Reviews over the

Fulcrum Racing Quattro Carbon

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

Cracking wheels - made my bike much faster

Only a few rides on these wheels, but I like them; the fact that they advise to use 25' tyres contribute to the overall comfort. I'm getting used also to the "silence" (previous carbon wheels had very loud rear wheel ratchet)

Pros & Cons

For the price Mantel are doing these wheels I would wager you cannot beat these wheels for a "do everything" set of carbon hoops ... believe me I've tried! I spent a lot of time reading and researching all aspects of wheels and current design thinking before I pulled the trigger on these ... and honestly I am very, VERY happy with them. For ref: I am mid forties, 77kg, ride 3-5 times a week (99% of time alone) and do ~9000km year in predominantly dry conditions on both broken or rough and also super smooth (read: polished!) roads ... ftp was around 260 when I got these, but increased since. I've saved around 350-400g in weight from my previous wheels and ride a carbon framed Specialized Tarmac. I have put around 1200km on these wheels so far. So let's get over the first elephant in the room ... Braking ... with the supplied pads these are better in both wet and dry conditions than my old alu wheels with ultegra brakes and pads. In my eagerness to ride, on the 2nd day out I was hit by a torrential 45 min downpour and found to my amazement that the power and feel of the brakes/rims was far better than I had had for the previous 15000km! Elephant no2 - crosswinds ... again to my surprise these are way better at fending off gusting crosswinds of 40-50kmh than my old alu wheels ever were ... so old carbon issues/myths and/or any concerns I had about the negative side of buying carbon wheels were blown away in first 2x rides! On to why most of us are after new wheels is most likely performance. Basically "yes they are better everywhere" is the answer to any question you might ask me. Descending and fast flat roads (and/or strong headwinds) I would say they are 5%-10% faster. On rolling hills up to ~7% they just carry a lot more momentum, and on steeper stuff I am also feeling the benefit of the weight savings mentioned earlier, although obviously not as pronounced as a super lightweight set of climbing wheels. When sprinting or jumping up on the pedals to get over a crest they spin up super fast and easy, and I've never had any issues with flex or brake rub from them (true when delivered). I also ride with a power meter so can see measured differences in watts I'm putting out ... its really not just a perceived increase. I have a theory that part of the benefit is from the deadspots at the top and bottom of the pedal stroke - with lighter faster wheels less effort is required to generate forward momentum, so these points are providing more drive and so helping overall momentum ... ?? The hubs seem fine - needed to tweak the rear bearing preload adjuster after first couple of rides after they had bedded in, quick and easy job, no stress. Only thing I would say is that this is perhaps where weight could be shed or a bit of longevity added to the wheels?? ... however more expensive hubs would probably put these out of the sweet spot price range they are in so I would not have bought them :) Comfort and compliance of these wheels is fantastic ... they soak up road buzz and hard bumps really nices (on 25mm Vittoria Corsa G+). One very slight negative - there is occasionally a slight chirping sound which I believe is from how the air passes over the spokes at high speeds and at certain yaw angles ... not enough to annoy me so no major beef. Tyre fitting no issue and from what I have read from trusted reviews they can also be run as tubeless, despite Fulcrum no touting them as such. So basically ... very happy with these wheels. I can put out more power for longer and seem to run 1-2kmh faster on my average daily rides ... and ... they make the bike look so much nicer :))

Pros & Cons

beautifull wheels, light for 40mm deep, very responsive. Not a ten because they are not cheap!

Great Carbon wheelset, only a few kms so far but braking is very good. Weighed in very close to manufacturers spec. Shimano freehub is nearly silent. 40mm seems the best balance for most users if you are a common Sportive or basic racer. Before you buy 50mm plus rims really ask yourself if you can maintain the average speed needed to get any benefit.

Pros & Cons

Good wheels at a very good price!

Happy with the whole process from buying to receiving to trying out my wheels.

I purchased these wheels as I needed a new set of decent carbon road wheels and after reading the reviews took the plunge.On my first ride I noticed that they were super smooth and comfortable with 25c tyres fitted. I used them in my annual club hill climb and came 2nd, so I was well impressed. So I can only give them praise at the moment.Totally recommended.

Pros & Cons

Bought as an upgrade to Scott Foil. Fits nicely with the carbon scheme of the frame and adds somewhat to the aero properties. Very stable in different wind conditions and runs smoothly. Very satisfied.

Pros & Cons

Light, fast an comfortable