Princeton Carbonworks has arrived in Zwift, 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 Wake 6560, the company’s popular flagship racing wheelset, known for aero performance and light weight.
A bit of trivia: the “Wake” name is a nod to the collegiate rowing roots of Princeton Carbonworks’ founders.
Here’s how these wheels (the Wake 6560 Evolution II) are described: “The 6th iteration of the Wake series and the largest step change in performance they’ve made yet. Faster. Lighter. Stiffer.”
The wheels are now available in the Drop Shop, accessible at level 32 and above, for 685,000 Drops. Notably, they are rated 4 stars for aero and 4 for weight, the only wheelset in game with such a high rating, apart from the newish ENVE SES 4.5 PRO. 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 Wake 6560 wheels deliver impressive aero performance, edging out the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO but falling just behind the most aero hoops in game: the ENVE SES 8.9, DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65, and ENVE SES 7.8.
As the 4th-fastest wheels in game, the Wake 6560 lose 4.4 seconds across an hour of riding compared to the ENVE SES 8.9. They lose 10.2 seconds across an hour compared to the fastest disc wheelset in game, the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc.
Climb Performance
You would think such a deep wheelset wouldn’t climb well, but this is 2026, and wheelmakers are working miracles. With a claimed 1250-gram wheelset weight, the Wake 6560 is a bit lighter than the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO, and it shows in Zwift.
Princeton’s Wake 6560 wheels gain 12.3 seconds over our baseline wheels in an hour of climbing, beating the former top climbers (Zipp 353 NSW and Lightweight Meilenstein) by 2.5 seconds, and beating the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO by 2.9 seconds. They lose only to Princeton’s own Alta 3532 wheels, and then only by 1.8 seconds over an hour. How’s that for an all-arounder performance?
Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Carbon frame.
Conclusions
The Wake 6560 wheels from Princeton are Zwift’s new top all-arounders, edging out the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO in both our flat and climb tests and, in fact, outclimbing all the best dedicated climbing wheels in the game, apart from the new Princeton Alta 3532 hoops!
If you’re looking for a wheelset to use in races with significant climbs, this is the best one available in Zwift today.
These wheels have been, or will soon be, added to the following posts:
- Master Zwift Wheels List (added)
- Zwift Speed Tests: Wheel Ranking Charts
- The Top 10 Wheelsets in Zwift (added)
- 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.
Do prices ever change in game? Should I get them now? I really don’t think I have a need for this wheelset as I’ll be upgrading my P74 for what I think may be a year or so! If I get them I feel they’ll go on my fullly upgraded SL8 that has been sitting in the garage for a while… until Zwift comes out with a better all rounder bike to upgrade.
Prices have only changed once, basically. I wouldn’t plan on it.
Isn’t the top climbing wheel set the Princeton 3532?
outclimbing all the best dedicated climbing wheels in the game, apart from the new Princeton Alta 3532 hoops!
Thanks Eric. In races with any kind of bump, isn’t it best to go for all round wheels? Because that’s where the pushes and separation come (and you tend to just cruise on the flats)?
All ROUND wheels are much better than square wheels I’ve found. 😁
That’s how I tend to think Josh, yes.
Hi Eric! Thanks for all your work. Question: as I understand it, you test the basic frame with different wheels, and the basic wheels with each frame. Have you considered testing certain frame+wheel combinations directly? E.g. the ones used on the ‘Tron vs top performers’ charts. As I understand it, at the moment you just add up the ‘frame savings’ and ‘wheel savings’ from the separate tests, which is probably not precisely right.
Yes, I’ve tested the combinations as well (hundreds of times at this point). Adding up the savings works reliably and accurately, even though it wouldn’t quite work that way IRL!
I like the look of the ENVE a little more but tests don’t lie. And also, how often do you watch yourself ride from the side …
#bought
Do you have a picture of the red version, available soon?
Yo yo yo! What red version?
The ‘lava’ red colourway is an unlock for completing stage 2 of Zwift Camp: Breakthrough.
There is a picture on the Breakthrough page: https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-camp-breakthrough-2026/
EDIT – here it is in full res:
Could have written how much faster they are than the 4,5 pros on the flat? as the article is based on this comparison
The difference seems to be little. According to the ENVE SES 4.5 Pro article those wheels are 5 s slower than the ENVE SES 8.9. The Princeton Carbonwork Wake 6560 are 4.4 s slower than the ENVE SES 8.9, thus just 0.6 s faster than the ENVE SES 4.5 Pro.
I was also hoping to see how much slower than the DT Swiss 65s they are on flat…
According to the Google sheet they are 3.9 sec slower than DT Swiss 65 (and 0.6 sec faster than Enve 4.5) pr flat hour.
Uphill they are 9.6 sec faster than DT Swiss 65 (and 2.9 sec faster than Enve 4.5) pr climbing hour.
It sounds like, with the addition of these, there is no use for the ENVE 4.5s Pro (other than the mental benefit of saying Tadej won the TdF on them last year – several teammates and I just call them the Tadej wheels).
Looks like I’m going to be mainly going back and forth between these and the DT Swiss 65 wheels. The DT Swiss when it’s a little flatter, and these when it’s a little hillier.
