Club Roost FCR50 Full Carbon Clincher wheelset

Club Roost is perhaps better known on the downhill mountain bike scene, but has decided to dive into the performance road wheel market, and its FCR50 carbon fibre clincher wheels don't disappoint.

The wheels comprise 50mm-deep, full-carbon rims laced via Sapim spokes (20 front, 24 rear) with internal nipples to unbranded aluminium hubs. The rear hub is Shimano/SRAM and - importantly for anyone with a relatively new bike - 11-speed compatible (and 9 and 10-speed). There isn't a Campagnolo variant available.

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Internal nipples are a bit of a pain when it comes to truing the wheels yourself, but at least Club Roost provides you with a suitable tool for the job, along with spare spokes/nipples, QR skewers, a wheel bag, and brake pads, which is nice.

For deep-section wheels at this price, their overall weight of 1660g is pretty good. They certainly felt light and responsive in both bikes I tried them in when putting in a dig up one of Bath's many climbs, or when having a bit of a sprint on the flat.

Club Roost hasn't jumped on the wide rim bandwagon just yet, and these have 21mm external rims. Nonetheless, I ran 25mm Continental GP4000S tyres with them and they didn't become too 'lightbulby' in cross section when inflated to riding pressure.

Out on the road I found the FCR50s a cracking set of wheels for racing and general flatlanding. They spin up to speed quickly and, unsurprisingly, hold their speed better than shallower rimmed aluminium wheels - which tend to be what I use for everyday riding. Although light and responsive on climbs, deep-section rims are always going to suffer a bit of a penalty over shallower rims of a similar price when the road points upwards. But put it this way: you'd have to be a pretty excellent rider for these wheels to be the limiting factor to your performance.

I did have one main niggle with the Club Roosts: the squeal/screech you get when yanking hard on the brakes. Even on the driest of days, I found the rims would start squealing very quickly under hard braking with the supplied pads. The good news is that there is no detrimental effect on the braking performance - braking is actually very good in both wet and dry, no carbon rim issues - but the squealing is irritating for anyone who enjoys riding a silent bike.

The only other point where I wasn't totally happy with the FCR50s was in windier conditions. Deep rims are always going to catch the wind more than a traditional box section rim, and it was certainly noticeable even in low to mild wind conditions. This is really where the difference in price shows between these wheels and, say, Zipp 404 Firecrests (around £1900) or Reynolds 46/58 Aero wheels (£2000-ish). The big companies spend vast amounts of time and money in a wind tunnel at plenty of yaw angles and wind speeds, honing not only the aerodynamic efficiency but also the crosswind performance of their wheels. On the plus side, the Club Roost wheels are far cheaper than their exotic counterparts.

Overall I've enjoyed my time using the Club Roost FCR50s. I would happily take them to my next local crit round or road race over my usual aluminium wheels, safe in the knowledge I would be saving a few watts for the final gallop - and for a hell of a lot less money than your average deep-section carbon clincher. As an every-day/Sunday club run set of wheels, though, the brake squeal and crosswind performance would probably put me off.

Verdict

A great value – if noisy – set of carbon clinchers for racing and fast flat riding