Fulcrum's Speed 25 arrived in stock back in September last year!
I'd set them aside for a sale
(I was thinking maybe I'd put them out after the price increase),
but people have asked "what the heck is this?" when they see the boxes sitting there
and we've ended up selling them.
This Speed 25, a low-profile disc brake wheel,
when I applied it to the Nomu Lab wheel philosophy,
it came pretty darn close to an ideal wheel
and I nearly lost it when I first saw it.
It's seriously close to "my idea of the perfect wheel."
Though it does bear the inevitable bias of being a "complete wheel sold to the general public."
The front wheel is 2:1 laced with 24 spokes.
Even with the Bora WTO disc,
regardless of rim height (not just 33mm, but 45mm and 60mm too)
the front wheel uses radial (G3) lacing at 8 pairs for 24 spokes.
When it comes to the "optimized through wind tunnel testing" that WTO represents,
I believe the spoke count itself was also carefully considered in the wind tunnel,
not just the rim, hub body, and spoke shaping.
But unlike some absolute moron wheels that misunderstand and treat
aerodynamic performance as the "only" priority factor,
typically building front wheels as 14+7 for 21 spokes,
or even more aerodynamically obsessed models with 12+6 for 18 spokes.
Oh, one more thing: the rim holes are equally spaced,
so it's radially laced, obviously.
The front rim is non-offset.
The thinking seems to be that with 2:1 lacing,
the dishing is minor enough for a disc brake wheel that it's unnecessary.
If I were the designer of this wheel myself, I'd come to the same conclusion.
Could Fulcrum be reading my mind...? (wild speculation).
By contrast, the rear rim is an offset rim.
And here's what's important:
Despite being Fulcrum, the rear isn't 2:1 laced.
What a bold move.
However, this is actually pretty much the same design as
the old Fulcrum race-grade 29-inch or 27.5-inch MTB wheels,
with the only difference being 28 spokes becoming 24 spokes.
The hub flanges aren't extremely high-low either.
While even the Speed 40 used round spokes,
this Speed 25 uses bladed spokes.
The rim's outer perimeter is a 2WAY-FIT rim with no holes except the valve hole,
but the internal width is 21C.
Campagnolo's Bora WTO comes with a 19mm internal width
for both rim brake and disc brake versions,
across all rim heights of 33mm, 45mm, and 60mm.
But the Bora Ultra WTO (disc brake only)
changed the 33mm to a 21mm internal width specification.
Maybe low-profile rims called for wanting a wider width.
This Speed 25 is a model that came out after the Bora Ultra WTO.
If I were personally buying one, I would have preferred 19C internal width.
This is where Fulcrum and I differ in thinking.
Though I'm in no position to say this, having never owned a through-axle disc brake frame set.
By the way, I know the actual measured weight of the rims
for all rim heights of the Bora Ultra WTO.
From a reliable source—I'll keep the name withheld—
someone from the company most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan—
though I have no reason to distrust them,
since I haven't actually measured it myself, I won't write it here.
According to that, the Ultra 33 has a wider rim, so
it's lighter in absolute weight than the 45, though the difference is small,
and when you factor in the height-to-weight ratio,
the 45 is the most competent, and aside from pure hill climbs,
the 45 seems the most versatile.
So my best buy for the Bora WTO is the 33,
but with Ultra, it might become the 45, I'm thinking.
And yet I'm an absolute weight fundamentalist,
so if I had a chance to buy an Ultra, I'd likely go for the 33,
and even more than that, I'm drawn to the Speed 25.
Even though you can't see the seams from the side thanks to cosmetic carbon,
they're visible from the outer perimeter.
Counting the number of seams, there are 4 at 90-degree phase intervals.
At the seam phase angle on the side, 3 out of 4 locations have
drain holes on one side.
The image above is the rear rim's left side, which is the cliff side
rather than the slope of the offset rim.
So the holes in the rear rim are always on the left side,
but on the front wheel we photographed, there were 3 holes on the right side.
Since the front rim isn't offset,
it seems front wheels with holes on the left are also out there
due to Fulcrum's cavalier positioning without following the manual.
↑Front wheel
↑Rear wheel
Actual measured weight of the complete wheels.
If it were some crummy wheel that lots of people complained about,
we'd rebuild it and get a chance to measure individual rim weight,
but with wheels like Bora, we only really measure individual rim weight
when exchanging a damaged rim.
So the information showing 1332g total for both wheels
by adding the numbers in the image above doesn't have much value.
If we had more units, I probably would have taken some of my personal stock
and broken them down.
By the way, this sale price can never be offered again,
so we can't sell newly ordered Speed 25s at the same price.
Now, by some sort of mysterious directive from Fulcrum,
customers who purchase these wheels at our shop will receive
Either 2 Elite Fulcrum-pattern FLY bottles
↑This (not for sale)
Or one Fulcrum-pattern Buff (or maybe a Buff-like item)
that works from neck warmer to helmet under-cap skull cap
(not for sale)
Sorry, we ended up including both.
