Cyclingnews Verdict

For under £1,000, these gravel wheels are hard to beat

Pros

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Semi-aero
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Reasonably lightweight
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Premium components
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Good value for the spec
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Built to withstand a lot of abuse

Cons

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Subtle looks might not be for everyone

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VeloElite is a small company in the UK that hand builds all its wheels using premium components like DT Swiss hubs and Sapim spokes. The company offers a variety of wheelsets with disc or rim options catering for disciplines such as road, off-road, and gravel use - like the disc-specific VeloElite Carbon 350-Gravel we have here for testing.

The sub-£1,000 price tag catches your eye immediately, being an attractive price point when looking at premium gravel wheels. Other players in the market offer similar wheelsets for more money (though not always, as we will find out). But how does a small-scale company such as this fare against the best gravel wheels in the business?

As standard, you get preinstalled rim tape, tubeless valves, and a cassette spacer included with the wheels, so all you have to do is mount your tubeless tyres and fit your cassette, and away you go. VeloElite supplies these wheels with whatever type of free-hub you desire - Shimano, SRAM XD or Campagnolo - free of charge. There’s a two-year warranty on the wheels, and VeloElite will discount a new set of wheels if you accidentally damage these.

Built to VeloElite’s specifications, the rims are a combination of Toray T700 and T800 carbon fibre, with a carbon strip reinforcement. This, according to VeloElite, "strengthens the spoke bed and stabilises the rim structure, also reducing the rim weight". The wheels also feature impact-resistant construction, which is a layer of composite material that, unsurprisingly, provides some protection from impacts to the rim.

Because of their internal width, if you want to run the best tubeless road tyres on a bike with limited clearance, you need to take into consideration what the wider internal width of the rim bed will do to the narrower tyre. For instance, a 28mm tyre designed for a road wheel with standard 19mm inner rim width will open out to a 30-31mm tyre width on these wider rims. That’s no bad thing unless the clearances on your bike are not generous enough. Of course, most all-road and gravel bikes tend to be built with at least 32mm tyre clearance these days, but it’s worth bearing this in mind.

Spokes are high-quality straight-pull Sapim CX Ray - 28 per wheel in this build - with Sapim double-ended nipples, which is a good thing because it means your tyres don’t need removing when truing the wheel. VeloElite is keen to point out that it uses nipple washers in the build process too, which it says "ensures a super stiff wheel, and reduces friction - increasing strength at the rim–nipple interface".

All of VeloElite’s carbon wheels come with luxurious DT Swiss hubs, and the gravel wheels on test can be built with any of the three available variants, including the entry-level 350 (as tested), mid-range 240, and the top-tier 180 hubs. No matter which you go for, the rest of the wheel remains the same, but there’s a weight saving to be had for the more expensive options - 135g if you opt for the 180 over the 350, for example.

I chose to install 40mm Schwalbe G–One Allround tyres - a good combination if like me you mostly cover roads, and poor quality ones at that - on your gravel bike, but you want the option of going off-road. They’re not super-wide, but at low pressures they’re very comfortable, and they’re pretty fast, too. On the 24mm wide internal rims, they shape up nicely without there being much of a lightbulb effect.

At the lower end of the spectrum, you can’t go wrong with the Hunt 35 Carbon Gravel Disc X-Wide. They’re slightly narrower than the VE wheels at 23mm wide internally, 30mm wide externally, and are slightly shallower with a 35mm rim depth. They aren’t quite as premium - at least concerning the hubs used - but they are only £799. Weight is a claimed 1,548g, so not quite as light, though the max rider weight limit is a decent 120kg.

If you want to go the UK-built custom route, then Stayer offers its Gravel/Adventure Disc Wheelset. This comes with highly–acclaimed Hunt RS4 CL hubs (though you can get them for slightly less with the same DT Swiss 350 hubs) for slightly more at £1,190. The rim features a 24mm internal, 30mm external, and a depth of 35mm. Claimed weight is 1,530g, though the rider weight limit is much lower at 110kg.

A pricier but not ludicrous option comes courtesy of Roval’s Terra CL wheels, which are specced with the same DT Swiss 350 hubs. The rims are slightly wider than VeloElite’s at 25mm, though the 30mm external width is the same. They have a shallower 32mm rim depth, but the claimed weight of 1,408g makes them a better option for climbing. Rider weight limit is a generous 125kg. The £1,400 price tag makes them a much more expensive option, but being under the wing of Specialized, the brand has solid backing.