Pacenti Forza Rim Brake 700C wheelset

Pacenti has delivered an excellent product with its Forza Rim Brake wheelset, marrying an impressive weight with a solid, do-it-all road rim for racing or training – all for a very reasonable price, even against the biggest brands in the marketplace.

• Pros: Impressive weight for an aluminium alloy wheelset and great stiffness
• Cons: Don't quite deliver the super-smooth ride quality of the JRA Lark Lights

While it might feel like every wheel brand is pushing its latest disc brake offerings, it can be easy to think that rim brake wheelsets are being left behind, but thanks to brands like Pacenti there are still some quality offerings out there – like the Forza.

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Tyre widths have been increasing in the road genre over the last few years and rims have been getting wider too, to keep the compatibility. Rim brake frames don't have the clearance of disc brake versions, because of them needing to keep the brake bridge for one thing, so the Forza rim isn't the widest we've seen at 24mm externally (20mm internal). Pacenti does say that it works perfectly with a 25mm tyre and I'd concur, as it gives the tyre a nice round profile rather than that lightbulb shape you get when used with a more traditional rim that is 3mm narrower.

The rim is 25mm deep, or should I say shallow, and lends itself well to what Pacenti describes as an all-rounder road wheel for everything from racing to training. For all-out efforts or cruising at speed you obviously don't get an aero advantage like a deep-section carbon wheel, but the Forza's lack of weight – just 1,414g (780g rear, 634g front, without rim tape or skewers) – makes up for that when you have to fight gravity.

Being so svelte, acceleration is also impressive, and whenever you bang a load of power through, their lateral stiffness can't be faulted.

Pacenti has chosen Sapim's D-Light spokes for the build with 20 used for the front wheel and 24 at the rear, with radial and two-cross lacing patterns respectively.

Sapim describes the D-Lights as being designed for top quality mountain bike wheel builds, so for road use they definitely bring plenty of durability which could be why the Forzas seem to be happy to take so much abuse for such a light set of wheels.

Spoke tension remained spot on and I had no issues with trueness throughout the test period – and I never took it easy, flying through rough sections of broken tarmac with the tyres pumped up hard.

Like many other brands, Pacenti has used EZO bearings from Japan in these wheels and the results are very smooth and free rolling. The wheels spin forever in your hand and a look around them after the test period suggests they seem to have kept the grit and water out.

The Forzas use an anodised aluminium alloy freehub body with an added bite guard, a strip of stainless steel that's intended to stop the cassette from digging into the freehub body under load, which should prolong its life.

On my first standing start away from some traffic lights in a monster gear, I did feel the cassette move a fraction before engagement, but it was the only time it did it and there was no resulting damage to the freehub.

The Forzas come with standard rim tapes so if you want to run them without tubes you'll need to get hold of a conversion kit, including tubeless tape and some valves. I had some knocking around in the shed and can happily say that both tubeless and tyre/tube combos work fine, fitting snugly to the rim with just a little bit of thumb work.

Overall, it's a very good package for whatever your road riding entails and they match some of the best competitors for price too.

Before these came along, my Kinesis T2 had been running the Just Riding Along (JRA) Lark Light wheelset that I tested a while back. They are excellent, and of a very similar build and style to the Forzas.

The Pacentis are a little lighter than the JRA's 1,460g and they are a similar price. I tested the JRAs with a Sapim CX-Ray spoke and tubeless valve upgrade, which pushes the price up to £414.80, but the standard Sapim Laser/D-Light build is a tenner cheaper than the Forzas at £340.

The only thing I would say is that the JRAs had a slightly more comfortable ride than the Pacentis. I'm not saying that the Forzas are harsh, but they don't quite feel as though they cancel out as much road buzz as the JRAs when shod with the same tyres. There is very little in it, mind.

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Another set of wheels that make the Forzas look to be very well priced are the Fulcrum Racing 3 C17s, which are nearly 200g heavier and £200 dearer, and don't seem to offer anything outstanding over the Pacentis.

Overall, the Pacenti Forza wheelset is an excellent choice for those who place weight, stiffness and durability ahead of aerodynamics and out-and-out speed.

Verdict

Traditional looking, lightweight rim brake wheelset that offers excellent stiffness and durability