Strada Rail 52 carbon clincher wheels

The Strada Rail 52 carbon clinchers are fast, well-built wheels that handle well in a whole variety of conditions.

Strada import the Rail 52 rims from November Bicycles in the US www.novemberbicycles.com and build them up to order at their workshop in Lancing, West Sussex. Our review wheels were built on Chris King's superb R45 hubs  with Sapim's equally good CX-Ray bladed spokes. We have 20 radial spokes at the front, and 24 2-cross at the rear (12 on either side).

The official rim weight is 480g (we didn't take them apart to confirm that) and our built up wheels weigh 755g (f) and 895g (r) including rim tape but not including skewers. That's a total weight of 1,650g.

I won't go into depth on the hubs here for two reasons. First, we've already reviewed them separately. Second, you can get the Rail 52s built with different hubs if you prefer (see below). They are excellent hubs, though.

The unidirectional carbon rims are a proprietary design from November Bicycles; the 52 in the name refers to the rim depth in millimetres. They're 25mm wide across the brake track with an internal width of 18mm. The brake track is angled to smooth the airflow over the tyre.

The rims actually get a touch wider below the brake track (in the same way that Zipp's Firecrest profiles do, for example), bulging out to a maximum of 27.1mm across. The overall shape certainly follows the trend towards staying wider for longer – it's closer to a U shape than to a V, if that information is of any use to you.

November Cycles say that the rim shape is based on NACA airfoils and that, "Despite being 6mm shallower than the Zipp [404], the Rail prototype gave up only 2 seconds over a 40K time trial at 30mph and performed better than the Zipp at low AOAs (below 7.5 degrees) more common at the high speeds experienced in sprinting, attacks and descents.' (AOA here stands for 'angle of attack' – the yaw angle.)

Obviously, if both wheels were doing exactly 30mph they'd cover 25 miles in precisely the same time, so we suggest you pop over to November's website to see how they derive their figures.

The Strada Rail 52s perform really well in a wide range of different circumstances. They feel stable even in strong crosswinds and in blustery conditions when some wheels of a similar depth can really throw off the handling and force you to correct your steering constantly.

They're a good, lively weight too. They can't compete with shallow section rims on the scales, of course, but for their depth they're competitive.

Strada have built the wheels up beautifully with remarkably even spoke tension throughout. They feel flex-free even during your most hot headed sprinting moments, and after a month of use our review set are as round and true as they were when they arrived (which we'd expect, to be fair).

Strada offer a free truing for life policy along with a two-year warranty, so even if you do have any problems on that front, they'll put it right.

As for the braking performance, November say that these rims are capable of withstanding up to 350°F (177°C) temperatures without warping, delaminating, or doing anything else that might scare you, thanks to the use of new resins.

The Rails ship with SwissStop's Black Prince brake pads that are made with a proprietary compound that is designed to reduce heat buildup during braking too. We have nothing around these parts that's going to challenge any wheels on that front, so we're reporting this rather than commenting on it.

All this makes the Strada Rail 52s an excellent wheel choice if you want something adaptable that you can use for road racing or time trialling/triathlon, on flat or hilly courses, and even in pretty windy conditions.

If you can't run to £1,575, Strada build up these rims with several other hub options, the cheapest being Novatech Superlight. Those wheels cost £1,095 including quick release skewers, Swissstop Black Prince pads, valve extenders, rim tape and UK delivery via FedEx. None of the other hub options include quick releases.

Verdict

Fast, well-built wheels suitable for a wide variety of different terrains and conditions.