Wheels

DT Swiss RC28 Spline C Mon Chasseral

Named after a mountain, you'd expect these to be light. And you won't be disappointed

The Chasseral is a 1,606m mountain in Switzerland’s Jura range, overlooking the city of Biel, the same city that long time wheel gurus DT Swiss call home. It’s little surprise, then, that the catchily-named DT Swiss RC28 C Mon Chasseral wheels are super light and designed for climbing. In fact, much of the testing took place on the mountain after which they’re named.

Even so, the Mon Chasseral moniker isn’t new, even if the wheels are. In fact, DT Swiss’s first complete road wheelset, launched in 2005, had the same name but things have certainly moved on in the proceeding decade.

That wheelset was an all-alloy offering; carbon rules in 2016 and the weight reduction offered by the composite makes these a very light set of wheels indeed, coming in at just 1,205g – incredibly light for a clincher wheelset.

If you’re after a set of super light carbon clinchers, you won’t find many much lighter than the 1,205g for a set of these

DT Swiss have embraced the tubeless trend and all of their new road wheels became tubeless ready in 2015. The Mon Chasseral’s rim is 28mm deep, reinforcing the fact these are climbing wheels, and with a 21mm external width (internal 15mm) they provide a solid footing for a 25mm tyre, even if they’re some way behind the widest road rims like Zipp’s 25.4mm 202 Firecrests.

The wheels spin around DT Swiss’s highly regarded Spline 180 hubs, but the latest version used here has a carbon shell and ceramic bearings. DT Aerolite spokes complete the build on what’s undoubtedly a premium spec. It all adds up to a set of wheels which, based on our experience to date, feel as exceptionally light when riding as they are on the scales. They’re a joy to climb with, impressively stiff and they spin effortlessly.

Price: £1,999
Weight: 1,205g
Website: DT Swiss
UK Distributor: Madison

Crest a climb and braking is smooth, progressive and reliable on descents when paired to the supplied SwissStop Black Prince pads. Though that’s in the dry as we’ve had limited experience in the wet to date. Braking performance is partly down to the new resin compound developed specifically for these wheels.

Of course, these are very specialist wheels and that means they come at a specialist price – £2,250 to be exact. Sure, they’ll shed a fair bit of weight off almost any bike and you’ll feel those benefits when the road rises, but on flat or rolling roads there’s more to gain from an aero wheelset. Still, it’s about picking your battle and if you’re a climber and super-light clinchers are the name of your game, then these are about as light as they get.