RaceFace Turbine R Wheels [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

RaceFace made the Turbine R wheels with riders in mind. At a good price and really good stiffness and durability, it's hard to beat these wheels. Our friend, Wesley, got some new shoes for their bike. See what they think!

Overview

I recently had the misfortune of being rear-ended while my prized Trek Remedy 8 was on the tailgate pad driving home after a good day of riding over rocks and more rocks in South Texas. And worse than the truck being damaged of course, my poor front fork and wheel were mangled. Luckily, insurance paid out in full for the front fork, wheel, tires, etc. So with the Lyrik and everything being paid out by insurance I got about $1k to spend to repair my bike.

Unfortunately, this happened mid pandemic so it was really hard to source parts. I was lucky enough to source a slightly updated Lyrik for a really good deal on Ebay; but finding a new front wheel proved to be very very difficult amid all the people coming into the sport (which is great! but not so great for buying parts/bikes).

I originally wanted to get one of the Stan’s Notubes rims but they were out of stock everywhere I looked. Pretty much the only front wheel I could find were these Raceface Turbine Rs (I initially bought just the front wheel but eventually bought the rear wheel as well, just because I couldn’t deal with having mismatched front and rear wheels).

Installation was very easy, I didn't have to mess around with tape or anything as it’s pre-installed. And the wide rims made it easy to slip on some wide Maxxis DH-F/Rs tires. Swapping out my cassette to the new wheel was pretty easy as well once I got a chain whip for it. Installing the rotors was easy as well. The 6-bolt is very intuitive and aligns well.

I’ve only ever ridden on the very heavy stock Bontrager wheels before this, so riding high end enduro wheels like this was very surprising how much more lively the bike felt. I wanted to get some durable wheels due to large sharp rocks I ride over on my local bike trails so I wasn’t expecting them to feel so much lighter compared to something more like carbon wheels. But combined with the high engagement hub really made the bike feel so much more responsive.

After about 5 months of riding on them I haven’t been able to find a single dent or loosening spokes, as far as I can tell they are bulletproof.

I don’t do a ton of very large drops or jumps, the highest I get in the air is about 3-4 feet. But I am a heavy rider (200lb) riding over very rocky trails a lot of the time so I am very pleased with how these are holding up (my stock bontragers were dented a ton after a similar amount of time on these trails, they would slowly lose air overnight, not a problem with these.)

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m very happy with the rims. The only thing I’d want to change would be a bit more distinctive appearance. I feel like if you’re spending $400-$500 for a single wheel most people would want it to look more obvious. These are completely black with very minimal logos (that are also black). But this is personal preference, I know some people like the understated look. I’m not a very experienced rider when it comes to rims, but I think if these are in your budget they’re a great set of wheels. Definitely watch some comparison videos if you have more than one set of rims available to you though.