Road Test: Rollin' on Five-O's

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Aeolus, god of wind. We've been staring at these beauty's for a couple of weeks now. Today, I took it upon myself to take them out for their maiden test ride. But before I give you the low down, lets back up a bit.

The Aeolus wheel was designed and built with one purpose, to help Lance win his 7th Tour. You can read up on them here. The details read like a who's who of speed weaponery.

The Rim: TREK born, OCLV 110gsm carbon. 50mm (5.0) or 65mm (6.5) rim depth. Handmade in Waterloo, Wisconsin, then shipped off to Steve HED in Minnesota for the aero treatment.

The Hub and Spoke: DT Hugi, light, strong, durable. Swiss precision at it's finest.

The Story: A 1700 gram pair of jet turbines for your bike, and at a mere $2200, they're millions of dollars cheaper than a Lear!

Now, back to the ride. Our demo pair is that of the 5.0 kind. They immediately made my Madone 5.5 look like a pro level, staight out of the peloton speed machine. That alone made me feel faster than I've felt in a decade. As I cruised out to the Omaha Trace, the first thing I felt was a definite increase in wheel stiffness and acceleration. What came next was a surprise. These were the smoothest wheels I think I've ever ridden. And when I say smooth, I mean compliant over bumps and road irregularities. Road vibration seemed to disappear.

I was hard pressed to find anything negative surrounding these fine hoops, but I did seem to get blown around a bit more than with my Race Lite's, but that's to be expected with a deep dish rim. Nothing a few more miles of adapting couldn't take care of. Did I mention the 5 year warranty? Yep, that's right, all Bontrager wheels have a industry best 5 year warranty. How's that for security? All this and they sound like an F-18 Hornet whiring down the road, love that carbon wheel sound!

Want to test out some Bontrager wheels yourself? Come in and check out our selection of Bontrager test ride wheelsets.