Halo Carbaura RCD wheelset

This Carbaura RCD wheelset is Halo's latest edition and it offers a very good all-round package with a strong build, noticeable aero benefits and a decent weight. It's good quality, at a sensible price.

The Carbaura, according to Halo, is the fastest disc brake wheelset it has ever developed thanks to a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-designed and tested rim. Out on the road this 50mm version (35mm is also available) certainly feels fast and there is a noticeable drop-off in effort needed to keep them rolling once your speed gets above about 23mph, something that happens with a lot of decently aerodynamic wheels.

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Halo has gone for a u-shaped, Toray T700 carbon fibre rim with a rounded edge where the spokes enter, as opposed to a sharper v-shape like we used to see a few years ago. Halo reckons this shape means the wheel is less affected by crosswinds regardless of what angle they are coming from, and I'd say that feels to be largely true.

I've had the wheels for about six weeks and tried them on a couple of different aero bikes in many weather conditions. The start of the test period was blighted by consistent strong winds of 30 to 40mph, and while you could feel the pressure of the wind pushing on the rim, especially when passing an exposed gateway or something, the handlebar wasn't getting slapped about in my hands.

Our test set weighs 1,629g (including tubeless rim tape) which is in line with Fulcrum's Wind 40 DB wheels (1,620g) and only a bit heavier than the Scribe Aero Wide 50-D at 1,449g.

Out on the road they don't feel heavy at all, and there isn't any lag to get them to rotate from a standing start.

Stiffness is great: when attacking climbs or just accelerating hard there doesn't feel to be any flex from them at all, although admittedly it is often harder to tell on a disc brake setup with no pads to rub on the rim.

The Carbauras are handbuilt and that is really noticeable in the spoke tension: they are taut right around both wheels, and there were no issues with trueness from the start or throughout testing.

In fact, the whole build feels very durable and robust, and while not going out to purposely destroy them, like all test wheels they never get treated like you would your own. Clattering over rough surfaces and small potholes at speed has seen them shrugging off everything with no signs of damage or, as I said, trueness problems.

Halo has gone for a reasonably wide rim width too – 19mm internal and 25mm external – and says that the Carbauras will work best with 25mm to 35mm tyres. With modern road disc-equipped bikes coming with increasingly large clearances, this means you can use wider tyres for comfort while still maintaining the aerodynamic effects.

Tyre fitment was relatively easy with most that I tried. The only one that required a bit of effort was the Michelin Power Road Tubeless, but that one is a faff on any rim.

Once set up tubeless, the Halos were pretty much fit and forget.

The wheels use Halo's own very good hubs. The RD2 Supadrive rear has a 24-hole drilling pattern for the spokes and a freehub that has 120 points of pickup – which basically means that engagement of the pawls will be a maximum rotation of just three degrees, so drive is there in an instant. Perfect for pulling away from those traffic light trackstands before the traffic behind has even had a chance to find the bite on their clutches!

With this number of engagement points, the freehub is quite noisy when you are rolling along; the sound is less 'clicky', more 'buzzy', though not as bad as the RSP Calavera CC35 wheelset that I described as sounding like a bluebottle trapped in a jam jar.

The freehub body has a bite-guard, a small strip of steel added to protect the splines from the cassette which, under load, would otherwise cut into the material of the freehub body. It's worked well, with just a few small indentations to be found after about 700 miles.

Options include Shimano HG, Campagnolo and SRAM XDR.

The start of the test period was quite wet, with things turning much warmer and dustier later on. Whatever the conditions, nothing has had any effect on the bearings so far on either the rear hub or the front RD2.

The front hub also takes 24 spokes, and they both accept Centerlock rotors rather than six-bolt options.

Value

When it comes to value, the Carbauras aren't bad. At £1,099.99 they're in the right sort of price bracket for what you are getting – they're the same as the Fulcrum Wind 40s I mentioned earlier in the review, and they both share that same balance of build and ride quality.

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However, the Scribes that I also mentioned are not only lighter but also cheaper at just £870.

Conclusion

Overall, you can get cheaper, but the Halo Carbauras are a sensible investment if you want a set of durable, fast and reasonably light wheels that are backed up by a great build quality.

Verdict

Fast and durable wheels that handle well in crosswinds