While Tadej Pogačar and Lotte Kopecky stole the headlines at the Tour of Flanders this spring, Shimano’s new C60 wheel slipped largely under the radar. The unbranded hub and rim looked new, but more interestingly the pictures showed what looked like a carbon spoke. A component that the Japanese manufacturing giant had stayed away from until now.
We contacted Shimano at the time and got this reply: “Rider feedback is a valuable process for Shimano, as we are constantly evaluating the performance of our products. That said however, we do not address speculation about our products, regardless of whether they are in development (or not).”
Today we saw the new wheels in the flesh, on Mathieu van der Poel’s Canyon. They’re smart looking, but unremarkable at first glance compared to the existing C60. They have ‘prototype’ marked on the hub but as suspected, Shimano seems to be trialling a new bladed carbon spoke in the wheels.
The new hub on these wheels look to be redesigned especially for the job of housing a carbon spoke which was laced to what looks like a wide rim. The wheels featured a potentially unforgiving and very stiff, 2:1 lacing pattern in a new straight-pull hub design. There’s nothing particularly unusual about that setup, except for the presence of a new carbon-bladed spoke that would make the whole system incredibly stiff.
Carbon is something of a wonder material in performance cycling terms, but steel has always been a better choice for traditionally-constructed spoked wheels. Most wheel companies would agree. In private at least.
New Dura Ace C60’s spotted at the Tour De France
(Image credit: Andy Carr)
On the face of it, that’s perhaps not the most amazing news. Nearly everyone is running carbon spokes these days. You might also remember Mavic used to use a thick carbon spoke in some of its rims, and flat carbon spokes were a regular feature in wheels like the Cosmic Carbone faired wheelsets. Carbon has been a feature in their wheels for years, although eventually they abandoned those particular spokes. Carbon spokes are still in use in the ultra-exclusive, German, handmade wheels from Lightweight, but to see one in a Shimano wheel is quite unexpected and a complete departure from the brand’s total reliance on steel spokes to date.
Why would I be surprised to see carbon spokes on a Shimano wheel? Well,
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Carbon, an intrinsically stiff material, does reduce the overall weight of a wheelset, but doesn’t perform as well under the operational tension and compression experienced in a spoked wheel. It’s also so stiff it means rims have to be reinforced to manage the energy from impacts within the rim.
The rim appears to be wider, presumably to accommodate more modern rubber
(Image credit: Andy Carr)
Given the C60’s one-time poor form at the Classics in 2022, which saw Shimano’s new 9100 series wheels taco’ing at Roubaix under both LaPorte and Wout Van Aert, testing another new set of wheels in public is not a low-risk strategy, but carbon spokes have come along way, far enough clearly to give Shimano the confidence to step away from it’s tried and tested approach. For Shimano to do this, I think it adds weight to the validity of the carbon spoke and might seal the fate of higher performing steel options.
Given we haven’t seen this wheel since Flanders, that suggests there’s been some further development in the product – it does now carry C60 Dura Ace branding – but it still remains to be seen if this prototype will make it to mass production, and if so, when.
The fact they’ve resurfaced here at the Tour De France bodes well, and is exciting indeed.
Van Der Poel’s Canyon spotted ahead of 2025’s Tour De France in Lille, wore new unreleased shoes from Shimano and was dressed in a new gold metallic flake over white pearl paint finish.
