Free carbon wheel ratings

See How 25+ Carbon Wheelsets Actually Scored

Every brand says their wheels are stiff, stable and fast. None of them will show you a number. So I buy them, put them on the truing stand, and ride them until I know what they actually are. Then I score all 25 the same way, 1–5, across 9 criteria.

  • Numbers I measured myself, not adjectives a brand wrote.
  • All 25 side by side, filtered by depth, weight or price, in one table.
  • The discount codes I negotiated myself, worth up to 15% off.

What I Measure

Nine criteria, scored 1–5 on the same published scale for every wheelset, so a 4 means the same thing on all of them. Hover any criterion to see what earns each score. If you want the long version, it is on my wheel testing page.

Crosswind Stability Stiffness & Responsivity Riding Comfort Speed Maintenance Tire-On Rating Trueness Spoke Tension Rim Centering (Dishing) Price

A Look Inside

Five of the 25, laid out exactly as the full table shows them. The scores are hidden here, not in the table I send you.

Best In Class

The four categories people actually ask me about. Knowing the categories is the easy part.

★ Best Lightweight
★ Most Popular
★ Best Value
★ Best Budget

The Ratings Table

Wheelset Score Crossw. Stiff. Comfort Speed Tire-On True. Spoke T. Dishing Price Code
Elitewheels DRIVE II 50mm · 1322g · 23.2mm / 30.7mm
Particle GCX45 45mm · 956g · 25.2mm / 31.6mm
Lún HYPER 5 50mm · 1314g · 23.1mm / 30.6mm
YOELEO NxT SL2 C60 60mm · 1359g · 23.3mm / 31.1mm
Farsports C5 50mm · 1328g · 24.2mm / 30.4mm

Scroll the table sideways to see every criterion.

+ 20 more wheelsets, every one scored across all 9 criteria

Petr Minarik

Every wheelset on this list goes through the same process before I write a word about it. I check spoke tension with a tensiometer, hub centering with a dishing tool, and lateral and radial trueness on a truing stand. The numbers go straight into the table, good or bad.

Then I ride them. In crosswinds, on rough tarmac, up and down, for as long as it takes to know what they are. A wheel that measures well and rides badly is still a bad wheel, and most of what you feel on a road never shows up on a workbench.

Petr MinarikFounder of CyclistsHub.com