Rs80
These wheels seem to have been causing a stir lately, they are Shimano’s RS80 carbon laminate wheels which weigh in at a claimed 1521g. Have a look at them here. Considering they are a clincher wheel with alloy braking surface this isn’t half bad.
As with the majority of factory built wheels they are stiff (hardly any flex when you push out of a corner), incredibly true out of the box and the hubs are tough enough for all round use. This has allowed them to claim fame as a fast training wheel, road racing wheel and a crit wheel with its resistance to flex and lightweight.
The tech stuff: “Low rim weight is achieved by reducing the alloy wall thickness to 0.7 mm, then a patent pending phosphoric acid anodising process is used to bond the carbon fibre to the alloy giving an excellent combination of low weight, strength and rigidity. Added carbon reinforcement is applied around the spoke eyelets for increased durability under high load.”
Straight from the Shimano catalogue, it sounds high tech and messy and probably is. It all adds up to a light stiff wheel with a great looking carbon finish. The internals are Shimano’s standard bearings, with polished races and double contact sealing to keep everything out and the grease in.
With stocks arriving soon, start saving your pennies! One of the best ways to improve your performance is to cut rotating weight, these will do that and also stand by you on all your training rides. Here is a good review of the wheels by road.cc
Our resident ‘pro’ Dave has reviewed them below also.

Here we go folks, I’ve finally gone and done a loving review of some of the kit I’ve been using so far this year. First up is the new Shimano RS80 wheel set.

So if you’re on the look out or thinking about treating yourself to a new set of hoops then see what I’ve got to say about em!



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