THE BIKEBEAT UBERFLIEGER PRO WHEELS MIX IMPRESSIVE MANUFACTURING AND PERFORMANCE INTO A VERY TANTALISING PRICE

Words and images - James Raison

Just as I thought my days of reviewing rim brake carbon clinchers were over, a box arrived from Germany (via Melbourne) . Inside was some almost naked carbon resplendent with the label “Bikebeat”; a brand whose presence is subtle in the bike industry. The wheelset’s full title is the oh-so-German Uberflieger Pro - which means High Flyer if Google Translate is a trustworthy source.

Bikebeat identifies themselves as a “young carbon start-up company that develops, manufactures and distributes (cycling) sport composites”. In short, they make carbon for others but decided to start selling their own product directly to consumers rather than via their customer brands. It’s a familiar value proposition; remove a step in the supply chain to pass on better value to the customer. Bikebeat also adds a little extra effort into their own wheels to give them an edge over the customer branded rims.

The wheels landed with me from Bikebeat’s new Australian distributor; Full Beam Australia who wanted to get our thoughts on how they’ve performed. It’s been several months of riding, so let’s take a deep dive into the Bikebeat Uberflieger Pro wheels.

They certainly pass the “looks badass” test

THE PRAGMATIC WEIGHT WEENIE WHEELS

The Uberflieger wheel range come with some hub variations and disc brake options.

These are the mid-range Uberflieger Pros, specs listed below, but there’s also:

Uberflieger Lite with DT 350 hubs for $1,999 in rim and $2,199 in disc brake.
the plain Uberflieger with DT 240 hubs,
deluxe 1190g Uberflieger Prototyp (sic, don’t @me) with Tune MIG Skyline/MAG Skyline Ceramic hubs.

The Uberflieger Pros I reviewed:

Weight: 1,290 Gr.
Hubs: Tune MIG70/MAG170 Road
5mm quick release
Decal options: White or black
Internal width: 17,5mm
External width: 26,5mm
Tyre widths: min. 23mm / max. 33mm
Sapim CX Ray spokes: front 20 radial, rear 24 cross-laced
Brake pads: SwissStop BLACK PRINCE - included
Tubeless ready
Weight limit: 110 kg
Freehub options: Shimano/SRAM 10/11-speed, Campagnolo 9/10/11/12-speed or SRAM XDR
Temperature rating 250°

I like how sensible they are for such a light wheelset. They’re not going to set true weight weenie hearts ablaze but for someone like me who wants lightness and function they’re very well-balanced. The Tune Mig70/Mag170 Road hubs are laced with J-bend Sapim CXRay spokes; radially on the front wheel and crossed on the rear and there’s standard bearings inside the hubs. Tune’s top of the line Skyline version hubs on the Uberflieger Prototyp shave off 30 grams or so for a set of hubs but come with boundary-pushing carbon flanges, straight pull spokes, and ceramic bearings.

I used the Uberflieger Pros on my beloved rainbow lunatic Specialized Allez Sprint DSW. Through the testing period I shod the wheels with Schwalbe Pro One Addix TLE, and then some Wolfpack Race Cottons. The rough and racey bike and quality performance tyres give me the perfect speedy test rig.

MANUFACTURING

Bikebeat, as a factory brand, can be a little tricky to find information on them. With a little digging, and a few emails, I found that Bikebeat is doing some very impressive things to make their wheels. Buckle up because we’re about to get nerdy.

Bikebeat use the same carbon braiding and resin transfer moulding manufacturing techniques as the absurdly high quality Time Alde d’Huez, and Time Scylon frames I reviewed last year. Bikebeat’s carbon isn’t sheets or strips. They use braided fibres woven into sock-like forms, for lack of a better word, which are then stretched over a core and injected with resin under high pressure - also known as resin transfer moulding. In short; it makes for very high quality carbon.

