DUKE Strada 56 Wheelset

Deep wheels usually make you pay somewhere — on the scale, in a gusty descent, or both. The Strada 56 is DUKE's case that you can have the aero without the tax. At 1,242 grams the pair in the Mad Max build, it's remarkably light for a 56mm wheelset, with an inertia-to-control balance that lets you ride hard and long while wringing everything out of the rolling sections. Toray T1100 carbon, DUKE's SLR5 layup, laced by hand in their Vendée, France workshop. This is the depth for high average speeds: flat and rolling race courses, fast group rides, long solo efforts where the wheel's flywheel effect becomes your ally. Stability stays outstanding even at speed, and DUKE explicitly designed it to work as a rear wheel behind a Strada 48 front — the 48/56 combo keeps steering light up front while the rear carries the momentum. The 25mm internal width is shaped around a 28–30mm tire, DRC damping filters road buzz, and DUKE's Offset asymmetric lacing balances spoke tension for lateral stiffness and 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.