Today, Italian wheel brand Fulcrum launched its first dedicated all-road wheelset, named the Sharq. It’s a top-end carbon wheelset, that aims to offer riders speed over mixed terrain, from tarmac to gravel, as opposed to its dedicated gravel wheelsets (the Rapid Red series) and the road sets (Racing Zero, Speed, and Wind series).
The Sharq draws on the brand's current wheel tech, but with some new developments too, not least the wavy rim profile; a first for the brand, bringing it into a small cohort of wavy wheel offerings alongside the likes of Zipp and Princeton CarbonWorks.
Cyclingnews’ Tech Writer Will Jones has been testing a set in advance of the launch, so you can read his Fulcrum Sharq review for the full story on how they behave.
Rim profile
It makes sense to start with the rim profile. It’s the first thing you’ll notice, and it’s where the biggest differences to the brand's other wheelsets reside. The rim profile, thanks to the wave, is between 42mm and 47mm, putting it squarely in the mid-depth, all-rounder category.
The wavy rim profile is, according to Fulcrum, a blend of two wavy profiles. The first, a symmetrical wave, features around the nipples, before blending into an asymmetrical profile in the troughs.
The main result of this Two-Wave profile, Fulcrum claims, is a marked improvement in crosswind stability. From 0-10º of yaw - the angles you’re more likely to encounter if you are travelling at higher velocities - there’s a 21% improvement, jumping to 30% from 10-20º.
The rim bed is also not drilled for spokes, making it tubeless-ready out of the box with no need for tubeless rim tape. Interestingly, the rim bed - 25mm wide for reference - features what Fulcrum describes as ‘mini hooks’. Not hookless, but seemingly not a full hook either.
Spokes and bearings
Lacing the new rim to the hubs are all new spokes. These are 3mm in depth with a 0.8mm thickness and have been dubbed the ‘A3RO’ for obvious reasons. The spokes never touch, in an effort to maintain spoke tension over the life of the wheel, particularly over rough ground. In order to reduce torsion during the lacing process the spokes have a flattened section at the hub interface so they cannot twist.
Within the hub itself lies the brand's USB (Ultra Smooth Bearing) ceramic bearings. These are a cup and cone setup, rather than a cartridge bearing. It’s not unheard of though, with Shimano’s top-flight Dura-Ace wheelsets for example still running cup and cone. This technology has also been used on plenty of Campagnolo and Fulcrum wheels for years now.
Weight and pricing
A set of Sharq wheels will set you back €2,460 / £2,289 / $2,807, and weigh in at 1,440g with a maximum system weight of 120kg.
For reference, the 45mm deep Zipp 353NSW, (the most likely competitor wheelset that's actually between 42.7 and 46.5mm because of the wave), weighs in at 1,308g and is of a similar price depending on where you shop.
