Parcours Grimpeur wheelset

The Parcours Grimpeur wheels are stiff and light with subtle decals. They pick up speed quickly and remain calm in crosswinds, but could do with better skewers.

When buying aftermarket wheels, if you know that £2000 for a carbon set will result in disharmony at home, you might want to consider these new wheels from Parcours. The British based company is aiming to bring high-performance hoops to the everyday cyclist. The range spans from £700 to £800, with depths of 38, 56 and 86mm to suit climbers, sprinters and time triallists.

> Buy these online here

The Grimpeurs have a 38mm-deep carbon rim laced to a CNC machined aluminium hub with Sapim CX Ray spokes. There are 24 spokes in the rear, laced 2-cross on the drive side and radial on the non-drive side, and 20 spokes up front laced radially. The nipples are external, for easy maintenance, and the rims are finished with discreet graphics. At first glance I thought they looked smart and gimmick-free.

Out of the box, the wheels felt pleasingly light at 1500g on our scales, and when spun, looked perfectly true.

Mounting the tyres gave me the first positive. The rims are designed for modern trends and rolling resistance data. As a result, the 25mm Continental Gatorskins I mounted looked huge. The large profile is created by the 25.5mm rim width and 18.2mm internal width. For ride quality this is a big bonus. The larger volume soaks up more road buzz by allowing lower pressures to be used. Out on the road, this not only made my contact points a lot happier, but also helped the bike to track superbly through rough corners. Once in a straight line and sprinting, the wheels felt quick to accelerate and remained planted on the road.

My next euphoric moment came in a crosswind. My race wheels are V-shaped. Add this to my light body weight and I get blown around like a sailing boat. So when I realised these wheels behave themselves, to the point that they are completely unfazed by huge gusts, I was very happy. Most of this calmness is due to the wide U-shape of the rim.

Parcours makes no aerodynamic claims about this wheelset. The company has figures to suggest its 56mm Passista wheelset is very close to Zipp's 404 Firecrest clincher, and it certainly feels like some of those aero benefits have been replicated in the Grimpeur.

> Do you need carbon wheels?

Robustness can be the downfall of cheap carbon wheels. Everyone's heard the horror stories of carbon failure. So off I set, intent on abusing them to their breaking point. I commuted on these, hit countless potholes and used them for a cyclo-cross training session where I was practising hopping barriers. The rims didn't budge. They are still perfectly true. If you do manage to break your wheels, the benefit of having a British company to return them to is, to my mind, worth the extra cost over buying direct from China. The rims are showing little signs of wear, especially considering the muddy grit-paste they were subjected to during my CX sessions.

The braking is similar to many other carbon wheels. There is a slight inconsistency in the power around the rim, with small slips. The majority of this problem can be solved with a higher quality brake pad; the supplied pads aren't soft enough, resulting in a ‘wooden’ feel at the lever. The remainder of the problem is simply inconsistencies in the rim surface. The good thing here is that the basalt surface really helped in the wet.

I wasn't impressed with the skewers or rim tape. The skewers have been designed to bring the weight down, but in my mind, the component that secures the wheel to the frame isn't the place to save weight. The skewer had no real feel when closing and also hurt my hand from the small surface area. I would be quick to swap these out for a flatter Shimano skewer that has a definite closed position. The rim tape is from Lifeline. While the thin construction keeps rotational weight down, I'd be quick to swap if for a more robust tape, especially for heavier riders or those running pressures over 100psi.

Being able to service these hubs is brilliant. The simple construction means the sealed bearings can be replaced easily with quick reassembly. The freehub body is aluminium and will eventually suffer from bite marks – it's common where the cassette is harder than the freehub – but the simplicity of the hub means replacement parts are cheap and easily accessible.

Pointing these wheels uphill, I instantly reaped the benefits of the low rim weight and lateral stiffness. They are a significant upgrade over my aluminium wheels in all but braking performance. My only reservations were the skewers and rim tape, but these are a simple and cheap fix. As a full package these really are very good wheels for the money and worth the extra cost over buying direct from China, I'd say.

Verdict

Light, stiff, stable and excellent value, but better skewers are needed