Vision Metron RS 45 wheelset review: The most common wheelset in the WorldTour is close to perfect

Vision officially added a range-topping addition to its road wheelset lineup back in March, slotting the new Metron RS wheelset in at the top of its road lineup. The RS took over the mantle from the existing Metron SL wheelset.

Before the official launch, the wheels had already seen action in the WorldTour for some of the previous year and had been ridden to a stage win at Paris-Nice by Lenny Martinez; they have also since taken one Giro stage thanks to Richard Carapaz, alongside various other victories.

WorldTour action is something the Metron RS wheels do get plenty of. They are the most commonly used wheels in the mens WorldTour with Arkea-B&B Hotels, Bahrain - Victorious, EF Education-Easypost, and XDS Astana Team all racing on them.

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Many of the best road bike wheelsets and best lightweight wheelsets are currently employing carbon fibre or composite spokes to lower overall weight and increase stiffness. For a long time, around 1400-1500 grams was a benchmark for wheelsets like this. The Metron RS come in at 1265 grams on my scales for a 45mm deep wheelset (there's also a 60mm option), an impressive weight, and in part thanks to the carbon fibre spokes.

The 45mm wheelset I have been testing has a retail price of $3290 / £3109 / €3109. I tested them at the Bike Connection Agency event in Italy and now back on home roads in the UK.

This is a top-end, WorldTour-level wheelset, and I wanted to see if the wheels lived up to their promise

Design and aesthetics

You could argue the swansong of the previously range-topping Metron SL wheels was when fitted to Mark Cavendish's final, stage-winning bike at the Tour de France. I'm told Vision did some special work on these wheels to try and extract every bit of speed they could.

Not long after, the new RS versions started being raced on in the peloton, so it's probably best to start with the changes. What do the RS wheels have that the SLs, which are still available, don't?

The RS are pretty different from the SL; it's clear a lot of work has gone into them. First, the internal rim width has grown by 2mm to 23mm, and the hooked rim remains, so no need to check tyre compatibility charts for hookless-friendly tyres. The rims themselves are optimised for 28mm+ tyres, and it's probably safe to assume riders using these rims would be looking at pairing them with a 28mm tyre upwards, regardless.

The wheels have also gained carbon fibre spokes, which drops weight and adds stiffness, and there's a brand new hubset named the V-1000, which uses a new 72 tooth ratchet ring drive system.

Dropping weight has been a key priority, and this has been achieved in several ways. The carbon spokes are the headline here, shaving around 108 grams per wheel, but there are a few other touches that could fly under the radar if not pointed out.

The logos on the wheel are formed in the mould, which means no stickers; this shaves off a bit more weight. The only stickers on the rim are two small 'hand built' and recommended tyre pressure (103PSI) stickers and a small silver swoosh on the rim. The Shimano spec freehub body has also been machined to save some more weight.

The holes in the rim bed for spokes are also formed in mould now, instead of manually drilling the rim afterwards, which I'm told minimises any risk of compromising the carbon fibres' integrity. It also possibly saves time and money afterwards by eliminating the need to drill each rim.

There aren't any headline aero claims, but you can read about some of the brands' aero testing in our news piece from back when they launched. Long story short, these wheels should be a little faster than the Metron SLs.

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The V1000 hubset uses ceramic bearings, and the wheels do spin very nicely indeed. The freehub, whilst generating a loud buzz, doesn't cross into annoying territory for me. You can listen to a recording of it down below.

The PRS (power ratchet system) uses a helical (spiral-shaped or angled teeth) ratchet ring that provides a 5-degree engagement angle, and the wheels do feel very good when getting back on the pedals. I can't detect much slop, if any, in the freehub mechanism.

The endcaps of the hubs pull off easily by hand if you want to give things a clean, and each hubshell has a QR code which you can scan to pull up manual documents. Plenty of documentation is also easily available online. This is a handy thought, but I wonder if everyone will want a QR code on their hubshells, from a visual perspective. I can't say it's bothered me much in use, though.

The wheels have 21 carbon fibre spokes up front, radial on the drive side, two cross on the non-drive side, and 24 at the rear. You shouldn't need to do much truing, but there is a specific process if you do need to pick a tool up.

The end of each spoke is threaded, and still threads into the nipple, but you will need to do the adjusting from inside the rim, so removing the tyre, tube, rim tape, and/or tubeless tape is necessary. This is a more involved job with a tubeless setup, but stiff carbon wheels like this, in my experience, don't need anywhere near as much truing as more traditional aluminium wheels.

Vision lists the Park Tool SW-15 for this job, a common tool in shops and easily found online. You then need to hold another tool onto the square spoke nipple at the rim whilst you adjust.

The main point here is that you should not attempt to adjust the spoke nipple at the rim, as it could damage the carbon spokes. Spoke tension recommendations can also be found on the Vision website.

