Fulcrum has released two wheelsets with a 30mm internal, 36mm external rim width designed around the needs of gravel racers.
The Fulcrum Sharq GR has Fulcrum’s standard cup and cone bearings and 24 aero spokes and is made of high spec carbon for a 1,550g claimed weight. It’s priced at £1,790 / $2,490 / €1,990.
The Soniq GR wheelset offers a lower priced alternative with the same rim profile and spoke count but made of lower spec carbon. It has sealed bearings and round spokes and its claimed weight is 1,695g. It’s priced at £1,290 / $1,790 / €1,490.
In both cases, the rim uses Fulcrum’s 2-Way Fit tech, which uses a sealed rim bed that doesn’t need to be taped to create a tubeless seal. Both wheelsets are available with an HG-11, XDR, Micro Spline or N3W freehub.
Designed for gravel racing
Fulcrum says that its design brief for the new wheelsets was to support high speed riding over rough terrain, with aero benefits and control. It’s taken its 2-Wave mini-hooked rim profile first seen on the Sharq wheelset, which was launched in 2024 and will continue to be sold for all-road riders and supersized it for gravel use, increasing the internal width from 25mm to 30mm.
The 47/52mm wavy profile is also deeper than the 42/47mm profile of the Sharq. As with the Sharq, it’s asymmetric, unlike the waves in rims from Zipp and Princeton CarbonWorks, whose rim undulations are symmetric. Fulcrum claims its profile reduces yaw moment and frontal drag by controlling airflow over the rim.
The extra-wide rim is claimed to promote a flatter sided tyre profile and improve aerodynamics by avoiding a lightbulb tyre shape. It’s also designed to improve tyre stability, offer a wider contact patch and reduce the risk of burping when cornering.
As another bonus, Fulcrum says that the wide and short tyre-to-ground contact patch reduces tyre deformation and rolling resistance.
Fulcrum’s 30mm internal width rims are designed to work with 47mm to 50mm wide gravel tyres, which are rapidly becoming a go-to width for gravel, although it says you could go wider still.
The mini-hooked rim is claimed to increase the number of compatible tyres and increase safety if the tyre is overinflated. With the added air volume of the tyres and their wide stance on the rim, Fulcrum says that there’s a wider range of tyre pressure that can be used in races.
45mm tyres tested for compatibility
Fulcrum says it has tested 45mm tyres and confirmed that some are also compatible, although they don’t fall within the width range that’s designated compatible under the ISO/ETRTO standard. You can find the list of compatibility-tested tyres on Fulcrum’s site.
Fulcrum joins Zipp in offering ultra-wide gravel rims. The Zipp 303 XPLR SW rim is even wider at 32mm internal and the 1,452g claimed weight is lower. Zipp also sells the lower priced, 1,610g 303 XPLR S wheelset, also with a 32mm wide rim.
Zipp’s rim is hookless, which should increase the tyre width even more. It’s only certified compatible with specific tyres though and there are two Goodyear XPLR tyres specifically designed for the wheelset.
While Zipp’s top spec NSW road wheelsets have wavy rims, it’s yet to port the tech to its gravel wheels.