• FSA XC-300 Wheels
• £259.95

The XC-300 is FSA’s flagship wheelset, intended (as you’d probably guessed) for mainly XC usage. The wheels are handmade with Danza AL6061-T6 aluminium disc-specific (but non-tubeless) 20mm rims. Six-bolt disc-specific hubs feature 7075 alloy axles and roll on double-sealed cartridge bearings – still silky smooth after several months of testing. The medium-height flanges have as much excess material removed as is possible to trim the weight. The rear hub has a steel cassette body with, um, “deep throat” (it says here) wiper seals.

Holding the rims and hubs together are 24 Wheelsmith double-butted spokes front and rear. They’re laced two-cross on the front and three-cross on the back, and in a further effort to save weight, aluminium nipples are used. SpokePrep ensures the spoke heads don’t work loose. FSA’s own Scatto QR levers are easy to operate and complete the package nicely.

At 1,880g a pair, they’re not the lightest wheels available. To give you an idea of how they fit in to the market, Mavic’s CrossRide wheels are 1,970g (with Centerlock rotor mounts, lighter than the traditional six-bolt standard) for £120. Or there’s the £300 CrossMax Enduro wheels which are marginally lighter than the XC-300s at 1,750g.

We’ve been riding (abusing) them for several months on Project Pipedream and they’re still as true as the day we took them out of the box. They do display the merest hint of flex when pushing them hard, but we’ve haven’t needed to get a spoke key on them yet – they’re still evenly tensioned throughout. And they look great.

Positives: Good balance of weight and strength, durable, look great

Negatives: A bit overweight for the price, not tubeless-ready

Verdict: A perfectly adequate wheelset from FSA, but we’re struggling to see where they fit in with the competition. Compared to rival offerings they look a little overweight for the money (or expensive for the weight, whichever way you want to look at it). They do look great however, and are very tough and have needed absolutely no attention as of yet.

Performance: 4/5
Value: 3/5
Overall: 4/5