Prime Orra 700C Carbon Gravel Wheelset

The Prime Orra 700c Carbon Gravel wheelset is a quality performer that offers impressive stiffness, weight and build quality which makes the price even more impressive – just a penny shy of six hundred quid! This is cheaper than any of those in our best gravel wheels buyer's guide.

Prime is well known for offering quality components at a competitive price – and that's exactly what the Wiggle CRC has done here with its Orra 700c Carbon Gravel wheelset.

You are getting a pair of wheels with 35mm-deep rims made from Toray's T700 UD carbon fibre, alloy hubs with a 36T ratchet system, CenterLock rotor mounts and tubeless compatibility, all for just £599.99.

This sort of price means that the Orras give even their most competitively priced rivals a run for their money – but that isn't where the high points end.

After a month or so of abuse on the gravel trails and byways the Orras have shown that you don't need to treat them with kid gloves. They have taken all of the abuse I have thrown at them, and the weather hasn't exactly been kind either, with virtually every ride lately taking place either in the rain, or in the wet, muddy and gritty conditions left by it.

Trueness hasn't been an issue, and the hubs are still running smoothly after some very wet rides, and places where the puddles on the local tank tracks have seen the water at least hub height. The sealed bearings certainly seem to have been doing their job.

Overall, the wheels are sufficiently stiff for all kinds of riding even if you like to climb hard or sprint. I got out of the saddle on numerous steep climbs and I couldn't detect any lateral flex.

With 24 spokes front and rear it feels like quite a solid build.

The SR2D hubs use a CNC-machined 7075-grade aluminium alloy body with a quite large diameter flange, which allows for the use of shorter spokes, which no doubt contributes to that stiffness.

The only freehub option when buying the wheels as a complete build is Shimano HG (which also works with SRAM cassettes, except XDR) although Campagnolo options are listed as aftermarket upgrades.

The blurb says that the freehub comes with a bite-guard, a steel strip that sits alongside one of the splines on the freehub to stop the cassette under pedalling load, but there isn't one on our review set which is a bit of a shame, although so far any indentation is very minimal.

Rather than pawls, Prime uses a sprung ratchet design with 36 teeth for engagement. It's very quick and if you are trackstanding, you'll feel no slop between engagement points. When freewheeling there is some buzz, but nothing over the top.

The rims' 24.5mm internal width makes them suited to the wider tyres used on gravel bikes and I found them just as at home with wide road tyres like the 36mm-wide WTB Exposure TCS Fast tyres I recently tested.

The Orras have hookless rims, which means they are only compatible with tubeless tyres. You can still run inner tubes, but the tyres themselves have to be tubeless, as the majority of clincher tyres aren't rated safe to be used on wheels with no hook to sit the bead underneath.

I did find it easy to fit tyres, though. I tried a range of gravel tyres as well as those WTB road tyres and they popped on relatively easily to the Orra's rim. You want quite a snug fit to stop them blowing off the rim, but you don't want anything so tight that you can't repair a puncture when out for a ride. I didn't find this to be an issue with the Primes.

Value and rivals

The price for the Orras is a chunk of cash less than Hunt's 35 Carbon Gravel Disc X-Wide wheels that Mike gave maximum marks to, which are about 60g lighter, but two-hundred quid dearer at £799. That is £100 cheaper than when we reviewed them back in 2020 though.

Scribe's Gravel Wide+ 700 CD wheels sport a 32mm deep carbon fibre rim and a ratchet system for the freehub like the Primes. They cost £696, and while we haven't reviewed that exact model, at off.road.cc Matt has ridden the incredibly light Gravel Wide++ 700 Disc.

Conclusion

Overall, I think that the Prime Orra wheelset is definitely a recommended buy. The quality is impressive and at 1,610g (including tape) they are a competitive weight too. You're basically getting a lot of wheel for your money, and the box also comes with things such as valves.

Verdict

A well-built set of wheels that are robust, a good weight and at a smidge under £600 they're an absolute bargain too!