Wheels
Wheels
Bontrager’s wheels were redesigned reasonably recently and now all the deep-section carbon offerings keep the D3 (dual directional design) rim shape but with a boosted internal rim width.
The D3 rim is designed to take into account how both the rim leading edge and the tyre leading edge interact with the wind, and Bonty are convinced they’ve engineered something capable of competing with anything on the market.
Internal rim width is up to 19.5mm across the board, and all clinchers are tubeless ready (TLR) meaning you can run them either with inner tubes or with road tubeless tyres. On top of all that, Bontrager have also managed to lighten the rims, and claim up to a 110g reduction for the Aeolus 5s.
The Aelous 3s have a 35mm rim depth, the 5s are 50mm, 7s are 70mm and 9s are – you’ve guessed it – 90mm. All are available as either tubeless ready clinchers or tubular. Another point of interest to anyone looking to run disc brakes is that the Aelous 5s and Aelous 3s come in disc brake specific models for both tubular and clincher.
If you’re after something deep section but a little less exalted than the full carbon wheels on offer, Bontrager still do the Aura 5s – now tubeless ready too – which are a 50mm carbon deep section built around an aluminium rim.