UPVINE Pro+ 2 Review: Future-Proof… Except for One Catch

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The first UPVINE Pro+ surprised me, and that’s not a sentence I hand out to every wheelset from a brand barely anyone in Europe had heard of. So when UPVINE offered me the second-generation Pro+ 2, I said yes, mostly to answer one question: What did they actually change, and is the price increase justified? Below, you will find out.

My Pro+ 2 wheels score at a glance:
Crosswind Stability 5/5 | Stiffness 5/5 | Riding Comfort 4/5 | Speed Maintenance 5/5 | Tire On 2/5 | Trueness 5/5 | Spoke Tension 5/5 | Dishing 5/5 | Price 1/5 | OVERALL 4.1/5
More about this road wheels scoring.

UPVINE Pro+ 2 Main Features and Specs

Here’s a quick summary of the features and specs of the UPVINE Pro+ 2 (tested in the 53mm depth; also available in 63mm and a fairly extreme 80mm).

A quick word on that spoke, because it’s the whole story of this generation. Instead of a conventional carbon spoke, the Pro+ 2 uses an encapsulated core: High-strength PBO fibers wrapped in a carbon shell. PBO (full name poly-p-phenylenebenzobisoxazole, which I’m never typing again) is the kind of material that sounds made up. 

UPVINE quotes a tensile strength of 5.8 GPa and a strength-to-weight ratio roughly ten times that of steel. The number that matters most here, though, is cut resistance, which is supposedly more than ten times that of plain carbon. The point is safety. If a spoke takes a hard hit, the PBO core acts as a backstop and stops one snapped spoke from turning a fast descent into a very bad afternoon. 

First Impressions and Unboxing

The unboxing was as nice as I remembered from the first Pro+ wheels. The main difference was that this time, both wheels were inside one box, not two. The package included branded tubeless valves and ratchet grease. The wheels included a spoke tension chart with handwritten spoke tension measurements. Kudos! Hardly any Chinese brand bothers with such attention to detail.

In-House Tests

Lateral and Radial Trueness

Both wheels ran relatively true, with the front wheel showing a slight deviation; the rear wheel was nearly perfect.

Spoke Tension

On the front wheel, the tension was even and well within tolerance. The largest deviation was only a little over 2% from the average, so again, nearly perfect. The rear wheel was almost as consistent. Most spokes sat inside the 3% limit. There was only a single spoke on the drive side 5.7% outside the average. It’s a lone outlier rather than a pattern, with no twisted spokes or other red flags.

Rim Centering (Dishing)

The hubs sat dead-center in the dishing test, with no gap between the pin and the end cap. Perfection.

A Look Inside

The rims were mostly clean, with tiny bits of epoxy remnants, as you can see in the images below. 

Difficulty of Putting the Tire On and Off

And then there’s the tire. Fitting my Tufo Comtura 4 TR 28mm onto these was relatively easy, and I didn’t need tire levers. However, to seat them, I needed a tire compressor. Since I first used these wheels with Continental Grand Prix 4000 S TR 32mm, I can tell you that these were super easy to mount and seat with a floor pump. This is not a surprise to me because these tires are wider.

Riding Experience

Here’s the honest part: I went in hoping the new spokes would make a noticeable difference. They don’t.

That’s not a knock, because the first Pro+ rode great, and so do these. They’re stiff and pick up speed quickly when you put power down. They hold speed once you’re rolling, and they stay stable in crosswinds, also thanks to the wide rim width. At ~68kg, I usually feel every gust, so that means something. They sit right in the mix with the other high-end Chinese wheels I reviewed, the most recent being the Particle GCX45 Hyperlight. Unsurprisingly, the Pro+ 2 are on the firm-and-stable side rather than the less-stiff, steel-spoked side.

The “magic carpet” thing UPVINE talks about from the PBO? I couldn’t feel it. To my legs, these are firm, precise, and, like any carbon-spoked wheel, a little less forgiving than steel spokes on rough tarmac. I test with the same tires and pressure every time, and side by side with my memory of the first generation, I’d struggle to tell them apart blindfolded. The PBO core is a safety story, not a ride-quality one. That’s fine, as long as you know it going in.

If you break any of the spokes, you will need to wait for the replacement spokes to arrive from China, as these are proprietary and less widespread than Vonoa’s carbon spokes.

The second interesting technology is the molded-spoke-hole approach. This means the spoke holes are formed during the molding process rather than drilled into a finished rim. By keeping the carbon fibers continuous and unbroken, this method eliminates the localized stress concentrations and heavy reinforcements typical of traditional drilled rims. The technology features a 3D-matched, full-contact interface between the hole and the nipple, which optimizes spoke alignment and evenly distributes loads. This results in higher tensile strength. Ultimately, this engineering approach delivers a wheel that is simultaneously lighter, stronger, straighter, and more resistant to long-term fatigue – at least in theory.

I didn’t notice any issues with the hubs, even during a stress test involving slow pedaling at high power. The freehub body sound is on the quieter side of the spectrum, especially after applying the included grease.

I would like to briefly discuss the tire-rim transition, which—with 28mm Tufo tires inflated to 31.9mm—is essentially perfect according to the rule 105%. The bike’s handling has changed, though, and for the worse. It feels to me as though I don’t have as much grip, and I feel less confident in corners and on descents. These rims would benefit from wider tires, 30 or 32. The specifications of these wheels thus attest to their timeless design.

My biggest problem with these wheels is that they were not wind-tunnel tested (yet). At this price range, I expect data to back up any aerodynamic or speed claims. We can now only guess how fast these wheels actually are. Hopefully, UPVINE addresses this gap soon.

UPVINE Pro+ 2 Alternatives

My Verdict

The Pro+ 2 are well-built, stiff, fast, stable, and now with a genuinely clever safety spoke. They also offer respectable weight and above-average, future-proof rim width. The catch is value. They ride almost identically to the cheaper first generation and cost $2,699, which is a lot of money to pay for a benefit you have to take largely on faith.

If you specifically want the crash-resistant spokes and future-proof specifications, they might make sense. UPVINE clearly focuses on quality over quantity. For everyone looking for a better price-value-performance ratio, there are easier wheels to recommend.

Anyway, I hope you find this review helpful. If you decide to buy the wheels anyway, please consider using the discount code below. It’s the best way to save on your purchase and support what I do. Thank you very much in advance.

What Is UPVINE?

UPVINE is a Chinese brand I first met at Eurobike 2023. They’ve built wheels since 2016, starting with aluminum rims and hubs before shifting their focus to carbon. They claim their own factory, though, as with many Chinese brands, I suspect at least some production is outsourced. What I’ve always appreciated is that they ship a spoke tension chart with every wheelset, which still feels like a small miracle in this corner of the market. They also now supply the Italian team MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort PRO Team as it steps up to the UCI ProTeam ranks, a reasonable sign of confidence for a brand still making its name in the West.

I also met with them at the Shanghai bike show in 2026. You can watch the following video for more info on their wheel lineup.