UK-based wheel brand Parcours has this week announced the release of a series of new wheels which it claims are the fastest it has ever made. Developed as a result of a research project in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University and Dr Steve Faulkner, a senior lecturer in science and technology, the wheelsets employ Parcours’ ‘think wider’ principle, and are offered as a versatile race day wheelset for triathletes, time trialists and road racers.
Parcours say these wheelsets fall within three main use cases: flat fast road racing, triathlon and time trial. The wheel series delivers two main benefits, these being enhanced aerodynamic performance and improved handling stability alongside it.
Parcours has released four new wheels in all. The collection is made up of the Chrono wheelset, comprising a 68.6mm front wheel and a 75.7mm rear. Next up is the new Chrono Max front wheel that uses an 83.6mm deep rim and the Parcours Disc2, which is a full carbon fibre disc wheel and is a claimed 120g lighter than its predecessor. All wheels are disc brake specific, use a hooked rim bead, and are tubeless-ready.
The new wheels have been designed and manufactured from scratch and employ Parcours ‘think wider’ technology, which uses different rim profiles front and rear.
Parcours took a look at real-world yaw angles which it found to differ between the front and rear wheels. As a result, engineers tailored the rim profiles to match. A blunter U-shaped profile has been used on the front rims whilst the Chrono rear wheel uses a ‘sharper’ V-shaped design, which Parcours believes is better suited to the lower yaw angles experienced at the rear.
The Chrono Wheelset has a listed weight for the pair of 1,620 grams and has a 22.5mm internal rim width. The wheels have 24 Sapim spokes front and rear laced two-cross. They come with Japanese EZO bearings as standard or are available with a ceramic upgrade from Kogel. A tubeless running kit is included and the wheels are available with Shimano, SRAM or Campagnolo freehub bodies. The wheelset also comes set up for 12mm x 100mm front and 12mm x 142mm rear thru-axles.
The Chrono Max wheel also has a 22.5 internal width which is designed around running a 28mm tyre. 24 Sapim CX-Ray spokes again laced two-cross and a listed weight of 805 grams.
The Disc2 has a listed weight of 1240grams, and a 22.5 internal rim width again which Parcours says makes it the widest disc wheel currently available.
Price and availability
Prices for the new Parcours wheels are as follows:
- Chrono Wheelset (68/87mm): £1,199 / $1,599
- Chrono Max front wheel (83mm): £600 / $800
- Disc2 rear disc wheel: £1049 / $1399
The wheelsets are all available to order now from the Parcours website.
