DUKE Strada 36 Wheelset

Every wheel range has its quiet overachiever, and in DUKE's Elite road line it's the Strada 36. Take the explosiveness of the brand's pure climbing profile, add six millimeters of depth, and you get a wheel with a more planted feel that gives up almost nothing on the scale: 1,109 grams the pair in the Mad Max build, in Toray T1100 carbon laid up with DUKE's SLR5 process and laced by hand in their Vendée, France workshop. DUKE built the 36 for mountain riding in the fullest sense — not just the climbs but everything that connects them. Steering is incisive, accelerations crisp, and braking controlled; the extra depth steadies the front end at descending speed where a 30mm wheel can feel nervous. The 25mm internal width is shaped around a 28–30mm tire, DRC damping filters the chatter, and DUKE's Offset asymmetric lacing balances spoke tension side to side for lateral stiffness and long-term durability. Construction is the full DUKE playbook: SpokeCore molds every spoke hole into the layup rather than drilling cured carbon, and the VFP finish skips clearcoat entirely — lighter, more scratch-resistant, cleaner to produce. Hooked and tubeless-ready, each set arrives taped and valved with spare spokes, nipples, and a build certificate, and every DUKE carbon rim carries a lifetime, transferable crash-replacement program. We build these with DUKE's own Mad Max 3 hubs with black Sapim spokes, or Tune's Nano hubs in silver with silver spokes, and your choice of XDR, HG11, or N3W freehub. If you're looking for a custom build around these rims — spoke counts, decals, a hub we don't list — reach out for a quote.