Lightweight Fernweg 63 EVO Disc Black Tubeless Wheelset

There are expensive wheels, and then there are Lightweight wheels. The Friedrichshafen, Germany manufacturer has been building full-carbon wheelsets since 1994 — the company made the world's first full carbon wheel and has been refining the process for three decades. The Lightweight Fernweg 63 EVO Disc Black Tubeless Wheelset is the current expression of their deep-section aero road wheel: 63mm of rim depth, handmade in Germany at roughly 16 hours of labor per wheel, and built with technologies that most manufacturers simply don't have access to. Jan Ullrich won the 1997 Tour de France on Lightweight wheels. Richard Carapaz took Olympic gold in 2020 on them. The heritage is real, and the Fernweg 63 represents what that heritage looks like applied to modern disc brake road cycling.

The technology that most distinguishes a Lightweight from any other carbon wheelset is the R2R (Rim-to-Rim) spoke system. Instead of individual spokes attached to hub flanges and threaded to rim nipples, each carbon fiber bundle runs as a continuous path from rim to rim, threading through the hub body without interruption. The fibers follow their natural load path without bending, kinking, or mechanical connectors between them. No stress concentration points. No metal-to-carbon junctions where failure initiates. The result is maximum stiffness with fewer failure modes — and a spoke contribution to total wheelset weight so low that the entire 20-spoke front wheel comes in at 728 grams. Twenty spokes front, twenty rear, carbon throughout.

The Pentagon SL hub takes its name from the five-sided geometry of its body, which increases lateral stiffness and support compared to round hub designs. DT Swiss Star Ratchet engagement provides rapid, reliable power transfer on every pedal stroke. CeramicSpeed ceramic bearings reduce rotational drag below what standard steel races achieve and extend service life significantly. For disc brake applications specifically, the Pentagon SL hub incorporates advanced heat dissipation engineering — designed to handle the sustained thermal loads generated on long mountain descents without compromising bearing integrity. Thru-axle standards are 12x100mm front and 12x142mm rear. The Black (Schwarz Edition) finish runs all-black across the logos, spokes, and rim walls — the same R2R engineering underneath, with an understated appearance that disappears into a dark build.

Design Benefits

1. R2R Continuous Carbon Spokes Are Fundamentally Different from Everything Else. Traditional carbon spokes are individual units — clamped, glued, or threaded at both ends, with mechanical junctions that concentrate stress and add mass. Lightweight's R2R spokes are a continuous carbon fiber bundle running rim to rim through the hub body in a single unbroken path. The fibers experience only tension and compression along their natural axis. There are no connectors, no joints, no points where the load path changes material or direction. This is why a 20-spoke Lightweight wheel is stiffer than most 24-spoke carbon wheels from other manufacturers — the spokes themselves are carrying load more efficiently than any jointed design can.
2. The Pentagon SL Hub and CeramicSpeed Bearings Are Engineered for Disc Brake Demands. Disc brakes generate sustained heat loads that rim brake wheels never had to manage. The Pentagon SL hub's five-sided body geometry improves lateral stiffness at the disc rotor mounting face and dissipates heat more effectively than round hub designs under heavy braking. CeramicSpeed ceramic bearings reduce drag, handle thermal cycling better than standard steel balls, and maintain precision over longer service intervals. The combination isn't incidental — it's spec'd specifically for what disc brake riding demands from a hub over time.
3. 63mm Is the Right Aero Depth for Road Racing and Fast Road Riding. The Fernweg sits at the deeper end of the practical aero spectrum — 63mm provides a meaningful drag reduction advantage at the speeds where road races and fast group rides are decided, while stopping short of the 80mm+ depths where crosswind sensitivity becomes a consistent handling challenge. Lightweight's wind-tunnel geometry produces roughly 80 N/mm of lateral stiffness — approximately 20 N/mm stiffer than comparable aero competitors — which means the rim profile stays aerodynamically consistent under load rather than deflecting. At 1,545g total for a 63mm deep disc brake wheelset, the weight is competitive with shallower options from most other brands.
4. Handmade in Germany, 16 Hours Per Wheel. Lightweight builds every wheel at their Friedrichshafen facility using a manufacturing process that is 70% hand labor. The quality control that results from that level of individual attention — each wheel inspected and finished by a technician who built it — produces consistency that high-volume offshore manufacturing can't match at the component level. The carbon fiber layup, spoke tensioning, bearing installation, and finish work are all done in Germany, to tolerances that reflect three decades of refining the same fundamental construction approach. That's what the price buys beyond the specification sheet.

Final Take

The Lightweight Fernweg 63 EVO Disc Black is not competing for value — it's competing for performance at the absolute top of the road wheel category. The R2R spoke system, Pentagon SL hub, CeramicSpeed bearings, and 1,545g total weight for a 63mm deep disc wheelset represent engineering and craftsmanship that simply isn't available elsewhere at any price. For riders who have worked through the carbon wheel options and want the best wheel they can put on their bike, the Lightweight Fernweg 63 EVO Disc Black is the answer.