Reynolds Blacklabel 60 Expert DB wheelset

The Reynolds Blacklabel 60 Expert DB wheels are very fast, stable and fun to ride, though the initial setup was a bit more of a pain than I'd have liked.

> Buy now: Reynolds Blacklabel 60 Expert DB wheels for £1,800 from Upgrade

Our best road bike wheels buyer's guide rounds up our favourite hoops from just £500 to over £2,500.

You know you have gone deep down the rabbit hole of wheel reviews when you become obsessed with the profile of a rim. It's how I know I may have a problem because the profile of these is something I have never seen before – but it was a profile I became very impressed with.

These rims are not simply 60mm deep, they bulge out around 25mm below the tyre bead and taper back in towards the tyre – this isn't a manufacturing error, rather it's Reynolds' DET2 profile. There's no doubt it looks weird, as if you've put the wrong size tyre on, but it works, with a maximum width of 34.25mm at the bulge narrowing to an inner rim width of 21mm that's optimised for 28mm tyres.

The supposed purpose of this unusual-looking design is to increase aero performance and improve stability in cross winds. The first I can't give any accurate readings for until road.cc stumps up for a wind tunnel, but I can vouch for the fact that these perform incredibly well in cross winds, where I found them much less jittery than I would have expected from a deep-profile rim, so Reynolds boffins are clearly doing something right.

Although I couldn't do any accurate testing for aerodynamics (that wind tunnel again...), the one thing I can say is that the aero swoosh is one of the most impressive I've heard, which normally suggests that the aerodynamics are at least doing something. I can also say that these feel fast, both in terms of how well they spin up to speed and how well they maintain it.

The 60mm CR6 carbon rims are laced to Reynolds/Ringle SBX Road DB hubs with 24 Sapim CX-Ray spokes front and rear.

In terms of ride feel, I found these managed to maintain rigidity and stiffness without them being bone rattlers. When I pushed on the pedals acceleration was pretty much instantaneous and power transfer was equally impressive when the road headed upwards too.

For wheels with 60mm deep rims the climbing performance is impressive, part of which will be down to their weight of just 1,540g per pair, which compares well to other deep rims we've reviewed recently. The Campagnolo Bora WTO 60s weigh in at 1,590g per pair while the Cadex 65 Disc Tubeless wheels are a fraction heavier than the Blacklabels at 1,550g.

When on the bike these wheels worked incredibly well, though I did have an issue with the initial setup that is still inexplicable to both the distributor and me.

Fitting the front wheel was a cinch with the tyre going on easily, and I could seat it using a regular track pump.

However, the back wheel's thru-axle wouldn't go through smoothly and even the smallest additional force pushed the freehub away from the wheel, which meant the pawls fell out and I had to refit them, which was a fiddly process. This would happen whether it had visibly moved or not, so the only way to test whether I had got everything in place was to fully secure the wheel then spin and listen.

I brought this up with the distributor who said it wasn't a known issue but was one it could fix. The distributor sent me through a new freehub body, axle and end caps that I changed in a couple of minutes and which fixed the problem. So, while this was definitely an initial issue, it did show the warranty process was working.

Value

There's no doubt that the £1,800 RRP is steep for a set of wheels, but given their low weight and the impressive performance delivered by their unusually shaped rims, I'd say they're actually pretty well priced.

The Campagnolo Bora WTO 60 wheels that Liam reviewed a while back are £200 dearer at £1099.99, 40g heavier and don't offer the same control in cross winds.

The Cadex 65 Disc Tubeless wheels are a full £700 more expensive, and while their extra 10g weight is imperceptible, they are also a bit more tetchy in cross winds, though Liam was impressed with the stiffness, speed and acceleration they offered.

Conclusion

I was very impressed with the Reynolds Blacklabel wheels: they're fast, stable in cross winds and – let's be honest, the most important bit – they create an amazing whoosh when you're flying along. For 60mm wheels they also accelerate well and fly up climbs, thanks to their impressively low weight and their quick uptake.

Verdict

A very impressive set of wheels, though I found that profile took some getting used to