Review: Pink Bike - Race Face ERA Carbon Wheels

PinkBike has reviewed the Race Face ERA Wheels. Here is what they had to say:

Carbon wheels, as a whole, went through a phase of being overly stiff, harsh and sometimes even brittle, which sparked the trend of enduro racers resorting to alloy hoops. Race Face aims to reverse those doubts of compliance and durability with their latest carbon wheelset, the Era.

The Eras are available in a full 29" or 29/27.5" combo and are laced up to the well-established Race Face Vault hubs featuring 28 straight pull spokes across the board. To attain the desired flex and durability requirements Race Face demanded from an enduro wheelset, the front and rear rims are unique in profile and thickness.

Designed from the ground up over a lengthy and rigorous test phase, the Era’s carbon rims were built to balance durability and compliance, both in the vertical and lateral planes, That meant designing a front and rear specific rim profile.

Typically, you’ll find the pawl clutch system located on the freehub and the drive ring on the hub shell, but the Vault reverses that orientation. A labyrinth seal guards the 60-tooth drive ring and 6 pawls, each with two teeth, making for a speedy engagement of 3-degrees.

Carbon wheels are a premium product, reflected by a higher price tag than aluminum hoops, but generally bring weight savings too. The Era's cost $1,599 USD / $2,150 CAD for either wheel size or freehub body. That's nearly twice the price of the Turbine wheelset, Race Face’s aluminum trail and enduro option, but $200 less than the full retail price of Reserve's 30HD carbon wheelsets. Against the We Are One Convergence ($1580 USD / $1750CAD), the Era are on nearly equal state-side but are much more expensive in Canada.

Race Face boasts that the Era wheels strike a desirable balance of lateral compliance and impact resistance along with the lowest weight that they could achieve in a carbon wheelset. I put these through the wringer for nearly 6-months and have been impressed with their overall ride quality and durability. If you’ve stepped away from carbon wheels because they’ve been brittle or unbearably harsh to ride, it may be time to take a spin on the Eras.

When deciding between all of the carbon wheels on the market now, it’s hard to go wrong honestly. There’s a vast range of weight classes, flex characteristics and value to choose from. The Eras do stand out when searching for that ideal trifecta in the aggressive trail and enduro bike carbon wheel category.

Without a doubt, the Zipp 3Zero Moto wheels have to be the most flexible carbon wheels I’ve tried to date. While they’re suitable under my 78kg mass aboard a short travel trail bike for slower trails where you want them to track through the chunder, they can be a little unnerving when diving into high speed berms. The Eras don’t wander aimlessly through those G-force turns like that at all, however, they do spring back with more force than the We Are One Convergence wheels, for instance.

Against the Reserve HD30, another premium carbon wheelset I’ve spent a fair amount of time on, the Eras track across cambers and rough trails much more comfortably and with less feedback.