The Speed 25 has a list price of ¥346,000 (before tax)
and ¥380,600 (with tax),
but the sale price this time is listed in the usual place.
I'd set them aside for a sale
(I was thinking maybe I'd put them out after the price increase),
but people have asked "what the heck is this?" when they see the boxes sitting there
and we've ended up selling them.
This Speed 25, a low-profile disc brake wheel,
when I applied it to the Nomu Lab wheel philosophy,
it came pretty darn close to an ideal wheel
and I nearly lost it when I first saw it.
It's seriously close to "my idea of the perfect wheel."
Though it does bear the inevitable bias of being a "complete wheel sold to the general public."
The front wheel is 2:1 laced with 24 spokes.
Even with the Bora WTO disc,
regardless of rim height (not just 33mm, but 45mm and 60mm too)
the front wheel uses radial (G3) lacing at 8 pairs for 24 spokes.
When it comes to the "optimized through wind tunnel testing" that WTO represents,
I believe the spoke count itself was also carefully considered in the wind tunnel,
not just the rim, hub body, and spoke shaping.
But unlike some absolute moron wheels that misunderstand and treat
aerodynamic performance as the "only" priority factor,
typically building front wheels as 14+7 for 21 spokes,
or even more aerodynamically obsessed models with 12+6 for 18 spokes.
Oh, one more thing: the rim holes are equally spaced,
so it's radially laced, obviously.
The front rim is non-offset.
The thinking seems to be that with 2:1 lacing,
the dishing is minor enough for a disc brake wheel that it's unnecessary.
If I were the designer of this wheel myself, I'd come to the same conclusion.
Could Fulcrum be reading my mind...? (wild speculation).
By contrast, the rear rim is an offset rim.
And here's what's important:
Despite being Fulcrum, the rear isn't 2:1 laced.
What a bold move.
However, this is actually pretty much the same design as
the old Fulcrum race-grade 29-inch or 27.5-inch MTB wheels,
with the only difference being 28 spokes becoming 24 spokes.
The hub flanges aren't extremely high-low either.
While even the Speed 40 used round spokes,
this Speed 25 uses bladed spokes.
The rim's outer perimeter is a 2WAY-FIT rim with no holes except the valve hole,
but the internal width is 21C.
Campagnolo's Bora WTO comes with a 19mm internal width
for both rim brake and disc brake versions,
across all rim heights of 33mm, 45mm, and 60mm.
But the Bora Ultra WTO (disc brake only)
changed the 33mm to a 21mm internal width specification.
Maybe low-profile rims called for wanting a wider width.
This Speed 25 is a model that came out after the Bora Ultra WTO.
If I were personally buying one, I would have preferred 19C internal width.
This is where Fulcrum and I differ in thinking.
By the way, I know the actual measured weight of the rims
for all rim heights of the Bora Ultra WTO.
From a reliable source—I'll keep the name withheld—
someone from the company most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan—
though I have no reason to distrust them,
since I haven't actually measured it myself, I won't write it here.
According to that, the Ultra 33 has a wider rim, so
it's lighter in absolute weight than the 45, though the difference is small,
and when you factor in the height-to-weight ratio,
the 45 is the most competent, and aside from pure hill climbs,
the 45 seems the most versatile.
So my best buy for the Bora WTO is the 33,
but with Ultra, it might become the 45, I'm thinking.
And yet I'm an absolute weight fundamentalist,
so if I had a chance to buy an Ultra, I'd likely go for the 33,
and even more than that, I'm drawn to the Speed 25.
Even though you can't see the seams from the side thanks to cosmetic carbon,
they're visible from the outer perimeter.
Counting the number of seams, there are 4 at 90-degree phase intervals.
At the seam phase angle on the side, 3 out of 4 locations have
drain holes on one side.
The image above is the rear rim's left side, which is the cliff side
rather than the slope of the offset rim.
So the holes in the rear rim are always on the left side,
but on the front wheel we photographed, there were 3 holes on the right side.
Since the front rim isn't offset,
it seems front wheels with holes on the left are also out there
due to Fulcrum's cavalier positioning without following the manual.
↑Front wheel
↑Rear wheel
Actual measured weight of the complete wheels.
If it were some crummy wheel that lots of people complained about,
we'd rebuild it and get a chance to measure individual rim weight,
but with wheels like Bora, we only really measure individual rim weight
when exchanging a damaged rim.
So the information showing 1332g total for both wheels
by adding the numbers in the image above doesn't have much value.
If we had more units, I probably would have taken some of my personal stock
and broken them down.
By the way, this sale price can never be offered again,
so we can't sell newly ordered Speed 25s at the same price.
Now, by some sort of mysterious directive from Fulcrum,
customers who purchase these wheels at our shop will receive
Either 2 Elite Fulcrum-pattern FLY bottles
↑This (not for sale)
Or one Fulcrum-pattern Buff (or maybe a Buff-like item)
that works from neck warmer to helmet under-cap skull cap
(not for sale)
Sorry, we ended up including both.
The Speed 25 has a list price of ¥346,000 (before tax)
and ¥380,600 (with tax),
but the sale price this time is listed in the usual place.