldn't have to change out my brakepad when I switch wheels or have to worry about warping a carbon brake surface when I do long drops into the canyons up here and have to ride the bumper of a slow car.
I have been riding Velomax Tempest II wheelsets and love them but needed another set of wheels as my Guru Crono was now going to be my road bike of choice.
In short, these wheels are very solid for this 194ish lbs rider. I threw down a 1200 watt sprint and did a fair amount of climbing in and out of the saddle with zero brake rub from flex. The wheels feel silky smooth...like driving my old Lexus LS400 compared to my Expedition. Not one sign of harshness. I rode them over some choppy stuff and they are a dream.
When we dropped into a canyon the stiffness was really appreciated as I felt confident cornering with my fellow riders and actually entered corners more aggressively than usual as the descent continued as the wheels inspired some alpha-male downhilling.
Using my at home food scale the wheelset was: 1445 grams with rimstrips installed. While these aren't the lightest wheelset available they did feel light when changing speed probably due to the lighter rim compared to my Velomax 30mm more aero profile.
In short, I will be keeping my eyes peeled for another deal on these wheels as I would like to have a spare set.
Vince