Cyclingnews Verdict

Deda’s new Trenta2 are responsively light, impressively stiff, accurate and speedy-feeling wheels that work well tubeless with big-volume road tyres and mid-volume gravel rubber

Pros

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Light
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Stiff, accurate feel
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Fast roll
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Quality bearings
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Medium width
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Multi-axle compatible

Cons

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Firm not smooth
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No 650B option
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Limited warranty
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Sometimes slow to seal

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Deda’s new Trenta2 wheel is wide and tough enough to compete with the best gravel wheels but light and aero enough to go well on the road, too. It’s got a precise, powerful feel that racers will like and top-quality bearings for a long, minimal drag lifespan. Firm feel, lack of 650B option and the limited warranty won’t suit everyone though.

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Design and performance

With a 29mm external rim width giving a 23mm bed width, the Trenta2 are ready to handle the full span of gravel tyres. The hooked design does nip width down slightly so we’d put optimum fit in the 28-40mm rubber range but it means you can run any tubeless tyre. Valves and tape are supplied with the wheels, but you’ll need to fit them yourself and the front tyre took a while to seal and settle on the first installation. The Centerlock rotor lockings are included too, and, while it comes with 12mm front and rear end caps, it’s 15mm and QR front and QR rear compatible with aftermarket adaptors. All freehub standards apart from 13-speed Campagnolo Ekar are currently available, too. Four-pawl internals gives a vocal freewheel with a relatively slow/gappy 10-degree pick up and there’s no reinforcement on the alloy splines so notching is a potential issue. You get Enduro Abec-5 steel bearings though and spin is certainly smooth.

Deda Trenta2 — The wheelset comes with 12mm front and rear end caps, tubeless kit and Centerlock rotor lockings (Image credit: Guy Kesteven)

There are 24 aero blade spokes each end and a 32mm rim depth reduce drag at higher speed. With a complete wheel weight just under 1,500g, they pick up speed really easily and hold momentum well. They feel tight in turns and have good torque transfer once the freehub has engaged too, and our more racy/performance-focused testers really liked the overall feel. While we still got occasional creak from the spokes when braking hard on early rides they’ve settled into a true and straight run that’s proved resolutely robust so far.

That does mean a less forgiving ride on rougher surfaces though and the gappy freehub can contribute to the sense of ‘clunk’ so look elsewhere if you want a quiet and comfy cruising setup. The hooked rim gave us no issues with burping if you drop to medium/low pressures to offset the ride stiffness. There’s no extra warranty beyond a two-year manufacturing defect cover though so be wary of regularly bouncing the carbon hoops off rocks as a repair would be expensive. Alloy nipples will also need watching for corrosion and treating carefully if you do need to re-tension them.

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Verdict

Deda’s new Trenta2 are responsively light, impressively stiff, accurate and speedy feeling wheels that work well tubeless with big volume road tyres and mid-volume gravel rubber. Quality bearings boost longevity, too. You’ll need to tape and valve them yourself though and the alloy freehub body and spoke nipples need TLC. The ride feel is also firm-rather-than-forgiving and there’s no 650B option or crash/smash cover on the carbon rims.