10 February 2025
Timeless Innovation: Exploring Fulcrum Wheels' Finest Heritage Products
Fulcrum has taken up the challenge of designing and building perfect products for the needs of all cyclists since 2004.
The countless hours of testing in the laboratory and out on the open road along with the research into technologically advanced materials and solutions are only part of the story. What you also need is a pinch of folly, the desire to do things differently and come up with solutions that break from the crowd. It’s amazing to see how the constant research for the most functional solutions has led us to develop unique and characteristic designs and how form and function have always been indissolubly bound together in Fulcrum’s design philosophy: 
Fulcrum archive
Such a long history means that we have built up an enormous archive of products that are part of the history of our brand and, without boasting, the history of the bike industry and racing culture. We have decided to open this archive and share some of Fulcrum’s most iconic products so that we can look at our history together. Some of the solutions are truly inspiring with bold designs and products designed for specific markets or users. This is the history of Fulcrum, built one single product or technological solution at the time. The technological innovations have regarded the products as well as the processes, and have led to the solutions that we use today.
For example there is the Racing Light XLR, a wheel from 2009, designed to achieve maximum performance uphill and used by the professional teams we sponsored: Lampre Fondital and Cofidis. Weighing only 1276 grams in the tubular version, the wheel featured a carbon hub, saw the introduction of the Two-to-One™ spoke pattern technology and CULT ceramic bearings. The Racing Light XLR was Fulcrum’s answer for climbers looking for light and reactive wheels.
The previous year, 2008, saw our entry in the MTB world, with the RED FIRE, a wheel that become part of Downhill history. The state of the art technical specifications and technological solutions that we employed have certainly been superseded today, such as the 20 mm front hub, a 23 mm channel (how times have changed! We’ve just launched a road wheel with the same sized channel!) and 32 steel spokes, but they made the RED FIRE the must have 26” wheel for the best downhill riders of the time, such as the Commencal Team. Needless to say that red rim was easy to spot and was an icon of that period.
Fulcrum’s iconic products have left a mark not only in Downhill, but in every MTB discipline. Such as the RED ZONE XLR, an Enduro wheel from 2010, which was tubeless compatible from the outset, thanks to its non-drilled bridge and ensured control and resistance thanks to its aluminium rim with reinforcements in the spoke area and oversized silver anodised spokes. The graffiti-themed graphics were one of the most recognisable aspects of this wheel.
The maximum performance wheel in the MTB world of those years was undoubtedly the RED CARBON XRP, a light and reactive wheel that marked Fulcrum’s presence in XC and Marathon races starting from 2011. The 2011 26” RED CARBON XRP weighed only 1347 grams, thanks to an almost full carbon construction. The hubs featured red anodised aluminium flanges and central cone in carbon fibre, carbon rims and only 20 straight pull double-butted stainless steel spokes. To further reduce the weight and increase resistance, and therefore performance, the freewheel body was in titanium. The RED CARBON XRP was the wheel that allowed us to work with the best riders and teams over the years such as, for example: Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå, José Hermida and Gerhard Kerschbaumer, as well as teams such as Merida Multivan, TX Active Bianchi, Orbea Racing Team and Commencal, up to today with the Buff-Megamo team.
Whilst if we go back to the road, we could mention so many products that we could fill a book. Out of all the possible products we have chosen two very special wheels that best represent Fulcrum’s approach. The RED WIND XLR 105 reveal the constant desire to meet the requirements of every type of cyclist, even those who dedicate themselves to the most specialised and niche disciplines. In fact the wheel features an extreme aerodynamic and high-performance profile of 105 mm. Dating from 2012, it had a full carbon structure with an aluminium braking surface applied on the carbon, and not vice versa, as was the case in those years, where carbon wheels consisted simply of carbon fairings on aluminium rims. Fulcrum’s technological innovation can be seen in the wheel’s innovative aspects such as the oversize self-lock aluminium nipples, aerodynamic profile spokes and oversize flanges. A unique and extreme wheel, that guaranteed maximum performance with uncompromising aerodynamic efficiency.
We close this quick trip down memory lane with a very special version of the RACING ZERO CMPTZN DB, one of the products that best represents Fulcrum’s approach to customising its products to meet the tastes and requirements of different users and markets. In this case, the Japanese market. Part of the Racing Zero family, which has made Fulcrum’s history starting from 2007, this version maintains the traditional construction with non-drilled 2-WAY-FIT rim, CULT ceramic bearings and aluminium spokes in a Two-to-One pattern. The uniqueness of this version is the read anodising on the spokes and rim, which in Japan is a colour that symbolises prosperity and strength and it represents the sun. Here too we can see how the philosophy that sees form and function as two indissoluble concepts was at the heart of every Fulcrum project.
Seeing some of these products today and realising that they were state of the art solutions just a few years ago is amazing. We will probably do the same when we look back at today’s range in a few years’ time. If we do we can be fully satisfied with ourselves, because it will mean that we are still having fun and doing what we love, and most importantly we are still daring to produce innovative products that are never obvious. We are the first who love riding them on our bikes. Just for the simple pleasure of riding.
