Campagnolo’s flagship wheels get an update to lower drag and weight
(Image credit: Campagnolo)
Campagnolo has updated its Bora Ultra WTO and Bora WTO wheelsets to reflect modern wheel and tyre width trends and improve aerodynamics.
The Bora was first launched way back in 1994 and has been through 10 previous generations, with the last update in 2021. While that update kept the rim’s internal width to 19mm in the 45mm and 60mm depth rims (and 21mm in the 33mm rims), the latest update sees the rim widened to 23mm internal width across the board, with 35mm, 45mm and 60mm depth profiles.
Campagnolo says that this width increase has allowed it to aero optimise the latest wheelsets for 28mm tyres, a tyre size that’s become the de facto standard for many of the best road bikes launched recently.
It also claims better tyre support, ‘trajectory control’ and a larger contact patch with the road.
Bora Ultra WTO wheels have recessed spoke nipples for better aerodynamics (Image credit: Campagnolo)
It says that the new rim profiles offer an impressive reduction in aerodynamic drag too. It’s claimed that in a headwind this amounts to 13%, while in a 15-degree crosswind it says that this increases to 80%. It’s not stated to which of the 35mm, 45mm and 60mm depths these figures apply.
There’s a 100-gram reduction in headline weight for the Bora Ultra WTO as well, to 1285g, for the 35mm depth.
Premium wheel tech
The Bora Ultra wheels have a smooth unlacquered finish (Image credit: Campagnolo)
As with the previous generation Bora Ultra wheelset, Campagnolo has thrown its best wheel tech at the new Bora Ultra WTO wheels. This includes a lacquerless HULC carbon finish to the rims and internal Aero MoMag spoke nipples which are housed in glass fibre-reinforced seats. The hubs include CULT ceramic bearings and the front hub shell is carbon fibre rather than alloy.
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All the new wheels are disc brake only, and tubeless-ready using Campagnolo’s 2-Way-Fit rim bed, which can be run tubeless or with standard clincher tyres and doesn’t need to be taped.
The Bora Ultra front wheel has a carbon front hub in place of alloy (Image credit: Campagnolo)
The non-Ultra Bora WTO wheels don’t have quite as much flashy tech as the Bora Ultra WTO models. The rim has the same profile, but doesn’t use HULC carbon and is lacquered. Spoke nipples are external rather than internal, although the 2-Way-Fit system is retained.
The Bora front hub is alloy rather than carbon and the bearings are Campagnolo’s USB ceramic offering rather than the CULT bearings.
One thing that hasn’t changed from previous generations of the Bora and Bora Ultra is the clustered 2:1 spoke pattern in both front and rear wheels, which Campagnolo says helps even out spoke tension and improves wheel stiffness, power transfer and ride comfort. The Bora Ultra WTO wheels have seven clusters front and rear, while the Bora WTO wheels have eight.
Campagnolo’s flagship wheels don’t come cheap. Expect to pay from $2,790 / €2,590 for the ‘standard’ Bora WTO wheels and $4,090 / €3,690 for the Bora Ultra WTO wheelset.
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Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
