The Campagnolo Hyperon Ultra wheels review

The new Hyperon Ultra wheels from Campagnolo are a resurrection of the brand’s de facto climbing wheelset. Now, though, the Hyperon Ultras are looking to cater to the all-rounder, with claims of hitting the ‘perfect ratio’ of aerodynamics, weight, and handling characteristics, leaving the Bora Ultras for the actual racing duties. Have they managed it? Are these some of the best road bike wheels out there, or perhaps some of the best lightweight wheels? I’ve been assessing them since their launch, and have taken them on flat blasts, up the steepest street in England, and, given it’s been cobbled classics season as I write this, over some nasty cobbles too to test their durability. In short, I’m very impressed, but do they live up to a price tag north of three and a half grand? 

Design and aesthetics

In a sea of matte black ubiquity, Campagnolo, and also Corima to be fair, stands out from the crowd with a staunch commitment to the glossy wheel. Personally, I love the gloss; I have a great big soft spot for the stylings of the Bora Ultras, and these sit as a slightly more refined visual package. The toned-down logos, still big, are less brash in muted metallics, and the conventional spoke pattern is less of a head-turner. They are a wheelset that just manages to edge inside the line that separates ‘statement wheelset’ from ‘complementary wheelset’. On the right bike, they don’t overpower things but still bring that unmistakable Italian styling. The test bike I was treated to was an extremely bling Colnago C68, decked out in Campagnolo Super Record EPS, so they’d have a job to outshine the overall package to be fair, but my point still stands; pop them on any performance-oriented bike and they’ll work.

The finish is genuinely beautiful. The gloss exterior is an initial layer of resin applied during the construction rather than a gloss lacquer applied after manufacturing, so in theory, it should be more durable (more on this later), but however it is created it is a treat for the eyes, especially in combination with the seamless looking, unidirectional fibres underneath. 

There are certainly interesting design notes too, beyond the aesthetics. The highly machined freehub body, designed to shave precious grams, shows an attention…