Miche Supertype 440 RC White Label Wheels

The Miche Supertype 440 RC wheels are a decent weight and offer plenty of stiffness, plus with their gloss finish they'll certainly add a bit of shiny bling to any bike. Their narrow width and basic brake track makes them feel a little bit old school, though.

• Pros: Good balance of aerodynamics versus weight; very well built
• Cons: There are better braking carbon rims out there; lockring can catch on the chain

Current trends of increasing tyre widths has led to wheel manufacturers following suit with their rims, but Miche hasn't felt the need to embrace the fashion with its Supertype wheels.

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The inner rim width is just 17mm compared to the 23/24mm I see regularly now, which does make fitting the 28mm tyres I was using very simple. They literally popped on with just a bit of a push.

Wider tyres would have a little bit of a lightbulb effect but these are race wheels after all, and 25mm rubber is probably the largest they are likely to see so no big deal.

The 40mm-deep rim has a u-shaped profile and while it doesn't offer a massive aero advantage at speeds above 25mph there is a noticeable difference to how well the rim cuts through the air compared with shallower rims. They don't get whacked about by crosswinds either.

The build is quite stiff and offers a much firmer ride than something like the Scope R4C wheels I've recently had on the B'Twin. It's not overly harsh, just a bit of buzz over the rougher stretches of tarmac.

Stiffness is impressive too. I can quite easily get wheels to flex enough to touch the brake pads under hard climbing or when sprinting, and there were none of those issues here.

At just 1,469g (649g F/820g R), the Miches are responsive too. Acceleration is brisk and they seem to come alive in the hills, especially when you are out of the saddle.

One aspect of the Supertypes that isn't as good as some of the latest carbon wheels I've ridden is the braking. Carbon rims have a bit of a reputation for being grabby, as in no real grip from the pads until you get a bit of heat into the brake track and then they grab, so not a whole lot of modulation. In the wet things can be even worse.

> The pros and cons of carbon wheels

Things have changed, though, and some of the newest carbon rims offer pretty much the same quality of stopping power as alloy rims thanks to different coatings or carbon layups, but the Miches aren't among them. Feedback is quite vague, and while you can bring the bike to a stop relatively quickly it's not exactly confidence-inspiring if you have to brake hard unexpectedly.

Miche is proud of its made in Italy heritage and I have to say the overall quality of the Supertypes is very good indeed. Straight out of the box there were no spokes pinging as things settled down or anything like that, and I had no issues with them remaining true.

The hubs have a carbon fibre shell with 7075-T6 aluminium alloy flanges. These are laced to the carbon rim with Sapim spokes which are made specifically for Miche rather than being off-the-shelf items.

The front wheel has 18 spokes in a radial pattern while the rear has 24 spokes laced two-cross on the drive side and radial on the non-drive.

Miche has gone for SKF sealed bearings and they roll smoothly.

If you like a bit of noise when you aren't pedalling you'll be fine with the Supertypes as they have a gentle click when the pawls disengage. Miche has used a titanium freehub body rather than the usual steel or aluminium and it is very hardwearing, when it comes to digging in from the cassette carrier.

Included in the package are a set of wheel bags, rim tape, some carbon-specific pads, valve extenders and a Miche lockring which looks rather snazzy in anodised red.

The issue I had with it, though, was that when in the 11-tooth sprocket the chain was climbing up onto the lockring, because it has a diameter of 38mm as opposed to the 35mm of a standard Shimano (which I swapped it back to). If you are using a 12-tooth as your smallest sprocket it should be fine, or you could get really anal with your limit screws.

The Supertypes are tubeless-ready but they don't come with the necessary valves or tubeless tape.

We've seen some really good quality wheels coming through road.cc Towers lately at some very good prices, which give these £1,549.99 wheels a run for their money.

The Scope R4c wheels mentioned earlier are £1,298 and weigh only a little more at 1,550g.

Other wheels I've tested recently are the RSP Calavera Carbon CC35s. I did have a few issues with truing these, out of the box, but they were just £809 and weigh 1,510g, which is pretty impressive.

> Buyer's Guide: 37 of the best road bike wheelsets

The Miche wheels do feel a fair bit better overall quality-wise and seem more robust, too. Plus Miche has a two-year crash replacement policy.

Overall, the Miche Supertypes are a very good set of wheels if you are happy to live with the braking performance, but they are up against some stiff opposition.

Verdict

Light and stiff race wheels but don't offer the best braking performance out there