Ritchey Classic Zeta wheelset

Ritchey has managed to build a tough yet lightweight package with its Classic Zeta wheels and they look the part too with their highly polished silver finish. Whether on smooth tarmac, broken back lane or potholed byway, they roll quickly and aren't shy of taking a knock or two.

• Pros: Impressive weight, smooth running, tough as old boots
• Cons: Freewheel material a little soft

If you want polished alloy components for your bike, there aren't many options, as I found out a few years ago trying to build up a classic looking steel tubed frameset. Ritchey's Classic range was about the only quality stuff out there and it's part of that selection that these new Zeta wheels fit into.

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What you get for your £569 is a pair of 6061 aluminium alloy rims, Phantom Flange hubs connected by DT Competition j-bend spokes and an all-in weight of 1,491g.

The rims have an external width of around 22mm which makes them more suited to larger tyres like 28mm or even Ritchey's own 30mm-wide WCS Alpine JBs, which were used for a lot of the test miles.

Fitting tyres to them is simple: I tried a few brands out of the piles of test tyres I have and none were a struggle or faff to fit.

The braking surface has been machined for a true and grippy finish and it works well in the wet and the dry using the SwissStop Green brake pads that were on the test bike.

The front wheel uses a radially laced pattern comprising 20 spokes, with the rear being a mix of radial on the non-drive side and two-cross on the drive side, a total of 24 spokes.

To create a little bit more dishing on the drive side, the rear uses an offset rim bed. The flat central part of the rim where the spokes enter is moved over towards the non-drive side. More dish allows for a stronger wheel.

Performance

Strength is what you need, as well, as Ritchey has specced these Zetas for road, cyclo-cross and light adventure use. It's quite a sparse setup in terms of spokes for that all-round kind of use, but it certainly seems to work as these wheels haven't put a foot wrong.

Whacking a pothole is pretty much inevitable these days and I've smashed through a few on the Ritcheys without issue; they are still running true and the rims have taken the abuse.

They've also seen some pretty hard miles on various sizes of gravel, from the small stuff through to bigger, rockier sections. Again, not a single complaint.

The hubs are quite a large diameter right the way across, doing away with a narrow mid-section and tall flanges at the ends like most. They run beautifully smoothly, with the front being silent while the rear has a subtle click to the freehub without being overly shouty.

The freehub uses a 6-pawl, 12-point engagement which is quick to lock in for instant acceleration, and if you like to track stand at the lights you don't get that floating feeling waiting for the pawls to engage as you rock backwards and forwards.

The one thing I will say is that the alloy freehub body is a bit on the soft side, as the cassette has cut into the splines a bit, which required the use of a file when swapping over sprockets. Something like the steel insert added to Hunt's wheels might be a good idea here.

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Thanks to their low weight, the Zetas perform across the board. Acceleration and climbing feel great as the wheels are just so quick to spin up to speed, and once up there they roll extremely well.

They're comfortable, too, as the handbuilt setup leaves enough give in the spoke tension to keep the wheels stiff for those hard efforts without being an overly harsh ride.

Value

The price is quite high for a set of alloy rims these days, but there are others out there that are similar: Deda's Zero 2 wheels, for instance, at £539.99 and about 130g heavier. Or there's the similar weight American Classic Argent tubeless, which cost a massive £875, not that American Classic is around any more, having closed down in January.

More commonplace wheels like Fulcrum’s Racing 5s (we tested the disc brake version here) weigh in at around 1,600g and have an rrp of £269.99, so you can certainly go cheaper for similar performance.

Overall, though, I think the Ritcheys are a very good showcase for getting what you pay for, with a great all-round feel of quality, durability and performance.

Verdict

High-performance wheels that are just as at home on your race machine as they are on your gravel hack