Ardennes, Bastogne, Kermesse and Flanders – you think classic Belgian racing when you hear these words. These wheels evoke cobbles, the hard men of the spring classics, hard training, and serious racing. After 15 years of work staying on top of the aero wheel world, Hed have turned their attention to traditional wheels. It started with a simple view of alloy wheels - "these could be SO much better". They are, and you might be surprised by how much better they are.
Lighter? √. Stiffer? Good place to start a redesign. But you need more, so Hed designed a whole new rim to build around, the Hed C2 rim. By obsessing over design, and with the modern miracle of CAD, the C2 rim is 23mm wide, and only 430g. Finally a rim has caught up to the advances that clincher tires have made in the past 2 decades.
But what makes 23mm better than the ubiquitous 19mm rim? Width. Picture a standard 23mm tire on the C2 rim. Tire and rim width are the same, the sidewalls are fairly straight, and the width of the rim spreads the tread contact patch out. With straighter sidewalls, and more rubber on the road, cornering is an entirely new experience. C2s should be run with lower pressure, since there is more air volume in the wider tire profile. The same tire on a 19mm rim looks more like the profile of a light bulb. The curved sidewalls flop over under hard cornering, there is less rubber on the road, and more air pressure is needed to prevent pinch flats.
All good, but what we’ve described so far could be called "quality of ride" improvements. Very nice, but what else is there? What else is lower rolling resistance. 20% lower.
Hed Classics models. Lighter, stiffer, stronger, faster. AND, a pure joy to ride. So good we even surprised ourselves.
CLASSICS
Ardennes
Code: WHLSHEDCLSCSArdennes
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Bastogne
Code: WHLSHEDCLSCSBASTOGNE
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Kermesse
Code: WHLSHEDCLSCSKERMESSE
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Flanders C2
Code: WHLSHEDCLSCSFLANDERS
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