Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels
Preview of the Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels
Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels: new for 2014 is the Forgiato range, affordable wheels from Corrado Spada that don’t sacrifice beauty and performance.
So says the marketing on Spada UK importer, VAM Performance’s website about the Breva Forgiato (forged) wheels. We looked at Spada Wheels before and, though we’ll have to get back to you about the performance, these new ‘budget’ wheels do look mightily impressive. If you have a red and white bike then you will love them. Obviously being from Italy there is a tiny little bit of green thrown in there as well, keeping up the tradition of Italian manufacturers putting il Tricolore onto everything they make, but it isn’t a permanent fixture…
Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels
The white hubs and spokes are offset perfectly by the anodised red, aluminium nipples and skewers, all working well with the black rims. I like them a lot. They may be Spada’s more cost effective wheels but they certainly appear to be a quality product. However, in the modern cycling world ‘quality’ should be applied to every detail and on closer inspection of the Breva wheels I am less impressed.
Forgiato rear hub is very tidy
Firstly I discover that the flashes of colour – red on the white spokes and white on the red – are just stickers and they are already starting to peel off. The ‘BREVA’ rim decals are also simple stickers which have not been applied properly and have bubbles in them. Worse, the rim tape is a plastic tubeless-ready type but it had not been set properly and in places is doubled over and sticking out. I’m not sure about using it tubeless but the first inner tube I insert goes ‘BANG’ as a result. It’s not a good start. However, as soon as I grip the skewers and spin the wheels all those little niggles are forgotten…
Rim tape, tubeless ready, was ill fitted
The lack of ‘rim wobble’ as I spin the front wheel and then the purr from the rear hub, tells me that these are well engineered units. These ‘budget’ wheels are built around the more cost effective Forgiato, or forged, hub but still use the same rim and spokes as Spada’s Crystal series. Apparently each wheel is handmade to order and I’m inclined to believe them.
They are very smooth thanks no doubt to the four sealed ‘industrial’ bearings in the rear and the two in the front hub. The Forgiato hubs are painted white but Spada are keen to tell us that they are still high performing, highly weather proofed and very durable. The front weighs in at 90g and the rear is 250g. The rear cassette body seems to be an aluminium unit which in our experience are not the most durable but time will tell…
Skewers and hubs look great
Upfront there are 18 white aero spokes, whereas at the rear there are 24, laced to the 32mm aluminum clincher rims, which may offer some aero benefit. It’s a traditional rim, being narrower than the new on-message wide rims. However, it does look very well made and importantly, looks tough.
Continued overleaf…
As mentioned the wheels come with some quality anodised red, forged alloy skewers and you can tell they are quality as they actually hold the springs in place, which is a nice touch as loosing them is a pain.
Weight for the pair of wheels minus skewers is claimed at a reasonable 1580g per pair; we got 1631g which, whilst not lightweight, for an all-round wheel is spot on. You can add another 94g for the skewers. There is a weight limit on these wheels as well, though at 95kgs it shouldn’t worry too many regular riders.
White spokes stand out and are guaranteed to get you noticed
Smooth bearings and well balanced wheels are sure signs that the Breva Forgiato enjoys the same build quality as their top of the range wheels. When it comes to cycling, it has got to be function over looks every time and that, it would appear, is what you get with these wheels; the cost savings have been made on the decals not the important bits.
So the only real downside to these wheels is that they only come in 10 speed, though much of the target market will still be on 10-speed and we always have a bike to match anyway; luckily in this case it’s also red, black and white.
If the last pair of white spoked wheels we tested are anything to go by then these wheels will get a lot of attention – and these ones should certainly ride well. Look out for a full review soon.
The Spada Breva Forgiato wheels are priced at £545.00.
Spada Wheels
VAM Performance
Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels Words by Simon Whiten Preview of the Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels Spada Breva Forgiato Wheels: new for 2014 is the Forgiato range, affordable wheels from Corrado Spada that don't sacrifice beauty and performance.
