PT Cycles partner with Scope Cycling

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering Scope carbon rims as part of our custom and recommended build options. Scope are a Dutch company founded in 2013 by Nieck Busser & Rik Kusters specialising in high end carbon road rims. All of their carbon rims are developed via their in-house Research and Development centre in Brainport, the High-Tech campus at the University of Technology Eindhoven, which has become one of the most prominent high-tech regions in the world.

We were approached by Rik in the summer of 2017. Rik chose PT Cycles as Scope were looking to partner with a UK wheel builder who they felt shared the same values as them, i.e. an unrelenting passion for customer service and quality. Although widely known in their home market, to be honest we had not heard of Scope before. So we did our own research and it was clear they were a good fit to our business, filling the gap between our aluminium rim and top end ENVE builds. Scope offer 3 road bike rim profiles in rim and disc brake formats; the R3c is a climbing wheel with a 30mm deep section, R4c all rounder with a 45mm deep section and the R5c aero rim with a 55mm deep section. They also offer their O2 Gravel/CX 700/29er rim.

The next step was to put a toe in the water and build a demo set for appraisal. We thought long and hard about the spec and settled on their R4c rim brake clinchers built on Aviee SR5 hubs laced with Sapim CX Ray spokes. From the outset of the build it was clear that the rims were a high quality product and built very true 'out of the box'. The great thing about all Scope rims is that they are tubeless ready. The tubeless set-up was instantaneous with our chosen Maxxis Padrone 700x25 tyres sealing straight on the rims with just a few strokes of the track pump. The next step was to fit the special Scope carbon brake pads to our test bike, load it on the van and off to our Spanish base in the Valencian mountains for testing!

The inaugural ride was a revelation! These wheels were incredibly stiff, yet smooth as the tubeless tyres provided a cushioning effect to absorb any potential harshness. The Aivee hubs provided a fast pickup which was instantaneously transmitted to the road by the R4c rims. Once up to speed the Semi-Aero profile of the 45mm deep rims cut through the air with a noticeable advantage over the 25mm deep aluminium rim comparison set on our otherwise identically equipped other test bike. They were no slouch uphill either as their stiffness provided a definite advantage over the alloys. Braking performance was also good with the specially designed Scope carbon brake pads providing ample and squeal free stopping power.

Now back in the UK we have listed the Scope rims as part of our custom build options. We have also listed the rim brake versions as a recommended build with Aivee SR5 hubs and the disc brake versions with DT Swiss 240s centre lock hubs with prices starting from £1274.99 and £1474.99 respectively for the complete build. This, we believe represents incredible value for money for a carbon wheelset with a top notch performance.

If you are interested in a Scope build and would like to talk through the options please feel free to contact us.