It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from them, but the new HED Vanquish aero road wheel line brings updated profiles designed around wider tires. They also have lighter-yet-stronger layups, new depths, and they look better than ever, too.
Top level, there are two versions – Vanquish, and Vanquish Pro. All depths are updated, and they’ve replaced hte 40mm with a deeper 45mm option. The entire construction is new, too, from carbon fiber material and supplier selection to layup and rim profiles. And they’re all still hooked, because they believe that’s the safest option.
Updated aero profiles
The new shapes are all within their patented profiles, but get minor updates that aren’t immediately obvious. Anne Hed told me the goal was to create a better handling wheel with improved crosswind stability without diminishing the overall aerodynamics that the Vanquish line was known for. And they needed to make it faster with modern, wider tires.
To do that they reshaped the rims, with a blunter shape near the spokes. Interior width increased from 21mm to 22.4mm, with a corresponding growth on the outer width, too. The goal of all these changes was to improve aerodynamics with wider 28mm tires. It worked, and not just in CFD. HED took them to the wind tunnel to prove it:
The result is a near-zero difference in drag between 25mm (above) to 28mm (below) tires.
In the real world, the larger volume 28mm tires add compliance and traction while reducing rolling resistance, so the net gain is that you’re faster with 28mm tires.
The rims come out of the mold looking good, too, there’s no paint or filler on the exterior. What you see on the outside of the rim is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s a functional layer. You can see how they do it in our Factory Tour post, but they say they’ve refined their process even more since then and the wheels look better than ever.
2024 HED Vanquish Pricing & Options
The standard Vanquish wheels come in 45mm and 62mm depths with 4-pawl hubs & 27-tooth ratchets for 13º engagement. They’re built with Sapim CX Sprint bladed spokes and retail for $1,750 per set. Claimed weights are 1653g and 1710g.
The Vanquish Pro series is lighter (and lighter than the prior versions), with a higher-modulus, lighter carbon. They rims are made in the same mold, but built with higher-end hubs with 5 pawls x 45 teeth (8º engagement) and Sapim CX Ray bladed spokes. The Vanquish Pro gets more options -45mm, 62mm, 84mm, and a full disc (shown at top of post)- and the naming now exactly matches the rim depth. MSRP $2,250/set.
Anne said the prior Vanquish rims were already strong, passing 3x the required UCI test limits, but these new ones are stronger. All wheels go through a six-point test for impacts, lateral stress, load stress, drops, environmental stress, and more. And it’s all done in-house at their factory in Minneapolis, all surviving well past the required minimum testing standards.
