Mantel R50 carbon wheels - Lightweight road bike wheels for rim and disc brakes

We’ve completely overhauled our popular Mantel Carbon road bike wheels. The Mantel wheels were out of stock for a while, since we were busy engineering, testing and producing road bike wheels up to modern standards. Tubeless, 100% carbon, the finest hubs and improved bearings. You’ll find all this in the Mantel R50 carbon wheels. Naturally, there’s a rim brake and a disc brake version. On top of that, they’re very lightweight and wallet-friendly.

Our key motivation for designing and creating the Mantel R50 carbon wheels was building a great new wheelset for an affordable price. And we’ve succeeded. We started this process almost a year ago. First, we analysed the strengths and weaknesses of our first homemade wheelset. Luckily, the feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive.

The bearings are the biggest improvement. We picked high-quality bearings that have a double seal and offer extra protection. Hopefully, this means we’ve eliminated our old wheels’ only weakness.

Tubeless for the future

From the first design phase on, we already knew the Mantel R50 and R50 Disc had to be tubeless ready. We’re convinced that riding tubeless on road bikes is the future.

Riding tubeless has only advantages. Let’s start with the fact that you’re less likely to get a punctured tyre. In the event that you do, the liquid latex will fill the hole within seconds.

On top of these advantages, the wheels feel great to ride on. You can cycle using a much lower tyre pressure. This provides even more traction without your tyre feeling slow. On the contrary, a low-pressure tubeless tyre will only make you go faster!

We also let Schwalbe test our wheels, resulting in a resounding triple-A status. That means our wheels have a perfect score for being easy to mount, airtight rim/tyre combination and safety in the event of tyre punctures.

The right carbon in the right place

As expected, our new road bike wheels are made of carbon. The rim and rim base are made of UD carbon. The braking surface is made of 3K carbon for better braking performance and longer lifespan.

Do you own a Mantel R50 TLR Disc? That means the entire rim is made of UD carbon. UD stands for Unidirectional. This means that all carbon fibres are roughly oriented the same way. This results in optimal rigidity in any circumstance.

An added benefit is that the use of UD carbon results in a sleek, smooth matte look. This ensures the Mantel R50 carbon wheels have a very chic look.

Aerodynamic 50 mm high rims

Both the Mantel R50 and R50 Disc are 50 mm high. That’s very aerodynamic and still low enough to not be bothered by wind.

The aerodynamics tests we’ve performed show that the wheels’ aerodynamics are A-ok. With frontal wind and up to a 3 gradient we’re a close second, just below a Zipp 303 wheelset.

From 3 degrees onward, we manage to perform better than a Zipp 303! A 15 degree gradient, the performance is 9% better. And let’s be real, how often do you really cycle in the exact opposite direction the wind is blowing in? Almost never. In practice, we think you’ll gain a larger aerodynamic advantage from using Mantel carbon wheels than a Zipp 303 set.

Straight pull spokes and internal nipples

Something else that stands out is that the Mantel R50 TLR and Mantel R50 TLR Disc both have internal spoke nipples. Not only does that look really sleek, it also makes your bike more aerodynamic.

The spokes themselves are from the acclaimed Belgian Sapim. We opted to use round straight pull spokes. It was an easy choice between round or flat spokes. We wanted to keep the wheelset affordable and flat spokes are relatively pricey.

Because this type of spoke doesn’t have any tension points, the chances of a broken spoke are reduced. The slight aerodynamic advantage of flat spokes really didn’t justify the extra costs. Besides, the combination of Sapim straight pull spokes and the rim is lighter than the flat version.

This is because the spokes’ large contact surface results in less carbon being needed to keep the spoke in place. We think this reduced weight will yield better performance for most road bikers than flat spokes.

Sturdy hubs with double-sealed bearings

And then there's the hub. We’ve commissioned their design tailored to our demands. The hub is very robust and is equipped with large, double-sealed industrial bearings.

To protect the bearings even better, there’s an antechamber between the bearings and the outside air. Any dirt will collect there without it getting into your bearings. This makes cleaning effortless.

Choose your own decals

To make your wheels suit your bike, every Mantel R50 TLR wheelset includes a decal picked by you. You’ll get to choose a colour that best suits you and your bike.

If you prefer to keep your wheels completely black without any decals, that’s also an option. Of course, we do think they look better with our signature decals… Every wheelset includes 6 decals in the colours you picked.

Maintaining Mantel wheels is easy as pie. Clean them a few times a month using soapy water and a soft brush, and you’ll be able to enjoy your wheels for years on end.

Check out both Mantel R50 TLR road bike wheels