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TECH NEWS

New UK brand ÆRA launches range of carbon wheels and forks

New carbon wheels and forks from British company ÆRA

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.

AR|36 Rim graphic

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.

AR|46 design

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.

AR|36

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.

AR Dynamo Disc fork 1

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.

road-caliper-fork-rear

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.

AR Disc Fork 3

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 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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9 comments

Avatar
jiberjaber | 5 years ago
1 like

I like the forks, I have them on my bike and they've been great so far.  Being able to route the dynamo cable neatly is great.

Unlike most through axle disc carbon forks they have a crown mount for the light.  My previous forks had no crown mount so I had to mount my front light off my aerobars, new config (when I get round to taking the aerobars off before winter) means I can now mount my light in a more appropriate place for PBP which is ideal (aerobars are not allowed for PBP) 

Old forks, had to do a good job to hide cables:

//images2.imgbox.com/9d/5b/iuPFisoi_o.jpg)

 

No crown light mount so improvise with aerobar mounting:

//images2.imgbox.com/f8/99/xuyzvCpT_o.jpg)

 

Crown mount for front light:

//images2.imgbox.com/ee/96/d55Z7O73_o.jpg) 

 

New forks, neatly hidden cables:

//images2.imgbox.com/c1/96/vFde4qVh_o.jpg)

 

 

 

Avatar
Damianjsmith | 5 years ago
0 likes

 

 

I was in the fortunate position to choose and spec a pair of dream bike during the latter part of last year for my wife and myself

The company I chose was J laverack, during the process we discussed many options around finishing kit and wheels/hubs.

After much deliberation as Dave will testify we decided to be one of the first customers to get a  Aera Wheels. 

36mm for her and 46mm for mine.

And I can honestly say after around 500 miles of use so far they have been fault less.  They are super stiff and responsive, look amazing are light and seem very tough.  They sound fantastic epically when going fast, which they love to do.

 

Our choice of hope RS4 hubs was to match in with the rest of the finishing kit and really look amazing.

The only issue I have had was when I damaged the rear thru axle, it took some brute force to remove it and was down to my own doing.  I feared the worse after seeing drills and hammers attack the suborn thru axle.  In the end both the hub and wheel came though totally undamaged and in perfect condition.  This give me great confidence in my purchase.

 

If you want customisable options and great British design and build quality I would high recommend these wheel sets.  Yes hunt are cheaper (they are great wheels) but these fill a slot for great options to the customer.

 

So big thanks to Dave at J laverack / Aera Wheels for all the help (just maybe review your thru axle supplier )

 

Damain

Avatar
David @ ÆRA Com... | 5 years ago
3 likes

Hi guys,

Great to get your thoughts on the wheels.

We've worked really hard to offer a choice of rim depth, hole count, hub options and the ability to mix rim depths to allow riders to really tailor their wheels to suit their requirements and riding style.

All of our wheels are also hand built in the UK by a master wheel builder using Sapim CX-Ray spokes and nipples.

David
 

Avatar
bob_c | 5 years ago
1 like

The rim weight, width and depth specs seem to exactly match some of Light Bicycle's standard offerings

Avatar
martybsays replied to bob_c | 5 years ago
1 like

bob_c wrote:

The rim weight, width and depth specs seem to exactly match some of Light Bicycle's standard offerings

 

My thoughts exactly. And the shape. Not that there's anythng wrong with LB - I am 4000 ks into a 46 mm pair that are 21/28, which I had built around Chris Kings, and they have been brilliant. Will revisit LB for the next rims for the new bike.

Avatar
Darren Franks | 5 years ago
2 likes

It's not just internal brake hose routing on the fork. There's specific routing for dynamo cables on the right side too. I have six wires running through mine as well as the brake hose. 

Avatar
Fluffed | 5 years ago
2 likes

I guess they are aiming at a budget Enve market rather than Hunt, being a bit wider (21vs19mm), becuase otherwise these make zero sense.

Avatar
StraelGuy | 5 years ago
2 likes

Exactly, you could buy very similar wheels from Hunt for half the price .

Avatar
cdamian | 5 years ago
3 likes

Pretty much what I would be looking for, except of the price.

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