Bikebeat’s stated advantages for the manufacturing process are:

No air pockets or voids
No overlapping carbon
Only one join in the rim
Even resin distribution
Higher heat resistance
No risk of delamination
No carbon top layer which means less weight
Higher durability

My sterile white office was a perfect place to have a clost look at the Bikebeat carbon

That process is what gives the Bikebeat wheels a unique aesthetic which the brand leans into. There’s an intentional rawness to the Uberfliegers with visible carbon patterns beneath the clear and very thin lacquer. The brake track looks roughly scuffed and scored up as well. Bikebeat are proud of their carbon with their website spruiking; “We do not have to hide anything, do not use optical cosmetics – nothing! We create one of the most purist wheelsets in the world in a clean carbon look, every fiber visible.” Prospective buyers need to accept their aesthetic imperfections, or contact Bikebeat directly to request a darker clearcoat on their rims. If you need your bike to look absolutely perfect these aren’t for you.

Circling back to Bikebeat’s role as a manufacturer; I’ve seen, and held in my hands, ostensibly the same rims with different brand stickers. I won’t give brand names but the manufacturing process makes quite easily identifiable rims. So if you see something that looks like a Bikebeat rim, it probably is a Bikebeat rim. They slightly tweak the manufacturing process to give their own rims a small improvement in quality and sell it cheaper by going customer-direct.

TUBELESS

The Uberfliegers are advertised as “Tubeless Ready” but my experience suggests otherwise. The lightness-obsessed rims have a shallow centre channel, a miniscule hook for tyres to seat onto, and need constant pressure to keep the tyre mounted. Anyone who’s setup tubeless will know that constant pressure is exceedingly difficult to maintain during the setup process. No pressure means the tyres unseat because the tyre will not snap onto the bead and stay there.

I somehow managed to seat the rear tyre - a brand new Schwalbe Pro One Addix TLE V2 - using my Bontrager Flash Charger pump - but conceded defeat on the front and had a bike shop finish it for me. They described it as the hardest tubeless setup they’d manage to succeed at, and only stubborn determination led them to make it work. All the struggle was for naught in the end because once the tyre pressure dropped at home between rides they’d unseat. I abandoned tubeless after maybe a fortnight then eventually switched out to standard clinchers with the Wolfpack Race Cottons.

Bikebeat did respond with some feedback on tubeless with “Best working tires are Hutchinson and Continental. The new Schwalbe productions are working very well, but not the older productions. We have 70% using tubeless and maybe 3-4 customers who told us that the tire will not fit.”

THE RIDE

Bikebeat’s Uberfliegers are an exceptionally well-rounded performance wheel and do basically everything you’d want from a wheel at a much higher price.

RIMS

The rim performs excellently. I’m not an aerodynamicist, and don’t have a wind tunnel, so I won’t defend any specific claims to aero. That said, the sensations of speed are all there. Acceleration is very fast with the low weight and stiffness translating well into forward momentum.

45 mm is a good depth too. I tend to favour slightly shallower 40 mm rims for their balance of weight and indifference to wind. The Uberfliegers Pros though are very stable, even in blustery winds. I very rarely had to wrestle with the front of the bike, and only when high wind gusts chopped across the front of the bike. I am quite vulnerable to wind, being quite light, so I’m always wary of deep wheels.

HUBS/SPOKES

I like Tune hubs for their excellent blend of lightness, fast engaging freehub, and willingness to roll. I’ve had custom wheels built up with King/Kong hubs for the last three, which are somewhat like a beefier disc-brake version of the MIG70/MAG170 Road hubs on the Uberflieger Pros. They have the similar sounds and sensations that I’m used to.

For anyone unfamiliar, the Tune hubs a direct competitor to the DT Swiss 240s, White Industries T11, or Chris King R45. There is a broad price range across those hubs but they share some features and are generally used for the same application; build into fancy wheels. The Tunes are the lightest though.

The MIG/MAG hubs with their cross-laced j-bend Sapim CXRay spokes are stiff enough to handle my power. I’m quite light at 67 kg, so I can’t speak for everyone, but I found no hints of brake rub or overt signs of flex. The un-fussy cartridge bearings inside roll perfectly well, and won’t be difficult when it comes to servicing.

