This article was first published in Rouleur Issue 142 and was produced in collaboration with Scribe
“We don’t rely on assumptions or trend-chasing,” says Scribe founder Alan Graham. “Every wheelset we develop represents a new chapter.” Once he starts talking about the new Ultra range, it’s clear the Belfast brand has not only started a new chapter but is literally spearheading a new wave of high-performance wheel design.
Scribe’s OSL8 (‘oscillate’) carbon spokes, developed with Italian manufacturer Alpina, feature a radical wavy profile that directly challenges the assumption that straight spokes are faster. “The wavy spoke allows the disrupted air to effectively ‘glance’ across the rotated surface when at speed, which gives it a performance gain over flat bladed carbon spokes,” he says.
However, although the OSL8 spokes appear to be the defining feature of the Ultra wheels, Graham says the original catalyst for their development was access to a more advanced level of carbon fibre from South Korea in early 2025 that Scribe had been trying to secure for years. With this in place, what might have been a simple next chapter became a total rewrite.
“The higher grade allowed us to develop ultra-light rims with significantly increased strength,” he says. “When we did the initial testing in-house, we decided to completely redesign the specification. We had already been working with Alpina on the OSL8 spoke, and as our wind-tunnel testing progressed, we were able to demonstrate that the Ultra range – which comprises the Élan Ultra with OSL8 carbon spokes and the CORE Ultra with bladed steel spokes – trump our old range on everything; weight, performance, speed.”
Scribe approached its performance targets using as a benchmark its CORE 60, which had always tested well in the wind-tunnel, and had proven itself compared to industry leaders. “The CORE 60 almost won independent tests for speed when compared against deeper 65mm rims, so we knew we had plenty of room for improvement. With the new rim designs complying with UCI regulations, we were confident the Élan Ultra 6 would test incredibly fast, and the CORE Ultra 6 would literally be the fastest wheelset you can purchase today.”
To underpin this confidence, Scribe used its own Augmented Validation Process (AVP) that Graham describes as “a scientific model we use in-house to make sure we always have the fastest wheels on the market. We can’t share details on this, however, as it needs to remain a secret so we always have an edge.”
What Scribe has done, though, is published data derived from testing the new models at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub against the Scope Artech 6, which has a 65mm rim with straight Carbonlite Aerospokes. Not only did the Scribe Élan Ultra 6 with the carbon OSL8 wavy spokes match the performance of the Scope Artech 6 at 0.33W faster overall, the steel-spoked CORE Ultra 6 was 1.38W faster at 45kph, and 1.60W at 50kph. In pure aerodynamics, the OSL8 carbon spokes are still slightly behind the performance of stainless steel bladed spokes, but they’re closer than any carbon spoke before.
Scribe is dedicated to ensuring wind tunnel performance translates as directly as possible to real-world rider feel and for this reason, Graham explains, they changed their wind tunnel protocol.
“Real-life riding is an area that’s always top of our agenda when we start any project, as we want to develop wheels that are fast, but not grabby in crosswinds. The wider rim profiles we used on the Ultra range offer incredible stability at speed, and they feel like a shallower rim.”
Additionally, he says, the more toroidal shape naturally offers a smooth feel as yaw angles increase from zero degrees. “In the wind-tunnel, we actually changed our protocol to run as dynamic – single degree increments, not blocks of 2.5 then 5.0 and so on – so we could capture the flow of wind for every degree of yaw.”
The target audience for the Ultra wheels is broad – they’re not aimed solely at elite racers. They are, in Graham’s words, for anyone that wants to go faster for the same effort. “The range is designed to offer free speed everywhere! Our view is, ‘why would you choose to go slower?’” He does acknowledge that the Ultras are designed to be ridden fast, however. “They will excel at speed. This is their natural habitat.”
As for the choice between the steel-spoked CORE Ultra and the carbon OSL8-spoked Élan Ultra, that comes down to priorities. The stainless steel bladed spokes are still marginally faster in the wind tunnel, but comparing the weights of the two wheelsets, the Élan Ultra 6 has the advantage at 1289g compared to the CORE Ultra 6’s 1486g. The Élan Ultra is priced at £1,999 compared to the CORE Ultra’s £1,499. Beyond that?
“The CORE is the fastest wheelset we have tested for road riders,” says Graham. “Our Tempus TT range is super fast, but obviously not comparable for road. If you are a racer and want pure speed, the CORE is hard to beat for the money. If you want the highest performance wheelset on the market that pushes the boundaries of weight, aerodynamics and responsiveness, few come close to the specification of the Élan Ultra for the money.”
Graham is clearly proud of not only the performance of the OSL8 spokes, but also the resulting ride quality. “The Élan Ultras are very compliant, as the OSL8’s yield strength sits somewhere between steel equivalents. For a rider, this means they absorb vibrations with ease, as with a well-built steel spoke option, but you have the additional strength, weight savings and responsiveness you get with a carbon spoke. They are completely unique in this respect, and riders will get a supple ride that feels fast.”
The pricing inevitably reflects the levelling up in both the technology and the materials.
“Our carbon rims cost almost double those of our previous models because we sourced the carbon fibre that offers the ultimate specification. Our hubs are completely designed from scratch for the Élan range, with a new double-barrel ratchet-drive system, and the OSL8 spokes are expensive to manufacture also. The rim profiles required new moulds and in all, our design team has spent around 15 months developing this range. But we say that with a smile because we love it!”
Looking to the future, Graham says Scribe is looking not only at the next performance chapter, but to ensure its production, as well its wheels, remain stable in whatever headwinds an increasingly unstable world might whip up.
“We want to de-risk ourselves everywhere possible from friction further afield,” says Graham. “The sensible option is to reshore as much as possible. For us as a brand, any time we have ever had issues it came down to one thing – a disrupted supply chain.” Currently Scribe hand-builds all of its wheelsets in Northern Ireland but, says Graham, it has plans to expand this to carbon manufacturing.
It’s clear this young brand, founded only seven years ago, is going to continue to make waves in all directions.
