Scribe Inception Aero Wide+ 42-D Carbon Wheelset

The Scribe Inception Aero Wide+ 42-D Carbon Wheelset is a great set of wheels at a very impressive price. The wide rims make for excellent aero qualities, and the only real sacrifice you make to more expensive wheelsets using the same rims is in the hub internals and a little additional weight.

Scribe has really broken onto the scene in the past few years with several sets of impressively specced and impressively priced carbon wheels. Stu seemed to fall in love with the £870 Aero Wide+ 50-Ds he tested a couple of years ago, and then again when he tested the £1,190 Élan Wide+ 42-D.

> Buy now: Inception Aero Wide+ 42-D Carbon Wheelset from Scribe for £720

In both Stu was impressed with the rims, specifically the profile created by the 21mm inner and 30mm outer diameters. Luckily, these Scribe wheels here use the same rim as the Élan, which is essentially the 42mm-deep variant of the one found on the 50-Ds.

So in terms of aerodynamics, handling and grip, I found exactly the same as Stu – these are very, very good. At 42mm they're a neat midway point between out-and-out aero wheels at 50mm+ and the lighter, more crosswind-friendly but less speedy options at 35mm or less.

Plus you still get a bit of the wooshing that, let's be honest, is one of the main reasons we love deep rims...

I ran them with 28mm clinchers and 28mm tubeless tyres, with both slotting on without any problems. I managed to fit both by hand and the tubeless tyres sealed quickly and easily, although they didn't seat with hand pumping alone – I had to hit them with an Airshot pressurised bottle.

With rim tape and valves these hit the scales at 1,640g; the claimed 1,567g presumably doesn't include those bits. Assuming other manufacturers are also leaving tape and valves off the scales, that makes the Scribes just 17g heavier than the similarly-specced Vel 38 RL Carbon Tubeless Disc Wheelset at a claimed 1,550g, but 151g more than Hunt's 40 Carbon Aero Discs at 1416g.

The prices are similarly close: the Vels are £749, while the Hunts are £699.99.

Spring things

Rather than a single leaf spring inside the rear hub, Scribe uses a double coil spring ratchet system. Aside from this change, the freehub remains essentially the same as on the Élan and Aero Wide+ 50-D wheels; the Inceptions have the same anti-bite freehub body available for Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo, and the same disc locking mechanisms. The difference is simply that the ratchet here has only 36 teeth, compared to the 54 on the others.

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In terms of pickup it is still very good, and for 99% of riders the change will have little to no impact. They still pick up quickly: it just takes 10°, instead of the 6.7° of the 54 tooth version.

This hub is also much quieter than Scribe's other offerings, which – given how loud the more expensive ones are – isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. We haven't done any decibel readings, but against other Scribe wheelsets there is a big difference in volume.

Standard bearing

With these there's no option to spec Scribe's 'race' bearings – they come with its 'endurance' bearings – and while I had no issue with the front wheel, I did have an odd one with the rear.

At first, the back wheel simply didn't spin very freely, and the freewheel noise was odd – very buzzy and kind of grinding too. I actually spent 10 minutes thinking my discs were rubbing, especially as it didn't seem to be impacting my speed when pedalling.

I took apart the freehub body to see if there was anything misaligned or stuck, but found nothing obvious. Having reassembled it, though, everything worked much better – it now spun easily and the hub sounded much more normal. Given that I did not change a thing, this was an interesting turn of events.

I spoke to Scribe, who said:

"With the rear hub, sometimes it takes several rides for the grease to free up in both the ratchet system and the bearings. Effectively, it becomes more viscous once you have several rides and the difference is quite noticeable. It shouldn't be the preload as the whole system is spaced and we have sealed bearings. The only thing I can think of is that, by taking the system apart, it may have freed some of the grease up a bit."

Whatever the issue, dismantling and reassembling them fixed it. Afterwards they performed perfectly.

Spokes, man

The hubs are laced to the rims with Pillar SR1424s. They are bladed to help cut through the air and I had no issues with the truing or any loss of tension. The build is stiff and responsive when cornering or putting the power down.

Overall

Odd (and presumably just unfortunate) hub issue aside, I'm impressed by these. They come in at a good price, yet offer some of the benefits of Scribe's higher-end models. The wide design is as good as ever, they are stiff and they pick up quickly too. The Inceptions are a really great set of wheels.

Verdict

Well priced, well specced and an ideal place to start if you're upgrading to carbon