I have only a couple of small gripes with the hubs. First, a slight freehub drag for the initial couple of hundred hundred kilometers out of the box. The freehub would continue to turn a little after I’d stopped pedalling, causing the chain to whack into the top of the stays. It stopped happening after a couple of weeks and I haven’t noticed it since. Second, Tune uses a soft-ish freehub body material that will has some scores in it from the cassette after use. Nothing major, just something to be aware of. Third is the pawl design. They have the same style as my own King/Kong hubs and owners need to monitor the pawl wear. I had the pawls replaced in mine after about 13,000 km. You don’t want them to wear out and damage the inside of the hub. It’s just something to be aware of.

Other than that, they’re a quality piece. Tune are excellent machinists and I’ve spent a decent chunk of change on their components over recent years.

ON THE SKIDS

The Uberfliegers are exceptionally good under braking with the best mix of power and heat resistance I’ve had in a carbon rim brake clincher to date.

Bikebeat claim a heat tolerance of 250° before the rim, and I quote, “gets tired”. On-road I couldn’t provoke any brake fade, even on my favourite brake testing descent of Mt Osmond with high speeds into multiple heavy braking points. The only other carbon wheel that performed better was the tubular Shimano C40. Every other carbon clincher I’ve pushed hard down Mt Osmond has faded - some slightly and some almost sending me off the road. Not the Uberfliegers.

They don’t have the tactile feedback of aluminium but you get enough feel to modulate the power effectively.

The rims are quiet under braking when they’re freshly cleaned but will get shrieky when dusty and howl when wet. I found the sound loud enough that I cleaned them every couple of weeks. The grooves in the SwissStop BLACK PRINCE accrue a dust collection over time so I’d dig them out in the process. If you want silent braking you’ll have to commit to frequent cleaning.

Wet braking is what you expect from rim brake carbon clinchers; bad. Once the water clears off with some brake pad dragging, and a couple of prayers, they get less bad. That’s just how carbon is. When they dry out a little more the excellent brake power returns but don’t expect to have it in soaking wet conditions.

MARKET POSITIONING

The Uberflieger Pros at $3,200AUD represent quite good value when compared against its big brand alternatives. There’s some variances in rim depth and hub options but the Uberflieger Pros can be stacked up to the Zipp 303 Firecrest RB, ENVE SES 3.4 (alloy hub version), Roval C38, or Bontrager Aeolus XXX 4 TLR. They generally, depending on where you buy, come in several hundred dollars under those alternatives.

Bikebeat is something of a unicorn company; one with the design and manufacturing nouse to make a high quality product but without the added baggage and overheads of big marketing spend. That’s another business expense removed, or reduced, compared to the competition. A post on their Instagram positively shouts the phrase: “Our marketing strategy: outstanding product performance.” If only the market realities were that simple. For buyers that means the product is very good, the price is lower, but the brand’s ability to grow will be slower. To many, that will be welcome.

WRAPPING UP

These are one of the best all-round rim brake carbon clinchers I’ve tested because they’re so damn usable. I wouldn’t say they amaze at anything (other than braking) but they’re very good at everything and cost less than their direct competitors. They’re light enough, (anecdotally) aero enough, stiff enough, and stop well enough to be both an everyday wheel and a race wheel. One of my favourite things was being able to forget I was riding carbon rim-brake clinchers (unless it was very wet) and treat them like an aluminium set. I didn’t have to brake early or coddle them like some other carbon wheels I’ve ridden.

If the manufacturing delivers the longevity they theoretically should, these become a very compelling option for buyers looking at the premium end of the market. Cheap? Nope. But they’re damn good. If your budget is lower then the Uberflieger Lites would be a fantastic option at $1,999.

Buying: as I said above, these were sent by the newly announced Australian distributor Full Beam Australia who sell the Bikebeat Uberflieger Pros for $3,200and include a set of lightweight Titanium skewers, and a set of Wolfpack Race tyres in that price. Aussie buyers can make a purchase from Full Beam Australia. This isn’t a paid review and we don’t get any incentives from the sale of Bikebeat products.