Brev M Wheelset
Having released their track wheel last fall, Brev M sent in a set for review and they quickly found a home on my polo bike, seeing use 2-3 times per week on the local court. The gold ano turns a lot of heads for sure, but the real question for a heavy duty wheelset like this is how it handles the repeated abuse.
Brev M makes two versions of their track wheel, a 32h set with a 32 mm deep rim and the pictured 36h set with a 40 mm deep rim. There are only a couple of aluminum rims out there with a deeper profile. The extra 10 mm on top of the gold-standard Velocity Deep-V is quite noticeable as a point of comparison. Interestingly enough, the rims are machined before anodization, leaving a braking surface for those who choose to run rim brakes on these wheels. The wheels are tied together 3x with 14g spokes and brass nipples, with large flange alloy hubs that spin on adjustable cup and cone bearings, just like Shimano. As should be expected, the wheels have real track nuts with a free spinning yet captured serrated washer.
As one could imagine, those deep-section rims and all those spokes don’t make the lightest wheels in the world, with these coming in at approximately 1300g each. With wheels this portly, approximately is good enough, especially considering that there are road wheelsets that weigh less than a single one of these Brev M hoops, let alone the pair. Weight is clearly not the driving force behind these wheels, looks and urban durability are the top design criteria here. So far so good on the durability, even after some hard crashes and dozens upon dozens of aggressive polo games the rims show some scars but still spin true as can be. The anodization on the machined surface has held up far better than I expected, though they are certainly prone to squeal more than bare aluminum rim surfaces. Cartridge bearings are all the rage these days, but there is ample reason to stick with a loose ball bearing system like these. The larger bearings spin better and can handle more load than their tiny cartridge counterparts, and while they do become contaminated with dirt and water faster they’re easy to clean and repack with grease. That said, the Brev M hubs do not have the buttery feel of some boutique hubs out there, but you can’t feel that other than in your hands anyway.
With the looks of the wheels you either love them or hate them. They’re over the top flashy, and can make or break a given build as far as appearance goes. And the weight is noticeable—the price of bling. I wouldn’t put these on a track bike you plan on racking up the road miles on, but for polo or other abusive riding they’re not out of the question given their potential long term durability. Worth mentioning is the fact that at least on my test set of wheels the hubs and rims do not match, the rims are gold as can be but the hubs are a bit on the orange side, perhaps too much spray-tan. Brev M is working on it as even in the same batch different alloys can yield different colors, but I’ve noticed in the past that of all the anodized colors out there gold seems to be the hardest to match piece by piece. Just a word of warning, as I’ve seen some particularly hideous bikes with five different gold ano colors on them. On an otherwise all black build, they work quite well. These 36h Brev M track wheels retail for $260 per set and are also available in Pink/White/Pink and White/Black/White. Check out www.brevm.com
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