Fulcrum Racing Quattro Carbon Road Bike Wheels

First off, they look pretty, and they look fast. You get on your bike and they turn into an utter disappointment when they turn your race rocket into a led sled. In dry conditions through, breaking is superb for a carbon wheelset and it feels like breaking on alloy. As training wheels, they are fine, for everything else, choose something else.

Pros & Cons

Nice set of wheels which were true out of the box with slick running bearings, as one would expect at the price. Fitting tyres was a doddle (didn't even need levers to fit some Corsas). The braking performance is excellent and well balanced, even when I got caught in a heavy hailstorm. However, the Fulcrum pads screech like a banshee...I mean really SCREECH, which is a shame as it got to be embarrassing. In contrast, the Swissstop Carbon Prince offer the same performance but with just the usual carbon wheel braking noise, which is quite nice, yeah! After about 500km there is a small bit of flex, which is not a problem for my weight/power o/p but I might have to adjust some pre-load bearing play soon I think. However, in general use, the wheels are great. I used these on a hilly 200km ride and they were faultless with great all round performance giving nimble climbing, safe descending and smooth rolling on the flat (not that there was much of that). I am not sure wheels of 40mm will make anyone massively faster at normal (non-pro) average speeds but a good wheelset is about much more than that, and these are undoubtedly a good wheelset.

Pros & Cons

Great value for money

Purchased due to incredible price from Mantel for carbon Quatrro Fulcrums. My previous bike was Specialized (Allez comp 2013-Aluminimum) w/ Mavic Kyserium Pro top end wheels: it was a climbing sprint beast... but a bone shaker New & Current bike: Pinarello Gan, on discount at £ 1920 (because so many bikes were too ugly with new lowered chain-stays). total weight with accessories 10.2KG inc fulcrums. My (over)weight 85KG target 74Kg (for Triathlons 2 months). The REVIEW: Great wheelset, all round, made fantastic by the ultra low price ( 742) I got in early at. I love the look of them... I will NOT remove the decals. Accelerating: the wheels feel adequately responsive no adv or dsadv here low speed manoeuvres: No problems High speed: Ultra stable, no weaving or wobble experienced at high (30mph) speeds when demanding direction change. Caveat: make sure the rear wheel bearing adjuster by screw is set close without sacrificing freewheel resistance, else there may be too much flex observed that is more pronounced under acceleration causing noise and brake pad rub. (Most Carbon Wheels do this, chill, just make sure bearings are close together as possible by use of adjusting & tightening grub screw on rear hub) Breaking: No observable problems, although the Carbon wheel SQUEAL under braking may embarrass publicly or bring unwanted attention... ) Imagine the Batman mobile turning sharply at a higher pitch.. Break Pad wear looks high already in my short time with them.. but this may be anomalous and subjective due to brake pad design. Overall: Good solid wheel incrementally great all round, may need slight adjustment (easy) after a few new rides due to a slower freewheel rotation (easily fixed by you using the grub screw to unlock... and re-fasten at a more compliant level... located on the rear wheel hub). Wonderfully low price/performance ratio for Carbon wheelset at a reasonable price.

Pros & Cons

These carbon wheels are relatively light and not too wide and not too deep with a freehub that is quiet. They are not harsh on the road and only cost a little more than the very best aluminium clinchers. The criticisms I have of them is from a cosmetic viewpoint.They look like black plastic with no obvious carbon weave to be seen except on the braking surface itself. Also they have 3 long and rather cheap and thick self adhesive stickers with the words Fulcrum almost completely covering the whole rim surface. Worse still is that there is a seam in the middle where the 2 halves of the carbon moulds meet in between the spokes. Compared to Mavic Ksyrium Pro carbon wheels I saw recently these look cheap. However... they do roll well and are a relatively inexpensive introduction to your first carbon wheels or as a standby set for racing should your best carbon wheels need swapped out.

Pros & Cons