These are the latest wheels to arrive in the office from German brand Citec. The 6000 CX – not ‘cross–specific although that’s what we are using them for – uses a fairly standard carbon fibre 50mm deep section rim. “Nothing exciting here”, I say you say, but the really interesting bit is the aluminium braking surface.

There’s been a recent surge in the popularity of deep section wheels as the price of carbon fibre has dropped, making it now possible to entertain the prospect of a pair of such hoops for under a grand. Now, an obvious downside is that while the low weight possible with such a wheelset is indeed attractive, braking performance usually takes a substantial knock. There have been advances in brake pad compounds to improve braking and the leading carbon wheel manufacturers are bringing into production interesting developments to the braking area in an effort to solve the problem.

But there’s no getting away from that fact that carbon braking surfaces just aren’t as good as metal brake surfaces. Carbon tends to overheat, the brakes can ‘snatch’ unexpectedly, they can squeal noisily and they don’t like being used in the wet.

Aluminum rims with a carbon fibre cowling (such as the popular Mavic Cosmic to pick one example at random) get round this problem, but not without suffering a huge weight penalty. Something in the region of 500-600g per wheelset isn’t unusual. And that’s a lot of extra weight.

Step forward the 6000 CX wheels with their genuinely innovative solution. Citec take a ‘standard’ all-carbon tubular rim and bond an aluminium braking surface to the carbon. The result is a minimal weight penalty but with the extra confidence and durability of regular metal braking surfaces. The metal strip is said to be replaceable when it wears out, for which Citec take the wheels back to the factory.

Other details on the wheels include nipples hidden inside the carbon rims for better aerodynamics and hubs that attach on the rear wheel to a ‘HyperFlange’ hub with 16 bladed spokes and a DT Swiss 240S aluminium freehub body compatible with Shimano or Campagnolo cassette spline patterns. The three-part front hub uses extra wide flanges to create a stiffer wheel.

Weight for the front wheel is 610g and the rear is 780g, or 1390g in total. Maximum rider weight limit is an impressive 100kg.

Yours for £1394 and available from www.soniccycles.co.uk/products2.php