Cyclist
Classified sponsors gravel team and launches three new wheelsets
Classified has announced it will be a headline sponsor alongside the bike brand Ridley of a new gravel team for the 2024 season. The brand has also announced three new wheelsets, two for road use and one for gravel, which use its two-speed Powershift hub to eliminate the need for a double crankset and front derailleur, while still providing a similar gear range. The always-engaged planetary gearing in the Powershift hub also avoids the risk that a front derailleur system has of dropping a chain.
The brand says that the new wheels are as much as 12 percent lighter than its previous wheels, as well as offering a 14 percent improvement in aerodynamics and a 10 percent increase in stiffness. The road wheels are available in 36mm and 50mm depth, the gravel wheels are 42mm deep.
Classified has increased the rim width over its previous generation wheels, allowing you to run lower tyre pressures, which it says will decrease rolling resistance and increase ride comfort.
Prices for the new wheelsets haven’t been disclosed.
New gravel team
At the same time, Classified has announced its co-sponsorship with Ridley bikes of a five rider gravel cycling team, which will use the new gravel wheels. The team will ride on the gravel race circuit, including the UCI Gravel World Series and Gravel World Championships, which this year will take place in October in Leuven in Belgium.
Classified has a star-studded list of ex-pro investors led by Tom Boonen and including Philippe Gilbert, Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel and Anna van der Breggen.
Its hubs have garnered plenty of attention and are available on wheels from a number of third party wheel vendors, including Hunt and Parcours in the UK.
That, along with the new Classified wheelsets, helps address one of our few criticisms of the Classified Powershift hub when we reviewed it in June 2022, namely the small number of compatible wheels then available.
New R36 wheelset
First up is the R36 wheelset, with a claimed weight of 1,315g, excluding the rear hub. It’s designed to work with the Classified Powershift hub with 142mm axle spacing.
The 36mm deep carbon rim has an internal width of 22.5mm and an external width of 28.5mm and is laced with Pillar Wing spokes. It’s tubeless-ready and Classified recommends tyres of between 28mm and 42mm wide, with a maximum pressure that’s on the high side: 110psi/7.5 bar.
New R50 wheelset
For a deeper section aero wheelset, the R50 has a 50mm rim depth with the same width and tyre compatibility figures as the R36. Its claimed weight is 1,415g, excluding the Powershift rear hub.
New G42 wheelset
Finally, the gravel-oriented G42 wheelset has, as you’d expect, a 42mm rim depth. Classified claims a 1,350g wheelset weight, again without the Powershift rear hub. A 410g rim with asymmetric profile is designed to increase stiffness and Classified claims that the G42 is one of the most aero gravel wheelsets available.
The G42 rim’s internal width is 25mm and recommended tyre width is between 30mm and 55mm, with tyre pressure up to 80psi/5.5 bar.
Read our Classified Powershift hub review for more on Classified’s front mech killer.
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