Rolf Prima Ares4 ES wheels review

At 1,450g a pair on the Cycling Weekly scales without skewers, the Rolf Prima Ares4 ES wheels can't exactly be described as featherweights. However, given the 42mm rim depth can offer up some aero benefits, the sub-1,500g weight begins to sound a little more respectable.

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Like all Rolf Prima wheels, the Ares4 ESs feature the Oregon company’s paired spokes technology. The thinking behind this is that by bringing the spokes to the rim in pairs, Rolf is able to neutralise the left and right pulling forces exerted on the rim, making for truer wheels despite the lower spoke count. This should also improve aerodynamics.

In practice though, this was less convincing. On the flat, acceleration was fairly sharp and thanks to the super-wide 27mm rim I was able to go into corners with a little more confidence, meaning less acceleration was needed heading out the other side.

The wheels remained true for the duration of our test; their durability on rough roads, given the spoke spacing, could be of concern.

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On the hills, the added weight of the Rolf Primas Ares4 ES wheels became more of an issue. The wheels were pretty good on draggy climbs with moderate gradients, but once the road really ramped up they struggled slightly, and wrestling the bike from side to side generated a fair amount of brake rub. While the carbon braking surface combined with SwissStop pads meant braking was reasonably good in wet and dry conditions, it was nothing to write home about.

For more details visit the Rolf Prima website.