Giant SLR 0 carbon climbing road wheelset reviewed

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A climbing wheelset debutted in June 2015, the SLR O are Giant’s top-of-the-line climbing wheelset. The rims are composite, the rear hub’s internals use the star-ratchet system and they are tubeless compatible. The wheels are 30mm in depth and both front and rear, weigh 1,331 g.

According to Giant, most rear wheels are not balanced, especially if the spokes have a uniform pattern off the drive side of the hub. The wheels can be true, and the spokes can all have equal tension, but Giant says that’s not balanced when the rear wheel starts to spin. To deal with this imbalance, the SLR 0 wheelset is built with dynamic balanced lacing. This is Giant’s solution to addressing the imbalanced forces.

“We were able to design a hub shell so we were able to anchor the spokes in such a way that we didn’t have to sacrifice the bracing angle. A lot of other companies had to increase their dish and therefore lose a lot of that lateral stiffness,” said Bill Miller, Giant global category manager for components. The spokes, therefore, have an improved transmission stiffness and can carry the force from the hub to the rims much more efficiently. This arrangement also makes the wheels more durable.

In order to build a wheelset with excellent braking, the braking surface on the rims is made from a high glass transition temperature system. With a rating of 245 C (the industry standard is 160 C) allowing the wheels to resist heat under a load longer. This allows Giant to use a softer brake pad for better braking feel and modulation.