Test Fulcrum Metal Carbon: premium carbon wheels to completely enhance your trail MTB

Fulcrum is a well-known player in the wheel market, always faithful to its own criteria and not swayed by trends. After a period without major updates in its MTB catalog, the brand is once again making a strong commitment to the sector with the launch of the new Metal Carbon, high-end wheels specifically designed for Trail riding.

We have been testing them thoroughly over the past few weeks and here we share our experience.

Fulcrum Metal Carbon: Trail wheels full of premium details

We are looking at truly exclusive wheels filled with technology. These are 29-inch wheels designed for Trail / All Mountain use, with a 32mm internal carbon rim and a remarkably low weight for this type of wheel, advertised at 1550 grams.

What stands out the most about this model is clearly the design of its rim. A good carbon rim has the spoke holes oriented based on their trajectory towards the hub, eliminating stress points in the nipple area. But Fulcrum has gone even further, and their rim, which already has a marked asymmetrical profile to balance tensions on both sides, has a wavy shape that aligns with each hole in the right direction to maximize the wheel's strength and reliability.

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Aesthetically, it is a very striking shape, but it also makes a lot of sense in optimizing the weight-resistance-stiffness relationship.

The rim has even more interesting secrets. One of them is the absence of holes on the inside, eliminating the need for tubeless tape or rim tape. This is achieved through the MOMAG mounting system, which uses magnets to position each nipple during assembly.

This absence of holes results in a rim without critical points that can be lightweight and, at the same time, offer greater tolerance to withstand high spoke tension.

Of course, the rim shape in the valve nut area has also been worked on, being flat, ensuring reliability.

The internal rim width is 32mm, as mentioned earlier, aiming for optimization for mounting tires between 2.4" and 2.6".

The wheels have 24 spokes in the front and 28 in the rear. These are round but with a pronounced taper and a Straight Pull hub attachment. In their trajectory, there is no contact between the spokes, so there will be no issues with creaking or any other noise.

The hubs are also very well crafted technically, with attention to detail evident in their design and machining. The body of both hubs is oversized on the disc side, and for the nipple attachment, the body is machined to create space, resulting in a fairly compact shape.

The bearings are adjustable, using a cup and cone system, allowing preload adjustment to prevent any play. The hubs are offered with Shimano MicroSpline or Sram XD freehubs.

The disc attachment is centerlock, with the peculiarity that the thread for the lock ring is external, unlike the usual internal thread.

The Fulcrum Metal Carbon wheels are spectacular

There are few wheels that stand out as much in person as the Metal Carbon without resorting to flashy designs or bright colors. Just the shape of their carbon rims alone draws our attention.

A lot of effort has gone into the aesthetics, and even the decoration on the rims looks of high quality. Also, the absence of holes in the rim bed stands out when holding the wheels.

Before mounting them, we weighed them on our scale and they showed 1559 grams. Just a few grams above the advertised weight, but still an excellent figure for wheels with the characteristics of these Fulcrum Metal Carbon.

We also like to check tensions when testing wheels, and when we checked the spokes on the Fulcrum wheels, we were surprised by the almost perfect balance on each side of the wheels. This is what is always sought after but not all wheels achieve, and the Fulcrum wheels are mounted with optimal tension and balance, making us believe that their reliability will be very high over time.

When tubeless setup, we skip the process of putting tape. But even better is the fact that in the future, we won't have any problems in this regard, as it is in the successive tire changes where issues can arise.

Although Fulcrum has specific eBike wheels in its catalog, these Metal Carbon wheels are suitable for use with lightweight eBikes. We tested them on a Scott Patron, which, although not considered lightweight, meets the maximum weight of 125kg supported by the system, and it is a Trail bike that these wheels complement wonderfully.

On the trail

Mounting the Fulcrum wheels on the Patron resulted in a significant reduction in the bike's weight, and also, in such a relevant component as the wheels, with a very large impact on the bike's inertia.

The lightness of the wheels gives the bike incredible maneuverability. Both in moments of acceleration and braking, we feel great agility, but where they make the biggest difference is when riding on rocky and technical terrain, where we pass through with great ease, as if it were a much lighter bike.

In rough terrain, we also benefit from excellent lateral stiffness, providing us with great precision in our line choice.

The 32mm rim width fits perfectly with the 2.6" tires we used for testing. Although they were versatile tires without aggressive tread, this rim width ensures we get the maximum performance in both comfort and grip.

Throughout the time we have used the Fulcrum Metal Carbon wheels, we have not encountered any issues with unwanted noises, and the hub rolling has been smooth from start to finish.

The hub sound is not loud, but rather discreet, although this is a matter of personal preference.

Conclusion

After some time using these wheels, we can say that they have passed with flying colors. They have no weak points and seem to be a very reliable wheelset for Trail use, with great lightness for wheels in this segment. They stand out aesthetically with the shape of their rims and have top-notch finishes.

The actual weight on the scale—1563 grams—shows that Fulcrum has achieved an excellent combination of weight, stiffness, and reliability.

The Metal Carbon wheelset is priced at €1640, which, while a considerable amount, is highly competitive and, when compared to other wheels in a similar category, seems like a hard option to beat.

You can view this and other models on the official Fulcrum website.