Italian wheel manufacturer Fulcrum is best known for its XC wheels, as used by Julien Absalon and Jean Christophe Peraud to take Gold and Silver medals at the recent Beijing Olympics. Now, though, it’s branched out, with the announcement of a new freeride/downhill wheelset.

In accordance with Fulcrum product-naming policy, the new wheels have the word “Red” in the name – the FR wheelset has been dubbed Red Fire, which looks like it ought to be an anagram of “freeride” but isn’t. The Red Fire shares various features with Fulcrum’s Red Metal XC wheels, including having twice as many spokes on one side as the other at both ends – more on the drive side at the back, more on the brake side at the front.

The predictably red-anodised rims use Fulcrum’s UST-compatible Ultra-Fit tubeless system, and some weight is saved by machining away bits of rim. All-up weight is a claimed 2.2kg, which isn’t too shabby for freeride wheels. Fulcrum also now offers 20mm through-axle options on all its Red Metal XC wheels, although we can’t help thinking that there’s a bit of an application gap between the various Red Metal hoops and the Red Fire. We’re sure that Fulcrum will fill that in time.

Fulcrum Red Fire wheels are £549 a pair – have a look at www.i-ride.co.uk for more details.