Some bike component features serve a functional purpose, while others focus on design and aesthetics. At first, we honestly thought that the wavy rim profile of the Fulcrum Sharq wheels was mainly a marketing move. However, after thousands of kilometers of testing in all types of conditions, we have become advocates of the Italian brand’s new wheelset.

The Fulcrum Sharq are offered as an all-road wheelset designed to excel on mixed surfaces and handle crosswinds in a more stable way than standard rims. The Sharq have an inner rim width of 25 mm, and the tire must be at least 30 mm wide. This means the wheelset can be mounted with both road and gravel tires.

The launch of these wheels is perfectly aligned with the recent trends in endurance road bikes, which now come with wider tire clearance. Even our Basso Diamante from 2021 has enough space to accommodate these wheels.

All our testing was done on a road bike, but we are well aware of how these wheels perform on gravel bikes. For example, Hans Becking and Mattia de Marchi, who finished first and second in this year’s Migration Gravel Race, did the whole event with the Fulcrum Sharq. Based on our experience, we assure you that you need reliable equipment to tackle the extremely challenging terrain we faced in Kenya.

Both of them tested the wheels earlier in the year during training. Mattia was so amazed by their advantages that he wanted to race with them as soon as possible. He was given the green light for Unbound, where he finished fifth. That was the first public appearance of the Sharq wheelset, and the official launch came later, on June 5th.

Fast set up

Fulcrum was one of the involved brands in the 2024 edition of Among the Giants in Montenegro, and apart from the brand’s ambassador, Alberto Viciana, we were also given the chance to ride with their new wheelset. Our testing continued during the following weeks, and now we are ready to tell you everything about our experience, from the moment we picked up the delivery to the present.

We received the wheelset the day before flying to Montenegro, but luckily, the installation went super smooth. The rim bed is undrilled, meaning that there was no need for taping before setting the tubeless tires, in our case, some 30mm Pirelli P Zero Race TRS. The tire levers that came with the wheels were not needed at all, and a regular track pump was enough to seat the tires.

Then it was only a matter of incorporating our current brake rotors and cassette, so the whole setup was quicker than expected. We ordered the wheelset with a Shimano HG hub but it can also be equipped with Shimano Microspline, SRAM XDR, and Campagnolo N3W body formats.

The wavy shark fin profile was visually impressive, and we were eager to check how it performed in the field. We had read about the 2-Wave design and we could finally check what it is all about. When looking from a distance, one can see a symmetrical wave around the spoke nipples, with the depth of the rim ranging from 42 to 47 mm. If you get closer, you will detect an asymmetrical wave at the sides.

Some of the features of this new wheelset are directly engraved on the rim with Direct Inmold Matt Finish (DIMF), so if during a ride someone tells you how good-looking your wheels are (it has happened to us multiple times), you can directly point them to the rim and let them read things like “Ceramic Ultra Smooth Bearings” or “Directional Rim-Spoke Coupling”. The Sharq logos in shiny silver are also very distinguishable.

Tested in Montenegro…

Once in Montenegro, the initial tests started. As narrated in our dedicated ATG recap article, the Durmitor National Park delighted us with its beautiful peaks and exposed roads, the perfect test field for any bike component.

With a claimed weight of 1.440 grams, they are lighter than what one may expect given their deep profile. They are not climbing wheels, but neither were the ones that we used to ride before, so we didn’t feel any slower. One thing we missed from our HUNT 44 Aerodynamicist was the hub noise, though. After all, we are simply kids on bikes that get excited by flashy colors and loud noises.

It was in the moments when facing changing wind gusts that we truly experienced the main benefits of the wavy rim profile. Let’s simply say that we had never felt so stable on a road bike in such conditions. No sudden change of trajectory, minimal effect of the wind after taking a turn, and zero turbulences when riding one-handed. On some flat stretches, we felt like we were riding slower than what we were used to, with no sense of speed. Nonetheless, looking down at our Hammerhead, we saw that the km/h value was considerably high. We then assumed that the sense of speed is positively correlated with the instability of the bike.

Our ride feeling on the descents was equally pleasant. It only took a couple of minutes before we were confident enough to lean into a turn, and we could even take the phone out of our pocket and record a video without the fear of losing balance and crashing. But let’s pretend we did not do anything illegal.

We also checked the behavior of the wheels going down at high speed while standing on the pedals. A speed wobble or “shimmy” was triggered, but the oscillations were smaller than when riding our previous wheels with the same frame.

… and across France

Once back home, we decided to keep the wheels on ahead of a bikepacking trip that would bring us from Belgium to Spain, crossing the Alps for a total of 1.800 km in 10 days. The extra weight of the bike bags has a negative effect on the stability of the bike, so we thought that the Fulcrum Sharq would compensate for it.

It was indeed the case, and a part of the weird feeling when standing on the pedals with a heavily loaded bike, the ride feeling was similar to our day-to-day riding. There were no problems when facing the crosswinds in Le Grand Est in France, nor on the long Alpine descents.

We honestly think that our setup, consisting of the reviewed wheels and a Tailfin system, was the most stable bikepacking rig we have ever tried or seen. If you also intend to take these wheels on a bike trip, bear in mind that the total weight the Sharq can handle is set to 120 kg.

One cannot deny we have put these Fulcrum wheels to the test under a variety of conditions, and the main takeaway is that the Sharq are super stable in addition to being very good-looking.