The Princeton CarbonWorks Dual 5550 wheels made a low-key appearance at Paris-Roubaix in 2021. You’re forgiven for not noticing; the wheels hadn’t even been released yet. But they were borne from a need for a better wheel to tackle those legendary conditions in the Hell of the North.
The Dual 5550 wheels have joined the Princeton CarbonWorks lineup as a dedicated all-road wheelset. The rims are hooked, so they accept just about any type of clincher tire. There’s also a tubular rim version if you’re still into the glue-up process.
But more importantly, the Dual 5550 wheels are designed to tackle the wider array of conditions the modern road rider encounters on daily rides and racecourses.
Price: $3,950 as tested
Weight: 1,440 grams per set, advertised
Specs:
- Hooked rims
- Tubeless-ready
- hole-less rim bed
- Tactic Racing TR01 hubs
- 22mm inner rim width
- 55mm/50mm variable rim depth
- Available in clincher or tubular
- Available in rim or disc brake configurations
Dual 5550 wheels build and specs
The Dual 5550 wheels are optimized for 28-31mm tires, according to Princeton CarbonWorks. But they can accommodate up to 50mm tires, which means you can run these wheels as road or gravel hoops.
The inner rim width on these hooked rims measures 22mm. My guess is you’ll be in a sweet spot for gravel around 40mm, which is fortunate, since that’s one of the more popular tire sizes. The wheels are tubeless-ready and feature Princeton’s hole-less rim bed.
That’s exactly what it sounds like: there are no spoke holes in the rim bed. Princeton says this makes the wheels stronger and stiffer, and more user-friendly. No tubeless tape to contend with, after all. You would think that would add a lot of weight, but Princeton says the rims weigh less than 500 grams. The total advertised wheelset weight is a very competitive 1,440 grams.
My test wheels came with Tactic Racing’s TR01 hubs. While the wheels are available in both a rim brake and disc brake option, I opted for the disc brake setup (I no longer own any rim brake bikes. How strange to say that!). And you can choose from tubeless clincher wheels or tubulars. My test set is the tubeless clincher configuration.
The reason for the waves
Like the other wheels in Princeton CarbonWorks’s lineup, the Dual 5550 wheels feature a sinusoidal rim shape. That’s different, if only slightly, from the sawtooth profile on Zipp’s NSW wheels. The shape is meant to increase the wheel’s stability, especially when the wind is hitting your wheel from yaw angles above zero — in other words, not straight on.
While the wheels appear almost identical to the Zipps at first glance, you’ll notice a different shape entirely when you look up close. According to Princeton CarbonWorks, this specific shape provides the best aerodynamic performance. For a more thorough explanation of the sinusoidal rim shape, check out the podcast episode I recorded with Princeton’s Harrison Macris when I was with VeloNews.
Tactic Racing TR01 hubs
Princeton is full of surprises. The hubs on my test set of the Dual 5550 wheels comes from Tactic Racing. If that brand name is unfamiliar to you, that’s because it’s pretty new. Tactic Racing started as a partnership between Princeton CarbonWorks and a German designer, partly as a response to the supply chain issues that have plagued the industry since the beginning of the pandemic.
But more than that, Tactic Racing exists to fill a need for a better hub. The TR01 features a conical engagement system that Tactic says is almost instant. It’s also stronger and less prone to wear because there’s more contact surface area between the key components.
Testing the Princeton CarbonWorks Dual 5550 wheels
Go give that YouTube video up there a thumb’s up! If the video gets to 50 thumb’s ups, I’ll be doing a fully independent review right here on Slow Guy on the Fast Ride.
I’ll test the Dual 5550 wheels on varied terrain. My local road rides are almost exclusively on pavement. And between my house and the nearest climbs, there’s about 12 miles of flat terrain prone to blustery winds. That should prove ideal for getting a sense of the effectiveness of the sinusoidal rim shape.
Fortunately, just up the road in Boulder, Colorado, I’ve got some world-class gravel to test the Dual 5550’s true all-road capabilities. I’ll get these wheels dirty with road tires, then swap them over to my gravel bike to give them a good beating. I’m curious to see how they stand up to more rugged terrain.
I’m also excited to try out the Tactic Racing hubs. The design is truly unique, and I want to see if there’s anything to the quick engagement claims. Fast engagement matters more off-road than on, where you’re likely to encounter more drastic speed and terrain changes. So I’ll be paying close attention when the Dual 5550 wheels are mounted to my gravel bike.
Go give that video a thumb’s up!
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