Cadex Ultra 50 Disc Tubeless wheelset review

Cadex is essentially the high-performance arm of Giant, supplying Kristian Blummenfelt with his groundbreaking Cadex Tri bike, usually seen with a full rear disc wheel and front 4-spoke wheel.

The focus of this review is Cadex’s more conventional Ultra 50 Disc Tubeless wheels, ideal for a fast road bike or triathlon bike set-up for variable conditions. Do they do enough to deserve recognition as some of the best wheels for triathlon?

Design

Cadex provides plenty of facts, figures and graphs to show its wheels trumps the competition in the wind tunnel, showing the Ultra 50 to be up to 5.5 watts faster than rivals mounted with a range of common commercially available tyres.

They’re also incredibly light at 1,349g for the pair.

As well as outperforming its rivals, the Ultra 50 actually tested faster than the brand’s own 65mm-deep wheels at all yaw angles other than a completely windless 0 degrees, according to Cadex’s UK product manager.

This, I was told, is because the Ultra 50 wheelset is made specifically for disc brakes with a hookless design that allows for a wider, better optimised outer rim profile with a cleaner transition between rim sidewall and tyre.

That outer rim profile is a sizeable 30mm wide, while internally they are 22.4mm.

When you’re spending £2,650 ($3,500) on a pair of wheels they better look great, and I actually think the Ultra 50s are the most aesthetically-pleasing of all the wheels in our 2024 wheels grouptest.

The black-on-black logos are subtle and stealthy to go with any bike colour, the raw carbon finish is sublime and the Super Aero carbon spokes look the part too.

Ride performance

My wheels were set up tubeless with Cadex Aero tyres and on the road they provided the exhilaration I look for in top-end wheelsets, feeling blisteringly fast on the flats and being fantastically responsive when accelerating sharply.

There wasn’t any hint of a dead spot coming from the freehub when getting up to speed, and when I was churning out the power on long efforts in the TT position they hummed along brilliantly, feeling as if they were almost pushing me along at times.

Cadex adds its own ceramic bearings to the hubs that it claims improves efficiency and lowers rolling resistance, and I wouldn’t disagree with that based on my experience.

There was a hint of a twitch in heavy crosswinds, but nothing I wouldn’t expect on wheels of this depth.

Handling on descents was great, too, with these wheels inspiring confidence even in very unpredictable British weather.

The bottom line

While this doesn’t affect performance, it’s worth mentioning these wheels have a very screechy freehub.

If you’re a fan of more serene-sounding wheels when you’re freewheeling, you might want to consider this before making such a hefty investment; but, if you like to make your presence known in races and have a large wheel upgrade budget, the Ultra 50s would be high up my wish list.

They’re not quite as light as Black Inc’s 48|58, and hookless means tyre choice is a little more limited, but I’m splitting hairs.

Looking for more ways to upgrade your riding? Take a look at our list of the best triathlon bike shoes.

Cadex Ultra 50 Disc Tubeless wheelset specs

Price:	£2,649.98 / $3,500
Available from:	Cadex
Spokes:	Super Aero bladed carbon spokes
Rim depth:	50mm
Internal rim width:	22.4mm
Tyre type:	Tubeless
Weight:	1,349g