Upgrading your wheels is a rite of passage for many cyclists, and choosing which set to plump for – an outlay that can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars – can involve poring over spec sheets and trying to decipher marketing jargon.
We have tested a great many wheels in the wind tunnel already, to provide comparative data across a whole range of models, but we also wanted to interrogate how certain design factors, namely wheel depth, spoke count, and spoke material, affect speed.
The UCI context
Given the headline it’s prudent to outline the UCI ruling regarding wheel depth. In 2026 the sport’s governing body outlined a new maximum wheel depth of 65mm at all points of a wheel’s rim. This drew the ire of wheel brands, most prominently Swiss Side, which had to redevelop a new wheelset after it’s new Hadron3 68mm wheels fell foul of the ruling.
A subsequent clarification on the rules only outlines increased velocity as a risk factor, with no mention of wheel stability, despite the fact that Swiss Side’s ardent rebuttal to the ruling leans almost entirely on wheel stability.
As a general rule of thumb, deeper wheels (in our experience on the road) are generally harder to handle in crosswinds, and more prone to buffeting, which certainly is a safety factor that could justify a wheel depth rule, but it’s also true that not every deep wheel is harder to handle than every shallower wheel, and given that the UCI has only leant on the increased velocity in its documentation of the ruling it seems valid to test those claims in isolation and, if necessary, call them out.
Cyclingnews has contacted the UCI for clarification on the justification of the wheel depth rules in the context of the results outlined in the latter section of this…
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