Vision TriMax 30 KB wheelset

Vision's TriMax 30 KB tubeless-ready wheels are built to last, look great and stay that way thanks to a clever surface treatment. Weight-weenies might find them a shade heavy, but that's far less important than durability and reliability.

• Pros: Improved braking and tyre width, great looks
• Cons: A shade heavy for the money

These are probably the most unobtrusive wheels I've ever tested – and that's a very good thing. For a start, they're straight and true, and the spoke tension is decent, which will help them stay that way. They're laterally stiff enough that I couldn't get them to rub on the brakes, even though I run the blocks close to the rim so they come on at a touch. They're unaffected by sidewinds because they're only 30mm deep, enough to give them a slight aero advantage over old-school square rims, but not enough to affect handling when it's windy. Even the freewheel noise is relatively quiet. Very easy wheels to live with, then.

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Out on the road, they spin up easily and roll well, and the lateral stiffness of the wide rims – the internal width is 19mm – seems to help them stay on line in corners. It also bigs up your tyres. My 25mm tyres ended up more like 27mm across, so I could run a little less pressure for more grip and better cushioning.

Braking is smooth and very powerful thanks to the machined sidewalls and oxide coating which increases friction with the brake pads. This is especially noticeable in the wet, but even in dry conditions the improvement is marked and well worth having. You can use your standard brake blocks with the TriMax 30 KBs; Vision says there's no need for special brake pads, unlike some other similarly treated wheels.

Conventional tyres go on and off easily. I fitted Continental GP4000S IIs and Pirelli P Zeros without fuss. The pop as the bead goes into place on the rim shoulder is a bit alarming, but that's common with tubeless-ready wheels.

Tubeless tyres vary. A Hutchinson Fusion 5 All Season 11 Storm went on easily with just a track pump. In fact I was able to inflate and get it seated without sealant or anything to lubricate the bead, then add the goop through the valve. I needed a bigger blast of air, and soapy water, to get a Schwalbe Pro One onto the bead shoulder, but it went up. I think this is down to slight differences in the shape of the Schwalbe and Hutchinson beads. The latter has a bit more rubber on the side that's toward the rim well and that seems to help it trap air.

First impressions & details

These are good-looking wheels. As you can see from the photos, the tubeless-ready rims are finished in a handsome charcoal grey with subtle graphics in a mid-tone grey, while the hubs, spokes and nipples are black. They'll complement dark-coloured bikes, but they won't detract from something brighter; I think they look great on my red and white Scapin which I deliberately ordered with a minimum of graphics.

Those looks should last. The grey colour is deposited by a plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) process, which puts an extremely hard ceramic coating on the rim. Vision says the PEO surface is extremely wear resistant, so the rims will look new for much longer than usual. That should also slow down the sidewall wear that eventually kills wheels on rim-braked bikes.

After a few hundred miles of riding there was no discernible marking on the braking surfaces, and they live up to Vision's other claim of improved wet-weather braking.

Fans of loud, clicky freewheels will be sad to learn that the Vision Trimax 30 KB's freewheel is fairly restrained. On the other hand, people who think too many modern wheels are a rolling exercise in noise pollution will be pleased that the freewheel here is fairly restrained.

Gram-weenies might be a bit disappointed at the TriMax 30 KB's 1,570g weight. A pair of Mavic Ksyrium Elites costs £539, weighs 1,532g and comes with Mavic's excellent Yksion Pro UST tyres. Ritchey's Classic Zeta wheels are £569 and weigh 1,491g. On the surface, then, these are a shade heavy for wheels that cost almost £700.

But that ignores important features of the TriMax 30 KB wheels that contribute to the weight and cost. Both those wheels have 17mm rims. The TriMax 30 KB's 19mm internal width means they're stronger and stiffer and make your tyres fatter. The plasma electrolytic oxidation treatment that makes the rim sidewalls practically scratch-proof isn't cheap either. Mavic's cheapest wheels with a similar coating, the Ksyrium Pro Exaliths, are £900 and not yet available in a tubeless-ready version.

Conclusions

These are great wheels on a number of fronts: looks, build quality, stiffness, braking, durability and general practicality. They're perhaps overkill if you're a 60kg racing snake, but for those of us who aren't exactly svelte, the extra beef is very welcome.

> 203 tubeless wheelsets from £114 to £2,400

They're slightly pricey for mid-weight wheels, but you can see where the money goes. They were die-straight out of the box and, more importantly, evenly-tensioned, which is a sign of good-quality wheelbuilding. (And they're entirely hand-built, according to Vision.) The ceramic coating on the rim is well worth the uptick in cost for the improvement in braking and durability it provides.

If you want a set of tough wheels to see you through bad weather, the TriMax 30 KBs have to be on your shortlist.

Verdict

Tough, good-looking wheels that improve your braking and tyre profile