Hey everyone welcome to the channel!
We all know the importance of a good set of wheels on our mountain bike
but when you're riding a lighter bike like a road, cross, gravel bike,
it's even more important to have a quality, light set of wheels.
And when I built my versatile Trek Crockett I talked about these C1800 Spline DT Swiss wheels
as being a very good budget set of wheels that will help you build something like this.
But just like everybody else as soon as I built it I started thinking about an upgraded wheelset
so let's take a look at what I ended up with!
And because for my mountain bike I had a very good experience with the EliteWheels Pro36
I reached out to them and they sent me a set of their new G45 wheels.
They are part of their DRIVE series of wheelsets and they're pretty special
because the spokes they use are made out of carbon!
And that makes these the first gravel wheelsets with carbon spokes
that are supposed to give you better power transfer, more comfort overall,
not to mention the weight of this wheelset.
Also EliteWheels were super nice to extend my 15% discount for their wheelsets
so if you're interested in a wheel set like this take a look in the description, take advantage of it!
These are shipped in a branded EliteWheels box, even nicer than what you get for your mountain bike wheels.
A little baggie with what's called extra parts and obviously the wheels!
And I'm pretty sure the name of this wheelset G45 comes from the gravel rim profile.
This is a 45 millimeter height rim profile, internally you have 24 mm, externally this is 31 mm.
As you can see it comes pre-taped, it's tubeless ready and you also have the tubeless valves installed.
This little sticker tells you that the hubs use ceramic bearings, more about that later.
Also the ERD of these rims, maximum weight for the wheels which is 130 kilograms
and on the other side you're gonna see the recommended tire width
from 25c to 43c, remember this is a 24 millimeter ID rim.
Rims finish is outstanding,
is that marble that you've seen on my mountain bike wheels.
The only problem that I found with this finish is that it could scratch easily
however even if they're scratched up it's hard to tell because of that marble finish of the rim.
Otherwise it looks really really nice.
As for the drive branding here for the series this is the silver, they also have an option in black.
Also the rim finish - I'm pretty sure they would offer different finishes if you are not in love with the marble.
Two more stickers on the opposite side, one says tubeless compatible which we know already
and the other one ceramic bearings.
And if this sticker next to the valve can be easily removed , this is a decal,
I am not sure that we can remove these other two
looks like that clear coat is right on top of them so you will have to live with that.
Probably because of the strength of the carbon spokes and the rim overall
these are built with 20 spokes only, you have secure lock aluminum nipples
and they're connected to a straight pull hub.
You see here the Center Lock interface,
an asymmetrical lacing pattern, you have radial on this side and two cross on the other side
and here on the hub shell another sticker that says DRIVE and Ceramic for the bearings included in here.
Overall this looks really neat and definitely premium so first impression is very good.
Wheels are only available in thru axle so 12 x100, 12x142,
you'll actually get the thru axles in that little extra parts bag
and you have a product manual included as well.
If you want to they can send you the adapters from Center Lock to IS-6 bolts rotors so keep that in mind.
Carbon bladed spokes are not only lighter and stiffer but they offer a better fatigue life compared to the steel spokes.
And not only that the spokes look different but they are probably pretty hard to find
unless you order a few spares with your set of wheels.
And you can see here the nipple that's used with this rims which is rather unique as well.
And pretty much everything I said about the front wheel including 20 spokes applies to the rear wheel,
this is built two cross on both sides.
You can see that sticker here on the hub shell
and you can see the 10-11s Shimano freehub body that is nicely colored in purple.
However if you want SRAM XD or XDR they offer that as well.
This allows us to take a look at what's inside, this is a 4-pawl freehub body
and you can easily install remove with two 17 mm flat wrenches
you see the flat spots here on the end caps and the thread inside.
I also assume that these use the same ceramic bearings made by NBK.
You get 36 teeth here on the freehub so that gives you 10 degrees of engagement.
As for the sound of this hub this is pretty loud,
you might want to cover your ears now...
But at the start of the video I mentioned weight as one of the reasons why you would go for something like this.
So what's the weight of these wheels?
My rear wheel comes up to 724 grams
front is right at 620 or 621 grams
and together the wheel set comes up to 1342 grams.
These are specified as 1300 plus or minus 30 grams
that's not too bad for a 45 millimeter depth rim wheelset.
The name G45 suggests that these wheels are made for Gravel maybe that's because gravel is the buzz word of today
but realistically speaking you can use these for road, cross, gravel, anything in between.
In my case I am planning to take advantage of that 24 mm ID
so I'm gonna run these Vittoria Terreno Dry tires that are outstanding.
These are going to be 38c that actually fit my Trek Crockett, a cross bike believe it or not,
but overall I'm looking forward to take advantage of that lighter wheelset
and I can't wait to actually put a couple of rides on these wheels.
So what do you guys think?
Are you interested in any of these G45 wheels from EliteWheels?
Are you planning to take advantage of that 15% discount in the description?
Let me know below, hope you found this useful
and if you did don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment,
and until next time I hope to see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!