Lightweight Adds Pfadfinder Evo Gravel Wheel

German Brand Lightweight has a new offering when it comes to the allroad/gravel and cyclocross markets. The new Pfadfinder Evo is an evolution of a previous offering, with some improved specs and construction making it better suited for gravel riding over its predecessor.

Previously, the Wegweiser Evo was Lightweight’s allroad/gravel/cyclocross wheelset. It was groundbreaking for Lightweight at the time, as it combined automated methods to produce the rim, while still including hand glued spokes. This created a slightly heavier, but less expensive wheelset, while remaining true to the brand’s goal of producing high-performing, light products. As wheelsets have continued to evolve in these markets, the Wegweister Evo was falling behind with only being rated for 28-32mm tires. The New Pfadfinder Evo shares many of the same dimensions as the Wegweiser Evo (36mm tall, 24mm wide, 18.2mm internal width), but is now rated for up to 40mm wide rubber. The new wheel also sheds a few grams, coming in at 1430g for the pair, or 20g less than its predecessor.

Like Lightweight’s other wheelsets, the Pfadfinder Evo is a truly full carbon wheelset. Featured on all of Lightweight’s disc wheelsets, the Pentagon hub is full carbon construction that is designed to eliminate failure of a disc brake on a hub. Instead of a round hub with a brake mount epoxied in, the Pentagon hub uses a pentagon shape with a matching brake mount so there is no chance it can slip if the epoxy fails. The original version was a pentagon shape from the disc side to the drive side, but the new version begins to smooth out to a tube about a third of the way in.

Original designs were sent to Magura with Lightweight asking them to run the wheels through their full-load braking test that takes wheels from 50kph to a complete stop under full load. They set a new record at over 8,000 stops, and Magura kept testing until they hit over 20,000 repetitions without failure. To put it into perspective, 6,000-7,000 was the previous record. The wheels were returned to Lightweight for examination, only to find that they were unchanged from when they were first sent to Magura.

From there, 20 high modular full carbon spokes front and rear are bonded from the hub to the full carbon rim, while also being tied, giving them an old school feel on a very new school wheelset. This leaves the only metal parts of the wheel as the Centerlock disc mounts, bearings, axles (12×100 and 12×142), and freehub.  Speaking of the internals, Lightweight carries on using DT Swiss 240 internals, making it a breeze to switch between Shimano/SRAM, Campy, or SRAM XDR freehubs. The Pfadfinder Evo is also tubeless, again following current standards for just about any cycling discipline.

Something new is the use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) fibers, a first for Lightweight. This special blend of high modulus carbon fiber high stiffness properties while remaining durable to stand up the rigors of gravel riding.

So all of this carbon is great, but what does it mean besides being really light? For a wheelset to perform it has to be more than that, and there is. We already touched on the safety of the Pentagon hub, so let’s talk about the benefits of the spokes. They actually help you in speeding up and slowing down in similar ways. When going faster, the full carbon spokes make the power transfer from hub to rim even more efficient with less power loss than other spokes. There are many places that power can be lost from, starting with your shoes, pedals, crank, chainring, chain, cassette, hub, and then onto the spokes, before the rim and tire. So one less place you are losing small amounts of power, the more that makes it to the road. From the other perspective, these stiff spokes also help with slowing you down through greater efficiency of stopping force making it to the wheels. Any way you look at it, you are getting a stiff wheelset in a very lightweight package.

One area that Lightweight isn’t mentioning much is claims of comfort. While carbon is known to dampen some of the buzz of the road, it isn’t quite as big of a talking point when you are riding with large volume tires up to 40mm. Much of the comfort will come from the tires and increase air volume. With that said, the use of carbon throughout will make for a comfortable ride, while still remaining stiff for accurate handling and powerful acceleration and braking.

The Pfadfinder Evo is only available in a disc brake version, which fits with current standards in the gravel world. It is available in two versions, standard and Schwarz Ed, or Black Edition. This version includes stealth black logos and bearings from CeramicSpeed, all for an upgraded price. Pricing is not currently available, but wheels will be available from Lightweight’s site or through their dealer network.

http://www.lightweight.info