Your complete guide to Shimano wheels

Shimano wheels are frequently specced by bike manufacturers and they’re popular aftermarket upgrades, no doubt helped by being a common sight in the professional peloton – Shimano supplies wheels to more teams than any other brand.

Your complete guide to Shimano groupsets

GRX wheels — £409.98

The newest members of Shimano's wheel collection are the dedicated gravel bike wheels that sit alongside the company's recently-announced GRX components.

The tubeless WH-RX570 wheels come in 700C and 650B sizes and feature 21.6mm internal width rims that accommodate wider tyres.

Dura-Ace R9100 and R9170 wheelsets

Shimano unveiled new Dura-Ace wheels with the launch of the last version of the groupset. The C40 and C60 wheels have a fashionably wide rim designed for improved aerodynamics.

The rims have a wider profile than the previous generation Dura-Ace wheels, following the current trend for bulbous profiles that are more stable in crosswinds than the older V-shape rims. Each is available in a clincher or tubular version, so you can emulate the pros if you want or be sensible and fit some inner tubes.

Alternatively, the R9170 versions of the C40 and C60 wheels are designed solely for disc brakes and use a 12mm thru-axle hub and a rim that is tubeless compatible. There’s also a tubular option as well.

If you want the lightest option, the R9100-C24 has a very shallow 24mm rim that keeps the weight low, making it an ideal wheelset for climbers. It's virtually unchanged from the previous R9000-C24 in case you're wondering.

Clincher

R9100 C24 — £969.00
R9100 C40 — £1,076.49
R9170 C40 Disc — £1,808.99
R9100 C60 — £1,150.00
R9170 C60 Disc — NA

Tubular

R9100 C40 Carbon — Rear: £827.99 | Front: £700.99
R9170 C40 Disc — £1,544.98
R9100 C60 Carbon — Rear: £1037.99 | Front: £805.49
R9170 C60 Disc — Rear: £1,349.00 | Front: £879.99

Review: Shimano Dura-Ace C24 Carbon Clincher wheelset

Ultegra  wheelsets

Along with the latest version of Ultegra 8000 , Shimano released updated wheels. It’s offering two wheelsets under the Ultegra label, the carbon-laminate RS700 for rim brakes (£619.00) and the RS770 (£405.00) for disc brakes.

Both are tubeless-ready and the later is compatible with thru-axles. There are also new hubs to shed about 60g of weight compared to the old 6800 wheels, and there’s a lighter carbon layup in the new rims. Claimed weight is 1,568g for the rim brake wheels and 1,639g for the disc wheels.

A step down, but also allocated to the Ultegra groupset are the tubeless RS500 wheels (£399.99) with 24mm deep rims. Claimed weight for the rim-brake version is 1,648g.

RX830 35mm Tubeless Disc Brake wheelset — £299.99

The RX830 combines Shimano’s proven carbon laminate technology in a 17mm wide (internal) tubeless-ready rim optimised for disc brakes, so there’s no brake track on these rims. The hubs are cup and cone and ready for disc brakes with conventional quick release axles - so you’ll only see these on cheaper or older generation rim brake bikes, as most disc brake bikes are moving over to thru-axles. Shop around and you can find them discounted, as is the case for most of the wheels here.

RX31 Road Disc Brake wheelset — £245.00

The RX31 was one of the very first dedicated disc brake wheelsets available when disc brakes started appearing on production road bikes a few years ago. Shimano has built a solid wheelset around 24mm profile aluminium clincher rims with 24 stainless steel butted and bladed straight pull spokes in each wheel to best deal with the disc brake forces. Hubs are now thru-axle compatible with contact sealed bearings with an 8,9,10 and 11-speed compatible freehub.

- Review: Shimano RX31 wheelset

105 wheelsets

Shimano designates three wheelsets as being of 105 quality: good for training, serious recreational riding like sportives, Audaxes and club rides, and even your first race.

RS370 Tubeless Disc Brake wheelset — £254.98

With 19mm wide rims (internal) and disc brake compatibility, these are Shimano's 'serious entry level' gravel wheels, below the GRX wheels, but above the RX010s. They're tubeless compatible, as you'd expect.

RS330 alloy clincher wheelset — £207.83

Looking like a good upgrade option for many entry-level bikes, though you’re likely to see these wheels specced on a lot of mid-range bikes, the RS-330 uses a lightweight aluminium rim with a 30mm depth providing good aerodynamics, making them ideal for anyone wanting to inject a bit more speed into their riding.

RS300 24mm wheelset — £192.24

The WH-RS300s are essentially the 24mm-deep version of the RS330.

Non-series wheelsets

RS100 Alloy clincher wheelset — £119.95

The RS100 is the most affordable in the RS line, and is virtually identical to the now-discontinued RS010, just a little heavier.

RX010 Centre Lock Disc wheelset — £158.99

An affordable disc brake wheelset with 28 spokes in each wheel for extra durability and a 24mm rim for low weight, combined with Centre Lock disc rotor mounting system. The rim width is recommended for 25 to 38mm wide tyres. The hubs use regular quick release axles.

Read more: 22 of the best road bike wheels

Explore the complete archive of reviews of wheels on road.cc