Campagnolo Bora WTO 60 Disc wheelset

The Campagnolo Bora WTO 60 Disc wheels are superfast, superb to ride and superbly expensive. Despite the rim depth, they handle very well and are well behaved in windy conditions. An exceptionally good race wheelset.

If you've got two grand to spend on fancy deep-section wheels then these are well worth considering. They're as fast as they look, have Campagnolo's excellent 2-way fit technology, keep the weight down and are predictable in the wind.

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The majority of my time on the WTO 60s has been spent on my Specialized Venge, an aero race bike. These wheels are a perfect fit and while it's not all about the looks, they do also look brilliant.

Thankfully, the performance is more than skin deep. The WTO 60s accelerate brilliantly and are perfectly happy to sit above 40kph. Racing is currently off, so the hardest that I've ridden them has been on some socially-distanced group rides and when chasing KOMs. The wheels have been excellent for this fast-paced riding and I'm confident that when racing starts again they'll be perfect for some flat circuits.

Not all of my riding is done on the flat, and when I've taken the WTO 60s into the Mendip hills I've been impressed at how well such a deep wheel climbs, especially on the steeper stuff. They're quick to spin up should you feel the need to stamp on the pedals and are excellent on long drags.

Sprinting presented no issues, with the wheels showing no signs of flex under load. Even leaning the bike right over in a big gear on a steep climb brought about no noise from my disc brakes, suggesting that these are properly stiff.

Setting up

Setting up the wheels, I installed a set of 26mm S-Works clincher tyres. Those tyres popped on without any hassle and I was pleased to find that the wheels come supplied with lockrings. That's something that I've overlooked before so it's nice to see them included.

Campagnolo also supplies tubeless valves and a few spare spokes. Everything comes in two padded wheel bags for transportation and storage.

2-way fit

Campagnolo's 2-way fit technology is the company's way of saying that the wheels are tubeless-ready and can also be used with standard clincher tyres. The difference between this and a standard tubeless-ready rim is the lack of requirement for rim tape. Campagnolo uses a hole-less rim bed which makes the inner rim channel deeper. This is a massive help when mounting tyres, and when I switched to a pair of Challenge tubeless Strada tyres, they mounted and seated easily.

Rim

This 60mm-deep carbon rim has a 19mm internal width and an external width of 26.1mm. The inner width worked nicely with 25-28mm tyres, offering plenty of support and boosting the claimed tyre width out by 1mm.

The WTO bit in the name stands for Wind Tunnel Optimised, and Campagnolo says that the rim 'enables maximum aerodynamic penetration at wind angles between 10° and 20°, a situation that accounts for 80% of time on the saddle'. It also claims that 'this wheel is unequalled when it comes to overcoming drag', though the data to support this isn't provided.

Hubs

The aluminium hub shells house Campagnolo's buttery smooth USB ceramic bearings. Campagnolo is one of the few companies still using the cup and cone system; this gives easy preload adjustment and maintenance.

Value

The best part of two grand for a set of wheels isn't to be sneezed at, but they stack up quite well against others. Trek's Bontrager Aeolus XXX 6 TLR wheelset is a bit more expensive at £1,999.98 though it does feature a wider 21mm rim bed.

Vision's Metron 55 SL Disc wheelset suffers for being a bit heavy, despite being shallower, but the price might tempt you, at £1,799.95.

You can go a lot higher though: Enve offers the 5.6 SES Disc wheels at £3,300, and the Lightweight Fernweg Evo 63mm Schwarz Edition wheels take the price up to £7,778.

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If you're shelling out this kind of money then you'll be wanting an excellent set of wheels and, thankfully, that is what you're getting here. The Bora WTO 60 Disc wheels are really stiff, fast on the flats and they climb well too. Crosswind stability is good and the weight isn't too bad either.

Verdict

Fast and stiff, these are excellent wheels that handle well and climb quickly