Tyres have been easy to mount to the hooked rims; it's more of a mini hook, I would say, and setup has been very easy overall. I've ridden the wheels with 28mm Schwalbe Pro One TLE tyres.

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Performance

My first ride on the Metron's was in Italy at the Bike Connection Agency event, on a pretty much Bahrain Merida team spec Merida Reacto. I turned onto the main road at the start of the ride, accelerated out of the saddle and had a bit of a moment; the bike felt so stiff and fast. I was invested and excited instantly.

Riding the wheels on a different bike - a Ribble Ultra Race on home roads, this feeling has remained. The wheels are stiff and exciting to ride, meaning I'm invested each time I ride them; they flick the switch for me.

Breaking that down a little more, this is a 23mm wide, up-to-date, 45mm deep high-end carbon wheelset, with fast tyres fitted, so the wheels feel quick pretty much everywhere. They also sound quite good as they hum along on the tarmac.

However, the high level of lateral stiffness, thanks to the carbon fibre spokes, and slightly wider rim shape, really makes them feel great. I relish what the added stiffness brings to the table, as I did when I tested the carbon-spoked Partington MK11 wheels.

This high level of stiffness makes the wheels feel particularly great in two key riding scenarios for me. The first is at lower speeds out of the saddle; a perfect example would be climbing steep hills at low speed. The wheels make the bike feel like it just wants to shoot forward, no feeling of wasted power or flex; I love it.

The second is getting on the gas, accelerating when travelling a little bit quicker, such as carrying some speed through a bend and then making an effort and accelerating out of the saddle.

The RSs just make me want to drop the hammer here every time, thanks to how good this feels. It feels like I accelerate that bit quicker and more easily with them bolted into the bike.

These feelings make the wheelset exciting to ride, and I relish using it. On a gentle lunchtime spin, it's just a nice thing to have, but for going hard at the weekend or racing, it would feel like an advantage or at very least an asset. I'm told the pros wanted to use them for everything when they first got their hands on them.

Now we can ride 28mm+ tyres at lower pressures, which takes care of things comfort-wise for me. I can use 28mm tyres at 60/65 PSI, and that dampens the majority of road chatter, but the stiff and engaging ride and performance of the wheels remains. Not once have I felt that the stifness was a negative.

Everywhere else – general riding, cornering, steering inputs, and pushing on along the flat – have all been very good. I really have struggled to find any fault with the wheels.

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The Metron RS really present a very strong package overall, and for me, as mentioned, there are no real obvious weaknesses or flaws.

Living with the wheels is easy, and there are no special procedures or dos and dont's to pay attention to.

The hooked rims mean you can fit whatever tyres you like; there are no recommended tyre lists or sizes to worry about, and fitting tyres has been easy. The hooked rims hold tyres firmly.

The freehub can be removed tool-free and swapped very easily between SRAM and Shimano if needed. I've done this a couple of times. I think a more likely scenario for owners is for cleaning rather than switching, but it is tool-free.

We don't have any CN Labs wind tunnel testing data for these wheels at present. However, the Vision Metron 60 SL wheelset, which, to be clear, is not this one, performed very well in our CN Labs aero wheelset test.

Next time we are at the wind tunnel for a wheel test, we will, of course, aim to test the new Metron RS wheelset to see how it fares.

Value

These are top-end wheels, and are priced accordingly at £3,109 / $3,290 / €3,109 RRP. It's a figure that is in line with other range toppers and WorldTour spec wheelsets.

How do they measure up against the competition price-wise?

The wheels are cheaper than the new 353 NSW wheels from Zipp that I just finished reviewing by about £400 / $990 and $800. If it were me, I'd be choosing these wheels over the Zipps; the ride is more exciting, and I prefer the aesthetics and performance overall.

They are a little cheaper than the new Roval Rapide CLS III and Sprint wheels, also with carbon spokes, but more than the Cadex Ultra 50, for example.

A range of spares is also available from Vision, meaning problems should be easily solved if they arise during ownership.

At this price point, there are a lot of options, and you should expect performance to be high. It certainly is with these wheels, and they will only put a smile on your face.

Verdict

This is another great chapter in the Vision Metron book; the RS wheels have improved upon a proven design in the Metron SL wheel and moved things forward.

As mentioned in the intro, deeper section aero wheels are getting really light now. For a wider, 45mm aero wheel to come in at 1265 grams and provide such a stiff ride is impressive. I'm sure some of this low overall weight is in part to thank for how the wheels feel in use. Aero benefits at the same time as lowering or at least maintaining overall bike weight is a hell of a combo.

I can't find fault with these wheels and have only enjoyed using them. For the performance, quality, and engaging and exciting ride feel they offer, they are up there with the best I have used to date.