Fulcrum Rapid Red 3 650B Disc Brake Gravel Bike Wheelset – Black

Exploring B-roads along quiet secondary paved and unpaved roads, with some off-road sections thrown in for fun, on drop bar bikes and wider tyres is something that we know and love here at Fulcrum.

The new Rapid Reds, created from a completely new project, are perfectly at home on mixed terrain. Constructed completely with a machined CNC aluminium section, which significantly lowers their weight, their 24 mm internal rim width is ideal for current frames designed around larger wheels.

The celebrated 2-Way Fit™ Ready system allows you to run the wheels tubeless or with the classic clincher and inner tube, ensuring the widest possible compatibility with most tyres available on the market. The choices don’t stop there: they are available in 700C (starting width 30mm) or 650B. With the various options possible, from wheel size to tyre type, you can either make this wheel extremely fast on the road or unstoppable in the most demanding off-road situations. In fact, they are classified for ASTM 2 riding conditions.

Technologies:

RDB™ RIM DYNAMIC BALANCE
The concept is simple and elegant: balance the weight of the gasket, with an item of similar weight placed on the exact opposite side.

2:1 TWO-TO-ONE SPOKE RATIO™ – DISC BRAKE
A system that is as simple as it is effective, the result of the ingenuity of Fulcrum® engineers and attentive observation of the results of the tests performed on the wheels on a daily basis. These tests made it possible to understand that the forces that act on the sides of the wheels, and therefore on the spokes, are extremely different; but what’s more, the differences between the front and rear wheels are also evident and significant. The front wheel, in fact, has to remain stable even during braking of the disk on the left side, and the rear wheel, in addition to the sprocket set, has to compensate for the traction of the force on the chain side.

TRACEABILITY

A guarantee of quality
The keyword for our products is traceable.

If you find a little label attached to any Fulcrum® product, do not remove it. It will provide you with a guarantee in case of an ascertained defectiveness of a production batch, and so the component needed or wheel will be traceable. All this because, devoted to its mission, Fulcrum® demands absolute perfection and safety for its customers.

WIDE RIM TECH
Fulcrum®’s R&D department, following requests from the competition circuit, has worked to create rims that are wider than before, about 4 mm or more than previously. This technical choice provides an ideal basis for 25/28mm tyres, the sizes currently popular.
This ensures stability, excellent handling and superior comfort.

CUP & CONE
The cup-and-cone bearing differs from the classic cartridge bearing because it works in perfect alignment with the forces involved, weight and thrust from the frame, as the bearings run in a race positioned directly opposing these forces.

HIGH STRENGTH ALUMINUM
Special aluminium – the best aluminium wheels require carefully chosen materials. For “High strength Aluminum”, Fulcrum® R&D uses only the best aluminium alloy 6082, with artificial ageing T6 temper that stabilises the alloy and gives it maximum life and reliability. Aluminium 6082 has the highest strength of the 6000 series and has replaced 6061 in many applications. It is generally used for high-stress applications.

MONOBLOCK HUB FOR DISC
The rear hub of a top-quality disc brake wheel is a technical problem to be solved. Fulcrum®’s R&D department found itself facing a fundamental choice: on which side to put the oversize flange of the Two-to-one™ system? Disc or sprocket side? Without question – must stay on the sprocket side. To combat the loss of braking power from flex and torque of the connector between the two sides of the hub, a special one-piece system has been devised with internal stiffening ribs.

2WAY – FIT™ READY (ROAD)
It shall be the end user’s sole and full responsibility to choose – on a case by case basis – an adequate and correct rim-tire-pressure combination, as well as to conduct all verifications necessary to ascertain the correctness and safety of such combination.

Without prejudice to the above, and in order to ensure optimum rolling resistance, grip and, most importantly, safety, we recommend that the end-user, in making his choice, also takes into consideration the recommended combinations of hooked rim width, tire width and tire pressure indicated in the chart set forth below. Due to safety reasons, follow the information of the tire manufacturer regarding minimum and maximum rim width to be used but always ensure that the combination is listed as possible in this table.

SPECIFIC NIPPLE HOUSING
7% more reliable.

Such a small part, yet so important. The nipples and their housing are some of the most important elements that are taken into account during the design of a wheel. During the development of the new E-Mtb Fulcrum rims, a lot of work was put into this aspect. The housing has been re-designed and now it makes it possible to eliminate completely the nipples’ hard work.

Thanks to special housing, with side guides on both sides, the nipple sets on a stable base, perfectly in position, oriented towards the spoke. This makes it possible to make the distribution of the tensions in the rim more even, creating thus perceptible benefits in terms of effort and rigidity: this prevents misalignments under stress and, as a consequence, deformation to the structure.