Honestly though, if I’m doing a good job hiding in the draft of the pack most of the time I’m on the flats, it seems like the advantage of the DT Swiss wheels might be blunted a fair bit, and I’d likely want the (very small) benefit of these, right?
If that’s the case, these might be for all the times that are anything other than straight up or so flat I want the disk wheels.
I’m still trying to figure out about sprints. On the one hand, the faster you go, the more important aero is, but, on the other hand, the lighter the wheels are, the faster you can spin up to full speed. Anybody have thoughts on that? Maybe it depends on length of sprint, overall power, and how strong your initial jump is?
If I’m going to be riding these so much, I’ll definitely have to do that workout to get the red paint job for them, just so my all white SL8 looks different from everyone else’s all white SL8 (even though the white paint job goes well with the white frame).
I have to say, I picked these up as soon as they came out (before this article was posted) and used them in 2 races just because I wanted something different. In both of them, I got dropped on short, punchy hills, but that was more due to the fact that I was massively outclassed in 1-2 minute power than any fault of the wheels.
Thanks Eric!
So to sum things up:
DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc for TT
DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65 for very flat races (unless you go for Discs)
Princeton Carbonworks Wake 6560 for all other races
Princeton Carbonworks Alta 3532 for that PR up the Alpe, Ventoux etc.
I’m sure your Tron vs Top Performers will confirmthis when updated 😎
My only question would be regarding efforts where you not only go up the Alpe or Radio Tower but then back down, back up, back down etc say for I dont know something like 8848m for example ;). Will the aero benefit on the descent of the 6560 overcome the climbing deficit to the Alta 3532?
Are you actually gonna put in watts on the downhill? Probably you want to minimize the total effort on the uphills vs saving a few seconds on downhills.
Are any other wheel sets coming out that will jump these in the near future? It’s getting annoying spending drops on wheels and bikes and month later something better comes out.
That’s the very essence of the consumption society. A form of planned obsolescence metabolized by Zwift, isn’t it?
It’s like playing poker with 4 queens in your hand. You never know.
Phew! I grabbed these before this review so I can say I had them before they were popular 🙂
Might these be an option in normal TT races (instead of fastest disc wheel set)?
For extremely mountainous TTs, sure, but all others, hard pressed to think you would use these over the DICUT 85 or new Princeton CarbonWorks Mach TSV2/Blur Disc wheels.
The DT Swiss 65 perform fine but when they are spinning around they just look plain black on my screen which is boring. These wheels look promising cause they have cool graphics like the Zipp or ENVE that bring me joy when they are spinning.
The red ones are heavier than the white ones?!
Is there much of an advantage to be gained from purchasing the white ones now that I have the red ones?
These are the things that keep me awake at night.
I noticed the same.
4 star weight for the white ones, but only 3 for the red.
What’s the difference?
This is a bug/misconfiguration which Zwift tells me they’ll be fixing. I assume we’ll see that fix in the next release, 2 weeks from today.
Red ones are 5th gen according to description, and mines are of a different shade of red 🙂 Actually, they follow the colour slider of the bike when there is one, very cool to have matching colours.
Is the misconfiguration just the stars? Or are the red ones actually heavier for now?
Would be good to know an answer to this …
The latter.
Hi Eric, just to be clear, as of today (13/04/26) the red ones are actually slower? Does this affect the wheels you get for free by doing Zwift basecamp workouts? TIA
Yes, today the ones you unlock with Basecamp – the “Lava” ones – are slower. But Zwift tells me that will be fixed.
we were just talking about this wheelset and were wondering in general on these measurements if you are just measuring when pulling out in the wind or do you take into account drafting effect (when on)
Important since this first race of round 4 is a TTT with draft ON
I would think that you could go a lot faster with the wakes in the first position AND draft easier and faster behind
Don’t forget you can get these for free by doing Zwift Base Camp Breakthrough
Which is annoying when you bought them already 🙄
I believe you only get the red paintjob for free. You still have to buy them.
https://zwiftinsider.com/princeton-wake-6560/#comment-275222
It seems you actually DO get them for free! I’ll have a go at that!
Nope, you get the wheels. I didn’t have them in my garage and when I completed the second workout, Shazzam! There they were.The bike? Yes, you have to buy the bike.
I can confirm that you do get a set of red “Wake 6560” wheels for completing two stages of Zwift Camp Breakthrough (not just Stage 2) even if you don’t own the white ones. However, according to the description the red ones are the 5th Gen model (launched 2023 IRL). The white Wake 6560 wheels that you buy for 685K drops are the 6th Gen model (launched 2026 IRL), and they are better/lighter/faster. So anyone who bought the white ones does not have to be annoyed. Unless (as Eric mentioned) they update the specs in the future to make them equal. Personally I predict that they will fix the names of the two wheels to differentiate that they are different generations (Wake 6560 Evolution vs Wake 6560 Evolution II). We shall see.
Zwift told me this week that they will be updating the lava wheels so the specs match the white wheels. That was how they were supposed to work all along. I believe this update is included in next weeks’s release.
Crazy that they’re making the best wheels in the game a free unlock that’s trivially easy to get.
Hopefully the fix is to actually require buying the white ones as originally advertised.
They won’t be easy to get in a couple of weeks.