If you’re in the market for a new set of carbon fibre wheels or a carbon fork even, there’s no shortage of choice, but you can now add new British brand ÆRA to your list of options.
At the moment the ÆRA range includes wheels and forks, but there are plans to expand the offering in the future. But more on those wheels. The ÆRA AR carbon rims are disc brake only and available in three depths, 36, 46 and 56mm and have been designed to be ideal for fast road bike builds to adventure bikes.
The 36 and 46 rims measure 28.1mm wide externally with a 21.1mm internal width, the 56s are wider at 29.9mm externally and 22.9mm internally. These widths are optimised, as you’d expect, for wider tyres, with ÆRA saying everything from 25 to 50mm wide is fine. Such is the width that a 28mm Schwalbe Pro One tyre balloons to 31mm wide according to the company.
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They are tubeless-ready rims or you can run them with inner tubes. Rim weights are claimed 410g, 435g and 460g for the 36, 46 and 56mm rims respectively. You can choose 24 or 28 spoke drillings depending on the sort of bike they’re going on.
You can choose from Hope RS4, Tune or Chris King hubs, with a Son Schmidt dynamo front hub option. Hubs come ready for thru-axles with a 100x12mm front and 142x12mm rear configuration, and Centre Lock disc interface. They also offer custom build options for which you need to get in contact to discuss your requirements.
The wheel builder on the company’s website also lets you mix and match front and rear rim depths, so you can combine a 36mm front rim with a 56mm rear rim if you want that.
Prices range from £1,570 to £2,160 which puts them right up against some popular choices in the carbon wheel market, the likes of Bontrager, Mavic, Reynolds or Roval to name a few.
As we mentioned the company has also launched a carbon fork, not just one but three models to suit a wide range of bike types. These are ideal whether you’re upgrading or building a bike from the frame up.
The ÆRA 'All Road' AR Disc fork (above) is all-carbon and can accommodate 700 x 38mm and 650b x 40mm wheels and tyres. The fork has internal brake hose routing and is compatible with dynamo lights as well. It uses Shimano’s 12mm E-thru axles and flat mount brakes.
The Road Disc and Road Caliper forks offer clearance for 700x32mm without mudguards and 700x28mm when used with mudguards. All forks are hand-painted in the UK in a brevet black but custom colours and paint jobs are also available. Prices start at £360.
David Clow, ÆRA designer and founder, said, "ÆRA was inspired by our own bike rides, adventures and tours on roads and gravel tracks. It’s this insatiable appetite for adventure that led to our development of these amazing new wheels and components”.
"All of our products have been designed to offer the perfect balance of performance, durability and reliability with an elegant aesthetic. The very essence of adventure is the unknown, and this means being prepared for anything along the way. We place extraordinary emphasis on reliability and this means we make every effort to design our wheels and components to be as tough as possible."
The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted these new wheels on a recent titanium road bike that we reviewed here, so we’ve had some experience on the wheels. We’ll be getting a test in for a proper extensive test soon so watch out for that.
More info at www.RideAERA.com. The new wheels and forks will be on display at the upcoming Cycle Show at the NEC on 28-30th September.
David has worked on the road.cc tech team since July 2012. 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.