Review: Princeton Carbonworks Wake 6560
The following review was written by John Janetzko. Alto Velo would like to thank Princeton Carbonworks for their generous sponsorship. If you’re not a 2023 Alto Velo member, join today and take 45% off any wheelset this holiday season!
Hey Alto Velo,
After quite some anticipation, a couple months ago I got my PCW wheels in the mail! I had ordered the Wake 6560s (Strada) which were something deeper than my previous carbon rims, the Roval CL(X)50s that came with my SL6 Tarmac.
Some context: the Rovals were my only wheels for that bike so I rode them all the time. With the exception of a couple of instances I had never felt like crosswinds were a problem, they handled well and were pretty durable and responsive.
My hope with the PCW wheels was for 1. something more aero optimized; 2. something that would keep the good handling and snapiness. I'm a rider who likes to ride in the break and eat a lot of wind, so having good aero wheels was going to be important.
My first impression when I took these out of the box was that these were some GLAM wheels. I had ordered the glossy silver decals. I also noticed that they felt very light, especially given their depth.
When I got them on my bike they were snappy, not dissimilar from the Rovals, but they had a lot more wooshing sounds than I was used to. My Roval wheels always felt like they were solid. It's not to say the PCW wheels aren't sturdy (more on that later), but they definitely feel a bit more dainty than my Rovals (if you'd consider this a negative).
So what can I say about performance? Well, they're pretty amazing. As I mentioned, they are stiff and responsive. They are also very light for their depth.
I got mine with the Carbon Ti hubs, which have been smooth as anything. My free hub is loud, which you can count as a pro or con, but I like it. The engagement is great, as a result. The frequency is not annoying for me, and if anything it motivates me to just keep pedaling.
From a speed perspective I can't really give you any quantitative metrics here, but they do feel at least as fast as the Rovals. Where I can comment on is their stability. These wheels have the sinusoidal rim profiles, said to improve handling in crosswinds. I can't speak in super quantitative terms here, but I can say that I've been impressed by how well they have handled in the wind. I've not felt any less stable than I had with my Rovals, which I'll remind are ~10-15 mm shallower. I can definitely feel when the wind catches them, but it has never felt like I was going to lose control. I've always felt like I can still keep focussed on my riding and expect the bike to do what it's told.
I guess lastly, I'll wrap up with: "and they look hot". I'm not sure everyone will be stoked to have a bike that draws maximum attention, but if you don't mind it, these wheels will definitely grab people's attention.
Thanks for reading,
JJ
