Elitewheels

Elitewheels is a Chinese company that designs and manufactures carbon wheelsets for a range of disciplines, including road, gravel and mountain biking. Despite only being founded in 2015, it has quickly built up a reputation for its high-quality and high-performing products.

History

Elitewheels was founded in 2015 but its history goes back to 2009 when its founders, Tony Tong and Jack Chen, met while studying engineering. They quickly teamed up and, after building up experience at carbon wheel manufacturing factories, the duo established Xiamen Yuan An Composite Technology, Elitewheels' parent company.

Like many Asian-based cycling companies, it started out as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) whereby it manufactured carbon rims and wheels for a host of top brands. The company had ambitions to create its own wheels, though, and in 2015 it established a bicycle hub and research team and acquired Japanese FANUC CNC equipment. This gave it the means to start designing and manufacturing its own wheels and from that Elitewheels was born.

Elitewheels has been growing ever since, aided by its appearance at Interbike in 2017 before the Taipei Cycle Show in 2019. Its wheels have also received recognition from the UCI, professional cycling's governing body, which has provided its approval for a range of the brand’s wheels. Gaining this approval is a sign of a wheelset’s quality, something that has been achieved by Elitewheels' rigoruous design and testing process. Throughout its short history, the company has filed 32 patents and employed cutting-edge techniques to develop its designs, all while putting a similar emphasis on quality control.

Gaining UCI approval also means that they can be raced in competition, with Elitewheels going on to partner with a host of Continental teams. This currently includes China Glory Continental Cycling Team, Mazowsze Serce Polski and Cycling Team Kranj.

All of these teams use the brand’s range-topping Drive wheelset. Released in 2022, the Drive range of wheels are packed with the brand’s latest and best technology, all of which are designed in-house. This includes Elitewheels’ special blend of carbon fibre, UNI technology, which enabled it to make the rims lighter than ever before, with a 40mm disc-brake version tipping the scales at only 1260 grams.

The Drive range also extends to gravel, but cyclists can also choose from the brand’s entry-level Marvel range which are cheaper but still packed with top tech, while Elitewheels also offers mountain bike and time trial wheels too.

Key moments

A relatively new company, Elitewheels was founded in 2015 when Xiamen Yuan An Composite Technology established a bicycle hub and research team and acquired Japanese FANUC CNC equipment. This gave the company the means to design and create its own wheels and from this Elitewheels was born.

Those ambitions came to fruition in 2016 when Elitewheels started developing its own carbon fibre materials and resin blends. This innovative approach has been an ever-present theme and can be seen in its top-end Drive range of wheels, which feature Elitewheels’ special blend of carbon fibre, named UNI technology.

After a successful first nine years, filled with thousands of happy customers, Elitewheels started building its global dealer and service network at the beginning of 2022.

Elitewheels products

Elitewheels designs and manufactures a wide range of carbon wheelsets, with a commitment to creating high-performance and high-quality products that are both safe and reliable. As Elitewheels is one of the only brands which takes care of every aspect of the design and manufacturing process in-house, it is also able to deliver its premium products at reasonable prices.

Its range currently caters for multiple disciplines, including the road, gravel, mountain biking and triathlon/time trialling.

Elitewheels drew on all of its experience and design know-how to arrive at its flagship road model, the Drive, which was released in 2022. It’s packed with innovative tech, including UNI technology, a special blend of carbon fibre that minimises the weight of the wheelsets. There are seven variations of the wheel available, from a 40mm depth to 65mm, including both rim and disc-brake versions.

Elitewheels also offers entry-level carbon wheels through its Marvel range, which offer performance on a budget.

The road offering is mirrored in the gravel range, where two gravel-specific versions of the Drive sit as the flagship models above the more entry-level Marvel range. Benefiting from versatile tyre compatibility, the Drive G45 can be paired with anything between 700x30-50c width, while the Drive Six Gravel - with its unique six-spoke design - can accommodate between 700x28-50c.

Over in mountain biking, the Elitewheels Drive Six MTB also utilise the six-spoke design and are joined by the Pro wheels which have tasted action at the Mountain Bike World Championships. Available in a 27.5” or 29” size, these feature reinforced hookless rims which make the wheel stronger, providing additional impact resistance.

They were joined by the Gnar 29er in the brand's 29” mountain bike wheel offering in 2023.

The performance of a wheel is arguably put to the biggest test in time trialling, where equipment choices can cost seconds - and that could be the difference between winning or losing. To make sure its time trial wheels won’t let you down, the Elitewheels Velo range has been carefully designed and tested to ensure maximum performance.

Pro cycling

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Current sponsorships: China Glory Continental Cycling Team, Mazowsze Serce Polski, Cycling Team Kranj, Sabgal Anicolor, Victoire Hiroshima, 7 Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Road Bike Philippines