Among all the pieces and components that make up a bicycle, wheels are a unique masterpiece that can significantly boost performance. There is currently a wide range of possible options to upgrade your wheels, and Fulcrum has launched the new SHARQ complemented with a bold statement: “Fast wheels for any road.” They defined this as a new approach to the wheels market, making this product the first one designed for endurance and all-road use.
The brand declares that this wheelset improves the ride feeling on mixed-terrain routes, from tarmac to gravel roads. Manufactured in Europe and assembled at the company headquarters in Italy, the brand-new SHARQ can maintain its performance on several types of roads, allowing the rider a sense of smoothness, confidence, and speed even in demanding scenarios.
For this model, Fulcrum developed a new design for the rim, named 2-Wave Rim, which is entirely related to its wave shape, a distinctive element of SHARQ. This feature is the one that the brand most relates to this model’s handling and aerodynamics improvements. The rim has a regular symmetrical wave, which blends with an asymmetrical wave at the sides, varying the height profile between 42 and 47 mm from the highest to the lowest part of the wave.
The inner rim is 25 mm wide and adapts well to different types of tires. Additionally, it features mini hooks that provide maximum safety and ensure that it can be used with tubeless systems and inner tubes.
The wave shape, along with the lamination featuring a mix of proprietary Fulcrum FF100 carbon fibers and resins, allowed the creation of a lighter and more reactive rim. A pair of wheels Fulcrum SHARQ weighs 1,440 grams, and the tests performed have revealed that the wheels provide a good resistance profile to side winds, with an improvement from 21% to 30% in comparison with wheels competitors with similar specs and, always, depending on the jaw angle.
“The new design of the rim (patent pending) is the result of an experimental process where we analyzed the reactions of different solutions to head and cross winds, which affect handling and aerodynamics.”
Another feature developed by Fulcrum, the A3RO, is a new approach to the flat steel spoke, which is 3mm wide and 0.8 mm thick, being related to the aerodynamic advantages presented by the model. Moreover, it presents a revised hin-spoke interface, so the spoke base is aligned and does not rotate during the ride.
This model consists of non-touching spokes, providing the same level of performance throughout the product’s lifetime. SHARQ follows a minimalist design, as we already saw on the Speed models, with Cup & Cone technology to ensure the model’s durability. The bearings used are USB™ ceramic ball bearings, rolling on axles with adjustment rings.
The brand views this new model as the intersection of the traditional and the revolutionary, and it is already part of Fulcrum’s well-defined mission and commitment to delivering new exclusive technologies. Proof of it are the results from a research and development process that has required more than 4,000 hours of design, laboratory tests, and field trials.
