Princeton Carbonworks arrived in Zwift last week, with three wheelsets released to the game: the Alta 3532, the Wake 6560 White, and the Mach TSV2/Blur Disc. Today, we’re looking at the Alta 3532 wheels, which are ultra-lightweight climbing wheels.
Here’s what the Drop Shop says about them: “Float up the climbs. Flow through the corners. A light-on-your-feet feeling with instant acceleration, effortless rhythm, and the kind of ride that makes every effort feel smoother.”
The wheels are now available in the Drop Shop, accessible at level 35 and above, for 685,000 Drops. They are rated 3 stars for aero and 4 for weight, so we expected them to climb quite well. But since Zwift’s 4-star rating system isn’t precise enough for our taste, we ran these wheels through our standard battery of tests to determine exactly how they perform in Zwift and stack up against other wheelsets in game.
Let’s dive in and learn all about the performance of this wheelset from Princeton Carbonworks…
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
Princeton’s Alta 3532 wheels deliver “midpack” aero performance, which isn’t surprising considering their profile.
They are 26.8 seconds faster across an hour of flat riding compared to our baseline 32mm wheels. This puts them effectively neck and neck with the Zipp 353 NSW wheels, the top climbing wheels in the game. For comparison, the most aero non-disc hoops in game (ENVE SES 8.9) put 46.7 seconds into the baseline wheels across an hour.
Climb Performance
When the road tilts upward steeply, the Alta 3532 really shine! They outclimb every other wheelset in the game, and by a significant margin.
Princeton’s Alta 3532 wheels gain 14.1 seconds over our baseline wheels in an hour of climbing, beating the current top climbers (Zipp 353 NSW and Lightweight Meilenstein) by 4.3 seconds.
Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Carbon frame.
Conclusions
The Alta 3532 wheels from Princeton are Zwift’s new top climbing wheels, edging out the handful of wheelsets which were effectively tied for the top spot.
Their aero performance is rather lackluster, though, so racers may want to look at one of the all-arounder wheelsets for all but the steepest and longest race climbs.
(Speaking of all-arounders, look for a post on Princeton’s new Wake 6560 wheels to drop soon. Their performance on the flats and climbs is second to none!)
These wheels have been, or will soon be, added to the following posts:
- Master Zwift Wheels List (added)
- Zwift Speed Tests: Wheel Ranking Charts
- Fastest Climbing Bike Frames and Wheels at Each Zwift Level (added)
- Zwift Shopping Guide: What To Buy from the Drop Shop at Each Level (added)
- Zwift Speed Tests Public Data (Google Sheet) (added)
Questions or comments?
Share below!
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
I love when you use your drops and then they come out with better items. Reason why they should let us at least sell back some items for 1/4th of the drops we used on them.
Where do I buy used with the 1/4th of the drops 😂
Its not in their interest unfortunately. Adding new items encourages people to continue to ride (and pay) and save their drops to purchase and upgrade.
I would though like to be able to clear my garage of some of the rubbish that I will never use.
Oh cool, I bought the ZIPP 353s two days ago. What an awesome feeling!
Sounds like buisness as usual😅 I recently bought the SL8, so i’m quite surprised they didn’t include a faster frame in the update!
So? Just buy another wheelset. I’ll probably buy all 3 of these new ones when I get in this afternoon.
Bummer the lightweight mils aren’t the prestigious gear they were in the past. I’m meh on Princeton anyway. So I’ll keep running the LWs!
They’re cool wheels, but also what… 8 years old? Maybe more? Probably sensible that newer wheelsets would offer some advantage…
So did PC pay Zwift more than Zipp and the other brands …? 😏 I’m guessing all the other PC wheels will test fastest as well. Well, the Lightweights may technically be dethroned but I’ll keep rocking them rather than pay 685K to go up AdZ a couple seconds faster. Call me sentimental but one of my greatest Zwift joys and memories remains the day I finally unlocked them on my 12th ascent. It was a drool-worthy prize that required lots of work. Half wish the Lightweights remained the king in game. Bit of a shame IMHO that now you can just lazily buy the performance and skip the mountain but oh well.
They didn’t pay Zwift anything. Neither do any other brands. Zwift tries to make all these wheels perform in game similar to real life, based on IRL specs.
I am not sure I believe that or their would be a better selection of Colnagos for example. And Specialized wouldn’t have the fastest frame.
🤷♂️ Believe me or don’t, your call. I’m not ZHQ, I’m just sharing what Eric Min and others had said since day 1.
I think the simple reason why you don’t see some brands in Zwift is because those brands haven’t prioritized reaching out to Zwift and forming a strong relationship. (Bianchi is another…)
Thanks Eric, if you say so then I believe you, and it’s good to know the performance is really supposed to be objective 👍 In all honesty though I’m surprised. Zwift surely constitutes advertising for these companies, and given a history of brand reluctance to share true numbers in place of vague relative claims, plus a general lack of independent testing, I’d think these companies would be motivated to have agreements with Zwift to protect their image and reputation, and ensure their products don’t look too inferior in comparison to competitors. In fact I’m genuinely curious about the influence that Zwift has on real world purchasing … 🤔
You know it’s not real money you’re spending to get them, right? And with these, you can just buy them instead of toiling up the Alpe a dozen plus time until you finally get lucky on the spinner, lol.
I work WAY harder for drops than I do for money though 🤣
How much did PCW pay Zwift to have their wheels outperform all the others in game?
