As a set of wheels for a long/flat/fast gravel bike, these are well worth looking at if you have deep enough pockets.
- Brand: DT Swiss
- Product: DiCut 1400, 50mm deep Gravel Wheels
- Price: Front £824.99, Rear £1,124.99
- From: Freewheel
- Tested by: Chipps for eight months
Pros:
- Suitably slippery aero shape
- Proper DT Swiss quality 240 hubs
- Mid-size width, so will double for road wheels
Cons:
- Lots of competition at this (extremely high) price
- Tyres can be very tight to fit
- A lack of vertical compliance on rougher terrain
Our rating
The wheels have been fitted to my gravel test bike, a Genesis 931 Croix de Fer (more on that soon…) since last year (see Fresh Goods Friday 722) and have been used on everything from long road rides, chunky ‘should have brought a mountain bike’ trail sorties and some loaded bikepacking too, for good measure.
Tyres have mostly been from the Vittoria Terrano range – either Terrano Dry or Terrano Wet, settling on the Dry tyres for most of the test period, given that it never rains that much where I live… Both Vittoria tyres are 40mm size, as I’m a gravel purist and reckon that anything bigger than a 45C is cheating and you might as well be on a mountain bike. Perhaps due to the skinny dimensions, both sets were massively difficult to get on and off the rim, though they did go on (albeit with a ‘snap’) and did come off again, with plastic tyre levers.In six+ months of riding I’ve had one slow flat that healed with Stan’s fluid.
The DiCut 1400 wheels are the second-from top level of ‘aero-optimised gravel wheels’ from DT Swiss. The top is the 1100, which features the ceramic-bearinged DT Swiss 180 hubs. These wheels feature the perfectly great 240 wheels, in a much more aero profile than you might be used to coming from mountain biking. In fact, everything is pretty aero all-round. The 50mm deep sections are optimized for flat-out, fast gravel, where aero is important, with a pleasing shape that bulges and then tapers again towards the tyre. The rims are a wide 36.5mm at their widest, with an internal dimension of 24mm.
Another nod to aero (and one of the ways that DT Swiss does things) is the hidden spoke nipples and the bladed spokes. Should you need to true them, or snap a spoke, you’re going to have to untape the rim and then use a DT Swiss deep socket tool (and corresponding bladed spoke holder tool) in order to true them up again. It’s the price you pay for aero, right?
One thing that seems a bit incongruous is the massive tubeless valve that’s supplied. At 80mm or so in length, they tower non-aero-style above the rim and makes riders worry that they’ll need a similarly massive valve on their spare tubes…
In use
The wheels mounted up fine onto my Genesis, with the distinctive DT Swiss ratchet noise telling all my group riding pals that I’d got new, expensive wheels and that I should be punished.
For such deep rims, they’re a lot lighter feeling than they look and, without a wind tunnel to hand, I reckon that the aero benefits can be felt at higher speeds. On rides where I was with road riders for some or all of a loop, I had no problems keeping up and the wheels do seem to keep a high pace easily. We have pretty gusty winds here and the DiCuts seem pretty neutral in a crosswind gust, which is reassuring, given their depth.
I did eventually find a natural flaw – and that’s just in terms of where and how the wheels are used. Much of my gravel riding here involves long, long climbs and long, often fast descents. It’s very rare that I’m spinning merrily along in a flat paceline or solo timetrial into the wind. And it’s on long climbs where any aero benefits are negated. Then, when the descent finally hoves into view, the deep section rims and shorter spokes make descending accuracy pretty spot-on, but anything long and sustained can become wearing quicker as there’s very little give in the whole system. Even bottoming out a 40mm tyre doesn’t offer much cushioning and on some long, loaded bikepacking descents I simply had to stop every five minutes to shake out my hands. Admittedly, that’s my fault for riding chunky trails instead of endless, flat Champagne gravel, and DT Swiss points out that the 30mm versions are much more compliant.
Overall
As a set of wheels for a long/flat/fast gravel bike, these are well worth looking at. Especially if you want to throw some wider road tyres on and have them do double duty on your road bike. Then they’ll really shine. However, it’s not all rosy. One thing I’ve not yet mentioned, is the price. Two grand for a pair of wheels puts you squarely into ‘handbuilt specialty’ wheels from a local wheelbuilder. Yes, they’re still out there and they’ve been waiting for you.
The other downside is obviously the stiff nature of the rims, but if you’re running bigger tyres than me – like 47-50mm big meats then you’re going to get a lot more cushioning and can run lower pressures. Or you could keep to the smoother trails where these DiCut 1400s will absolutely whip along the gravel paths.