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Parcours aims to make ‘aero accessible to all’ with new range of carbon wheelsparcours 1.jpg

Parcours aims to make ‘aero accessible to all’ with new range of carbon wheels

Parcours launches range of carbon fibre wheels priced from £700
by David Arthur @davearthur
Mon, Aug 22, 2016 11:14
8

Carbon fibre aero wheels are an expensive upgrade but prices have gradually been falling over the years. Parcours is a brand new company with the bold ambition to make aero accessible for all. 

- The pros and cons of carbon fibre wheels

It has launched three wheelsets, each featuring a carbon fibre clincher rim, with prices ranging from £700 to £800. The rims are manufactured from Toray T700 carbon fibre and all use the latest U-shaped rim design, which all the leading rim manufacturers are now using. All rims are clincher only but they’re not tubeless-ready.

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Sapim CX-Ray spokes are used across the range and laced to its own design hubs, which are CNC-machined from 6061 aluminium and weigh a claimed 76g for the front and 208g for the rear.

- Buyer's Guide to road bike wheels, plus 17 of the best

parcours grimpeur.jpg

The Grimpeur (£700), at 1,465g, is its lightest offering and uses a 38mm rim with an on-trend u-shaped profile. The rim has an 18.2mm internal width and 26mm external width. 

parcours passista.jpg

With a 56mm rim and weighing 1,560g, the Passista (£750) looks like a good all-round choice suitable for a range of conditions. This wheelset uses a slightly different profile rim, with an internal rim width of 17.5mm and 27mm external width.

parcours chrono.jpg

Finally, the Chrono offers an 86mm rim and a wheelset weighs 1,800g and costs £800.

The new company first launched the wheels at the London Triathlon Expo and it has even spent time in the A2 Wind Tunnel in North Caroline to put them through their paces. 

It tested the Passista, a wheelset with a 56mm deep rim against a Shimano RS11 24mm wheelset, a common wheel on new bikes, and found savings of up to 15 watts depending on the yaw angle, which it says translates to nearly 67 seconds over 40km at 50kph. Testing was with a 23mm Schwalbe One tyre. It also tested against a Zipp 404 Firecrest clincher and found it was within 1%. 

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If you’re interested in the aero testing you can see more details and graphs on the company’s website www.parcours.cc/pages/aerodynamics

How good are the prices? Well, probably the cheapest carbon fibre clincher that we've seen here at road.cc is wiggle's own Cosine brand, with a 45mm carbon fibre clincher wheelset costs just £600. You can read our review of those wheels here. But typically you're look at well over a grand for a carbon wheelset and many times that if you're looking at one of the big names like Zipp, Enve or Mavic.

More info at www.parcours.cc

parcours
carbon wheels
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David Arthur @davearthur

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes. 

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8 comments

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Cyclespeed Tours | 8 years ago
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Confirms what many will have suspected for years; that like for like, same depth carbon rims are going to be very close indeed to each other for aero performance, no matter what fancy name you give them, or how much you spend on outlandish advertising claims.

Anyone thinking that spending triple this will be getting much improved aero performance is deluding him/herself.

Avatar
velotech_cycling | 8 years ago
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If the rims are to correct ETRTO C17 (internal width is 17.5 mm) standard then the narrowest / lowest profile tyre they should be fitted with is a 25c. Buyers need to check that a tyre / rim of this spec will fit in their frame / under their brake calipers.   They also need to be careful about clerances - if the wheels *just* fit and a stone gets picked up, or a spoke breaks, then the possibility is there for the wheel to jam.

This is a general point about C17 rims, of course, not unique to these ...

Avatar
themartincox | 8 years ago
3 likes

with an average bike price in the uk (2013) of £233 (source: Mintel) I do wonder whether ‘aero accessible to all’ is perhaps not too loftier a statement?

£700 is cheaper than zipp et al, but still pretty significant for the majority of cyclist I would hazard a guess

Avatar
Zebulebu replied to themartincox | 8 years ago
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themartincox wrote:

with an average bike price in the uk (2013) of £233 (source: Mintel) I do wonder whether ‘aero accessible to all’ is perhaps not too loftier a statement?

£700 is cheaper than zipp et al, but still pretty significant for the majority of cyclist I would hazard a guess

Does that 'average' price of £233 include kids' bikes, stuff bought second-hand on eBay, the Raleigh Chopper sat chained to railings in the local park for 30 years and bikes made out of lego?

Avatar
Point replied to themartincox | 8 years ago
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themartincox wrote:

with an average bike price in the uk (2013) of £233 (source: Mintel) I do wonder whether ‘aero accessible to all’ is perhaps not too loftier a statement?

£700 is cheaper than zipp et al, but still pretty significant for the majority of cyclist I would hazard a guess

 

Of which that data no doubt includes low end/budget halfords/argos as well as kids bikes, etc...

 

Clearly the statement is intended with the 'keen' cyclist in mind. Not your average Joe/Jane Bloggs.

Avatar
Tjuice replied to themartincox | 8 years ago
1 like

themartincox wrote:

I do wonder whether ‘aero accessible to all’ is perhaps not too loftier a statement?

£700 is cheaper than zipp et al, but still pretty significant for the majority of cyclist I would hazard a guess

Agreed.  I'm not sure I know all that many cyclists that would find £700 for a pair of wheels, "accessible".  I would not have been able to contemplate aero wheels if £700 was the starting price.

Fortunately, I got a pair of Planet X R50 wheels in 2012.   50mm deep carbon tubulars that weigh <1400g for the pair.  Not for the heavier rider, but they've been great for me over the last 4 years.  I paid £400 for the pair.  They don't have the latest aero profile, or the dimples, and they're not so suitable for the current trend of wider tyres, but I'm very happy with them. 

PX no longer make those, but it looks like the PX 60/60 wheelset is a very close alternative (slightly heavier at 1510g, but wider and slightly deeper, with more modern profile) and seemingly on sale for £377 at the moment!  At just over half the price of the Parcours starting price, that seems a little closer to 'accessible', but is still a lot for the average person to be paying for a pair of wheels!

 

Avatar
tritecommentbot | 8 years ago
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QUALITY

After extensive testing and site visits, we are now working with manufacturing partners in China, Taiwan, Japan and Belgium to bring a Parcours wheel together. Add UK-based quality control and warranty protection and we think you have a winning combination.

 

They tested their wheels v Zipp, but didn't see them test their wheels v Chinese versions like dengfu etc.

 

I have a sneaking suspiscion that their wheels are very similar in terms of quality and performance to the better Chinese carbon clinchers currently on the market at a significantly lower price.

Avatar
C.Gregs replied to tritecommentbot | 8 years ago
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unconstituted wrote:

I have a sneaking suspiscion that their wheels are very similar in terms of quality and performance to the better Chinese carbon clinchers currently on the market at a significantly lower price.

 

My thoughts too. But more of the value for money you get compared to those you can buy direct, online. Think they need to hammer home the domestic warranty and quality control more. 

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