Fulcrum Racing Zero Competizione

Nick Ee | 21st Mar 2017 | REVIEWS

Wheelsets, some says that they make the most difference in your ride. Do they? This is where we find out about the Fulcrum Racing Zero wheelset. Fulcrum Racing Zero is at the higher end spectrum aluminium road wheelset that Fulcrum they themselves have to offer.

Yes it may seem like a pretty hefty sum to pay for a aluminium wheelset. However it does have its merits in the weight department due to the fact that it is actually lighter than some of the carbon wheelset range fulcrum has to offer, coming in only at a weight of approximately 1520 grams. With weight, they too topped it off with an aerodynamic edge despite being a pretty shallow wheelset, it comes with straight pull aero spokes.

With a wheelset at this end of the spectrum, we are sure to be in for a treat for the amount of technologies within it. The main highlight of this wheelset in my opinion is the Hubs. This wheelset comes with the Fulcrum ceramic Ultra Smooth Bearing(USB) carbon hubs. This pair of hubs allows the wheel to roll on and on like no other ordinary wheels on the market. Another tech to be looked out for is the 2:1(two to one spoke ratio) technology. As we mentioned this being a aluminium wheelset, it is expected that this has more flex than carbon wheelsets. To up its stiffness, Fulcrum has come out with this clever 2:1 technology whereby they give twice the amount of spoke on the sprocket side to prevent the spokes on the sprocket side to have undesirable slackening hence resulting in power loss. This does not solve the problem of aluminium being able to flex more than carbon problem, however this allows the aluminium wheelset to be more stiffer than usual. This technology only applies to the rear wheel of the wheelset. Truth to be told, I can indeed feel the stiffness increase from this wheelset than other ordinary aluminium wheelsets. These are not all the trademark technologies Fulcrum has to offer for this wheelset. However these are the highlights.

Throughout riding this wheelset, I indeed enjoyed myself with how it performed. Due to it being a rather shallow wheelset, handling was really where it shined as crosswind didn’t really matter at all. During steep descents, the smooth hub really gained speed well. Once the descent was over, the wheels rolled on without losing speed quickly too. This made me realized how much difference a smooth hub can make to the ride due to the fact some may overlook the hub and tunnel vision to the rims.

Through putting these wheels to its paces, the weight benefit indeed allowed climbs to be made pretty easy with its low rotational weight. Also, with some of its aero benefits, maintaining speed on flats wasn’t a tough task to achieve. I could comfortably keep the bike going at approximately 35kp/h average speed on flats which really impressed me. However statistics as such are subjective depending on rider.

To sum things up, what you are paying for this wheelset, is down to its technologies and how well the hub performed. Indeed these does not come cheap for an aluminium wheelset, however I found that these wheels outperformed that what i expected out of an aluminium wheelset. With the 2:1 ratio technology, it took out some of the cons most aluminium wheelsets may face. Ah yes, not to forget, these wheels are also made to take from 25c and up to 32c tyres. Making an excellent choice for people who are using these wheels for multiple purpose such as gravel riding.