Ritchey Superlogic Carbon 46 Clincher Review

When it comes to wheels we all want the same thing, speed, aerodynamics, weight, aggressive looks, solid braking and reliability. We also want the convenience of clinchers over tubulars but don’t want to lose any potential for performance. Wheel manufacturers are looking for the same thing but it seems it’s just not going to happen. Perhaps somewhere down the road when someone comes up with an all carbon deep section, tubeless, disc brake wheelset around 1200grams. For not we are going to have to look at wheels like the new Ritchey Superlogic 46 Clincher to get us a close to our dream wheel as possible.

The Ritchey’s are fast, I felt it immediately. These wheels make a difference. If you have been using regular clinchers and you switch to the Ritchey’s you will feel like you just made a visit to Ricardo Rico’s family doctor. Specially when the speed is over 22 m/ph (35 km/ph) The deep rims and bladed spokes offer very little resistance to wind so much so that it’s noticeable.

These wheels are also a good combination of stiffness and comfort, they rear spoke pattern is a very old format that is becoming popular again “crow’s-foot” basically built 2 cross on both sides with 4 extra radial spokes on the drive side. This pattern gives the rear wheel that little extra resistance to torque flex yet keeps the rear wheel light and not to stiff for longer rides and daily use.

The carbon braking surface is like that of similar wheels. It’s not great, this is the biggest reason wheels of this nature are not ideal for every day use. Braking is noisy and uneven and get’s worse in the wet. Carbon specific pads improve breaking performance but don’t get close to a good alloy rim. Ritchey turned to McLean Composites(Reynolds) for carbon rim technology this quickly brought Ritchey up to the podium step in the market making the Superlogic 46’s as good as any in this arena. I guess it’s rider preference and expectations with breaking. I like alloy for daily riding.

In the wind the 46mm deep rims were a little unruly. They blew me around more than expected. My not so technical findings are that the flat surface of these rims is more prone to side wind than equally deep but round shape rims. What I did find to be a fantastic combination on windy days was to use a low profile front wheel with the Ritchey Superlogic rear wheel. In fact this would be one of the better race set up’s I could imagine.

Climbing with the Ritcheys was fantastic for deeper carbon wheels. The wheels are light for 46mm deep clinchers. With a claimed weight of 1400 grams they were light enough to use for most hilly course and aero enough for fast courses.

Ritchey put some thought in to the skewers supplied with these wheels. They have titanium rods making them very light and the cam levers are longer than any I have used. They look great and have a good feel when fastening the wheels. The decals are not my favorite. The shiny lettering and deep red flashes don’t represent the price and quality of these wheels in my mind.

Ritchey Superlogic Carbon 46 Specifications:

Rims - Exclusive uni-directional, 100 percent high-modulus carbon

Rear Hub - WCS V4 (24-hole, cold forged, precision bearings, alloy freehub body in Campagnolo and Shimano/SRAM configurations)

Front Hub - WCS V3 (20-hole, cold forged, precision bearings, round flanges)

Skewers - WCS Titanium model

Spokes - DT bladed New Aero Light (Radial front, 2-cross rear)

Nipples - Alloy hex style with nylon blue patch.

Assembly - Hand built at Ritchey Design California