Chris King GRD23 R45D 700c Wheelset Info

The Chris King GRD23 R45D 700c Wheelset marked Chris King's first move into building a complete wheel around its own rim rather than lacing its hubs to rims from ENVE, HED, or Reserve. Built for gravel and all-road riding, the GRD23 pairs Chris King's R45D hub with a rim made from FusionFiber — a thermoplastic composite rather than traditional thermoset carbon fiber, manufactured for Chris King by CSS Composites in Utah using recycled material to cut down on manufacturing waste. This particular listing is currently on sale at $1,599.99, down from a regular price of $2,450.00.

FusionFiber's main advantage over standard carbon is impact resistance. Thermoplastic resin flexes and absorbs impact rather than cracking the way a thermoset carbon layup can under a hard hit from a rock or a pothole edge, which matters more on gravel and rough all-road terrain than on smooth pavement. The GRD23 rim runs a 23mm internal width and 29mm external width at a shallow 24mm depth — a gravel-appropriate profile rather than an aero road shape — and Chris King rates it for tires from 28mm up to 50mm wide, covering everything from a fast gravel race tire to a loaded bikepacking tire. Claimed rim weight is 404 grams per rim, and the wheelset ships with a tape and valve set included, so tubeless setup doesn't require a separate trip for supplies.

The hub is Chris King's R45D, a Centerlock disc hub built around the brand's RingDrive engagement system. RingDrive uses 45 teeth, which Chris King builds specifically to minimize drag while still delivering engagement essentially as soon as a rider starts pedaling — useful on technical gravel climbs where a lot of momentary, low-cadence pedal strokes need to translate to forward motion immediately rather than a few degrees later. The bearings are heat-treated steel, machined to consistent size and shape for smooth, reliable rotation, and RA Cycles can upgrade this wheelset to ceramic bearings on request for a rider who wants to shave rolling resistance further.

Spokes are 24 Sapim CX-Ray bladed stainless spokes per wheel, laced in a 2-cross pattern with externally accessible aluminum nipples — a detail that makes truing and spoke tension adjustments easier for a shop or a rider doing their own maintenance, since the nipples don't need to be accessed through the rim bed. Chris King claims a wheelset weight of roughly 1,470 grams for the pair, though real-world weights on a scale tend to land a bit higher, closer to 1,500 grams — a small but honest gap between claimed and measured weight that's common across the wheel industry.

This build is available through RA Cycles with either an HG11 (Shimano/SRAM 11-speed) or XDR freehub body, and in a wide range of Chris King's signature colorways — Black, Gold, Matte Black, Matte Turquoise, Midnight, Red, Silver, and Two Tone Black Gold. For a rider who wants a wheelset built specifically for gravel and rough all-road riding, rather than a road wheel stretched to cover gravel duty, the GRD23's combination of an impact-resistant rim material and Chris King's proven hub engineering makes a strong case — especially at the current sale price against its $2,450 regular price.

The RA Perspective

The GRD23 is the wheelset we point gravel racers and bikepackers toward when they want something that can take a hard hit on a rock garden and keep rolling true. FusionFiber genuinely rides differently than a stiff carbon rim — there's a bit more give to it on chattery terrain, which some riders notice immediately and others only appreciate after a few long, rough rides.

Worth knowing: Chris King's claimed 1,470g wheelset weight tends to run a little optimistic. We've seen these come in closer to 1,500-1,510g on our own shop scale, which isn't a meaningful difference in how the wheel rides, but we'd rather tell a weight-conscious customer that upfront than have them notice it after unboxing.

The externally accessible nipples are a small detail that makes a real difference if you ever need a wheel trued at a shop that isn't us — it's a faster, less finicky job than rims that hide the nipples inside the bed.

At the current sale price, this is one of the stronger values in Chris King's wheel lineup, especially for a customer who already wants Chris King hubs and doesn't want to pay full price for a rim-and-hub combo built to order.

Chris King GRD23 R45D 700c Wheelset

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