Fulcrum Racing 5 DB - Have you tried them?

DDRider62

I'm thinking about purchasing a Fulcrum Racing 5 DB (Disc Brakes) wheelset to replace the Mavic Aksium set that came with my CAAD12 bike. I would like to hear some comments from someone who has tried these wheels. I have the "Fulcrum Racing 5 LG" tires on another bike and I love them. I would like to know if the disc brake version is comparable, and also confirm they will be superior to the Mavic Aksiums I'm taking out.

bendertherobot

Quite an interesting one actually. The 5's are better, probably. Bit lighter. But insignificant in reality.

But they are both a wide rim, as I understand it.

Given the outlay I'm not sure you'll see a huge difference and it might be better to look north of £300 to see if you can shave off some more weight.

arlowood

bendertherobot wrote:

Quite an interesting one actually. The 5's are better, probably. Bit lighter. But insignificant in reality.

But they are both a wide rim, as I understand it.

Given the outlay I'm not sure you'll see a huge difference and it might be better to look north of £300 to see if you can shave off some more weight.

^^ This. The benefits IMHO will be marginal. Unless the Aksiums are trashed I would keep your money in your pocket and save a bit more for some handbuilts from Cycleclinic, Moonglu, Spokesman etc. A budget up to £400 should get you something that will be a noticable improvement on the Aksiums.

paul1000

Had the aksium disc, heavy and creaked while climbing, got some prolite revo and they feel much better.

DDRider62

Thanks for all the responses so far. I went for the change anyway despite the very reasonable advice I got. I expect the Fulcrum's to be faster. They should be more aerodynamic (http://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-15505311.html), and based on my experience with my 2 bikes I believe (without a way to proof anything) that the Fulcrum bearings roll much better and have less resistance. I will update the thread in a couple of weeks once the wheels are in and I can post a comparison assessment.

DDRider62

OK, The Fulcrum's finally came in. I had a couple of rides on the new wheelset. About 1.5 hours each. It looks like the change gives me about 0.3 mph in speed with about the same power input. Now the CAAD12 starts to feel more like the Aluminum-SuperSix-EVO the advertisement claims. My other bike is the SuperSixEVO 2015, which is still better, but the difference between the 2 is not much. I don't know if it's the wheel weight, the aerodynamics, or the rolling resistance (or something else), but the Fulcrum Racing 5 DB do feel clearly superior to the Mavic Aksyum's DB.

holiver

Sounds good. Would be interesting to see your bikes in the Your Road Bikes forum