HED Ardennes SL Wheelset

The Ardennes wheels have been making waves for some time now in the road bike market. No carbon copy aluminum clincher wheels, the HED Ardennes SL wheels are setting the bar for all that an alloy clincher can be. Starting at the hubs, the HED Ardennes SL wheels use HED's new Sonic hubset. A completely forged, including spoke holes, hub shell as well as ridiculously concentric bearing placement allows the Sonic hubs to be very light, strong, and roll forever thanks to their ABEC.5 grade bearings. The front hub is as wide as possible, making the front wheel that much stiffer, and has an ultra low profile for aerodynamics. For 2011, all front Sonic Hubs receive a carbon hub shell to save weight. 

Sapim supplies the spokes, which are straight-pull up front and laced 2x at the rear for maximum power transfer. Holding it all together is HED's new C2 Scandium rim. The rims are 23 mm wide, and thus are 3-5 mm wider than other rims on the market. What this does is allows the tube to take on the profile of a circle, rather than a light bulb as on standard clinchers. As such, these rims ride like tubulars without the hassle of having tubulars. They also corner better, thanks to the tire sidewalls now being vertical (on a standard 23c tire) and much stiffer as a result. Also, because of the wider rim profile, there is now more air volume in under the tire and thus less pressure is needed. You can easily run 27c tires without worry of the tires burping with rims this wide. Spreading out the tire also puts more rubber on the ground which increases grip.

All this adds up to produce a wheel that looks somewhat normal, but on closer inspection is leaps ahead of it's competition. The HED Ardennes SL wheels are arguably more aerodynamic, and just flat out ride smoother and more comfortably than any other clincher wheelset on the market.