See reply above. 🙄
And I JUST got the Mielsteins.
For free, and they are only 4s/hr slower. About 0.1% difference. Personally, I’ll save my drops.
Wonder if Zwift will nerf the performance of these with the next update like they have in the past with other fast wheels and frames that were faster than expected.
Highly doubtful. (And Zwift hasn’t done that in years!)
What a bargain for these wheels! I wish there was a special section with just the new items added to the drop shop, which would make it easier to buy all of the new items at once.
@Eric Schlange Isn’t Enve 4.5 Pro a faster climber than Zipp 353? It’s also much faster on flat than this new wheel it seems.
Was thinking the same thing.
Just barely slower than the 353, yeah (half second across an hour). 4.5 definitely a better choice for anything but pure climbing events, of course. (But new Princeton all arounders may have something to say about that…)
That’s not what your chart says though. It has the Enve at 9.4 sec and the Zipp at 8.6 sec. Different to the Google spreadsheet.We’re talkin milimeters here, but still…
Hmph… that’s odd. Google Sheet is the source of truth, though. Just updated the chart to match!
Actually there’s a discrepancy on most wheelsets between Google sheet & the chart. You might wanna check it out when you add the Princetons.
All depends on the circumstances. I often check on Zwifterbikes (who use Eric’s data as baseline) and at least with my 2 w/kg most often it’s still the old Roval Alpinist on the steep climbs, Enve 4.5 Pro on gentle/short climbs (like Cheddar Gorge) and 353’s on longer climbs that have a fair bit of gentle percentages.
I mean in the end it’s a few seconds either way so it’s not going to have a huge impact unless you’re racing competitively anyway.
Looking forward to seeing the results for all new wheels! 🙂 By the way, would it be possible to have a list of the best frame and the best wheel set for each route? That could also be a relevant way to see which frame and wheel set is “best”. Which frame is best for the largest number of routes?
I suspect it’s not that interesting. If you are talking about solo efforts then it will be a TT bike unless it’s a pure climb. If you want to stick to road bikes it’ll be the most aero road bike for a few flat routes, then SL8 for almost everything else, and then the aethos for pure climbs. With only a few seconds separating things. But realistically if it’s not a solo effort, and not a pure climb, your final time will be determined by your ability to stick with a group that you can draft, so picking equipment to benefit you most in the type of terrain that you most likely will be dropped (climb or flat) is the goal.
There’s a site zwifterbikes.web.app that does this beautifully well. Add your height weight, FTP, average watts, level, drops &c. pick a course and it will list you the finish times for all bike and wheel combinations available to you.
I’m a huge fan of that site, and spend way to much time there! 🤓 I could use it in a manual way to make this list, but with 220+ courses, different level upgrades, and do it for several power outputs, it’s a bit much to do in a manual way.
How would you purpose Eric or whomever do it then? It’s not like…”just build a website to do it” 🤭
These comments… Bike parts tend to get incrementally better, and there’s the same sunk costs for real world parts bought with real world money. Even if that weren’t the case, a game like Zwift needs power-creep to keep motivation for earning drops. Cool wheels!
True enough. Perhaps what they could have done though is replace the Lightweights on the spinner with these new Princetons? Or whatever the latest greatest top wheel is. Preserve the carrot to keep climbing. Then move the Lightweights to the drop shop because people still want them.
The Lightweights are still very lightweight. At 2 w/kg they’re still faster up the Alpe than both the Enve 4.5 and Zipp 353.
Maybe the Princeton are faster at 2 w/kg. I don’t think Eric tested that yet (don’t see it in the Google sheet).
Not everybody can do 4 w/kg for an hour 😉
Eric, I have a suggestion: it would be nice if you updated the text “Speed Tests: Concept Z1 (Tron) Bike vs Top Performers (Un-Upgraded and Fully Upgraded Versions)”. I find it very useful because it’s easy to compare and see the trade-offs.
Yeah, those scatter plots are really the best way to judge, everything else kind of obscures the true picture or makes it harder then necessary to see.
I totally agree ! That’s my favorite chart.
I’m guessing there’s something weird with the other two Princeton Carbonworks wheelsets…?
No, just traveling and scrambling to get posts written and published. Wake wheels are super good. Disc wheel isn’t anything special.
Wake 6560 seems to be clearly the best all round wheels.
According to my tests they are phenomenal even on climbs and super fast on flat courses 😁😁😁
“Not anything special”…?
I’m intrigued, according to your Google sheet they are the fastest wheels in game!
Good eyes. 👀 But those results were for the first version I tested… then Zwift slowed them down before releasing after they saw my results. I’ll update the sheet soon (traveling currently).
They are trying to fool us.Better to keep the drops in your pocket 🤣🤣🤣
And that’s fine I suppose. If they introduce wheels faster than the DT discs, then upgrading the Halo bikes makes almost no sense.
Whoops lol. I should have waited. Got excited by the results hahah
😂
Has anyone tried the Princeton disc wheels yet? Are they faster than the current quickest DT Swiss ones? I am doing a TT later and would be great to know if they might save me a few seconds.
They are not faster.
That’s a shame as they look cool. But many thanks for the speedy reply, you’ve just saved me 1.1 million drops. Cheers
Hii!!
When you talk about climbing performance at what percentage of slope should I choose between Princenton Alta or Princenton Wake? I am always confuse about that… I weight around 61kg and I have an FTP of 320-330w in case you need this information to help in the answer…