Reviews

Bontrager Race X-lite road wheels

By Simon Hayes

Sleek & strong
Photo: © Bontrager

To anyone with an interest in bike technology, the name of Keith Bontrager is legend. Bontrager's gusset designs influenced just about every welded frame now on the market, but he's better known now for his wheels. In 1984 he salvaged some 700c road rims from the rubbish and re-rolled them to 26in for mountain biking. Bontrager the company was bought by Trek in the mid-90s with Bontrager the man on board as chief design honch and an expansion into road wheels soon followed. Not surprisingly, given the parent company's involvement with the team, Bontrager has been the wheel supplier to the mighty US Postal squad this year.

The aluminium Race X-Lite wheels are similar in design to the flagship Race X-Lite Carbon wheels used by Lance and the boys. This is an attractive-looking pair of wheels with black DT Swiss bladed spokes in a paired design. The front wheel has 20 spokes and the rear 24, each set into Swiss-made hubs. On the Cyclingnews scales the front wheel weighed in at 682g and the rear 916g without the supplied titanium skewers. The rear uses an offset rim to compensate for the dish produced by a nine-speed cluster, something that has long been an issue for Bontrager. He was one of the last people to switch from seven to eight speed on his mountain bikes, citing lateral wheel strength as an issue he was reluctant to compromise.

The hubs are a triple sealed, cartridge bearing design with an over-sized hub shell at the rear that Bontrager claims "transfers torque to the left side, thus reducing wind-up and making for a longer-lasting wheel." To reduce weight, the freehub body is made of aluminium and Bontrager recommends that only aluminium cassettes be used.

A comparison with other wheels shows that despite having more spokes, the front is 18g lighter than a Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL (690g claimed) and 74g lighter that the Shimano WH-7701 (756g claimed) . The rear is lighter than the Shimano equivalent (952g claimed) but slightly heavier than the Mavic, which comes in at 840g (claimed). No surprise there, as the Bonti rear wheel has 4 extra spokes.

Out of the office and into the real world

Out of the box, these wheels were perfectly true - not even a millimetre either radially or laterally. Spoke tension was even and their high-pitched 'ping' indicated plenty of it. These are confidence-inspiring Good Things in a pair of wheels.

When you go from using standard wheels for your morning commute/training run to a high-quality, lightweight pair like these, the effects are enormous. Perception is a huge thing when it comes to riding and I felt significantly faster on the Bontragers than with my usual mid-range set up. I'm fairly certain this was not just psychological, though. Pairing these wheels with Bontrager Racelite tyres, I found that I was consistently one gear faster up every hill - if that's just psychology, give me more of it! Downhill and cornering felt very nice too. I must admit that I am not exactly the world's greatest descender but at 60kph the wheels felt both secure and strong with no wobble and I felt very confident leaning into the tightest corners. Once again, perception can count for a lot.

My usual training ride-cum-commute is around 70 km over somewhat varying terrain. Anyone who has ridden on the roads round Sydney knows how crap they can be and my commute combines highway, B roads, motorway and a short section of cobblestones. Throw in some speed humps on a fast downhill and several gutters and you might be forgiven for thinking I should ride a dual suspension mountain bike to work instead. It took 1500km of these conditions before the rear wheel needed truing and even then we're only talking a couple of millimetres out on one side. So little in fact that even I was able to get it back into shape without any help. The front is still true after 2000km.

After adjustment I decided to give the wheels a proper hammering so I took them on my local back-road loop. Country roads round here go from awful to deplorable. For some reason, the use of hotmix tar is almost non-existent with most councils using a 'road-metal' base (large, sharp gravel) which sends your hands numb after about 30km. In addition, my usual training loop has a 2km downhill section of steep, dirt road that is heavily corrugated and rutted. Combine this with my 86kg frame and you have a perfect recipe for a buckled rear wheel. Heavier wheels, or wheels with more spokes can usually get through this sort of thing with no problems, but heavier riders like myself can have problems on lighter wheels. The Bontrager X-Lites didn't bat an eyelid. Four excursions of 100km of this and they are in exactly the same condition as when I left home. These are tough wheels.

The Verdict

As you can tell, I really enjoyed riding the Bontrager X-Lites. Cynics might say that the reason US Postal is using these wheels in their carbon incarnation is because of Bontrager's association with Trek, but but despite the money involved, pro teams steer clear of equipment that doesn't do the job. These wheels do the job admirably.

The only downside is that they are a little bit more expensive than some. However, depending on where you shop, they're pretty much on a par with the popular Mavic Ksyriums. The Bontrager official website has them at US $749.00 but we've seen them as low as US $649.00.

Shelling out this amount of dosh will get you a pair of lightweight, good looking wheels, titanium skewers, Swiss built sealed hubs with butted blade spokes in a paired pattern and the respect that goes with the Bontrager name. The welded/machined sidewalls are a nice touch, the hand truing is spot on and they coped with some fairly harsh conditions without a whimper.

Lightweight, good looking and strong. What are you waiting for?

Recommended retail price: US$749.00
Weights: 682g (f), 916g (r), 76g (skewers)
Pro: Lightweight, strong
Con: Pay a bit more
More information: Bontrager's website
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