Schmolke SL 37 Review: Can a 1200g Road Wheelset Handle Real Gravel?

At Bspoke Velo, we’re all about offering innovative products from small, specialist brands. Many of these companies produce exceptional gear, but because they are boutique manufacturers, there are not always hundreds of online reviews for riders to read before they make a decision.

Lenny* from regional Queensland recently bought a set of Schmolke SL 37 wheels and has been riding them across road, rough tarmac and plenty of gravel. This is his full review, covering why he chose Schmolke over Reserve, the buying process, setup, delivery, first impressions and the first 2500km.

Why I Took the Plunge on a Virtual Unknown

I do a lot of cycling across pretty much every outdoor genre. I’m on a small budget and so I’ve been riding old bikes that I repaired and upgraded. Sometimes a tightly-focussed older bike does its particular thing almost as well as a more versatile modern bike, for a fraction of the cost. Sometimes. The same could be said of my wheels - good, but old alloy ones.

But living in regional Queensland, we have lots of quiet and rather scenic dirt roads, and so all the local riders have been shifting their focus from road to gravel. Yes, we still do the Friday morning tarmac loop, but otherwise I’m being left increasingly on my own as old school rim-braked bikes with 28mm clearance are just not cutting it.

I do have an old Specialized AWOL monstercross / touring bike, but it weighs a ton and so blokes I can beat on Friday morning tend to drop me on gravel hills.

So I started searching for a modern disc-brake endurance road bike. I wanted a proper road bike, but I also wanted something that could squeeze in 35mm gravel tyres for the sorts of Category 1 and 2 gravel roads that are most common around here.

I figured that if I sold off my old road bikes, bought an additional gravel crank and a second wheelset, then I’d have a road bike that really did do it all, and did it all better than my old fleet.

The Bike Build

I ended up with a 2022 Cannondale Synapse - well, really, the frame plus a few other bits - from a LBS on crazy new-old-stock sale. I could have bought the complete bike, but it came with terrible wheels and tyres, a pointless radar / automatic light setup, and worst of all, electronic gears.

Controversial, I know, but I’ve tried them and found they shifted no better than mechanical gears, when they shift at all. Better to put that money into good wheels.

I figured that if I resurrected some of my retired wheels and shuffled around the existing fleet’s wheels, I could get this thing on the road for less than my year’s entire pocket money budget. I knew I’d be starting with heavy wheels and tired hubs, but the rest of the bike was good enough and I’d just have to be patiently opportunistic for good wheels.

I had a very definite plan for the wheels - save up for a year or three for a really nice set with carbon rims and DT 240 hubs. They should last at least a decade, be good enough to put on the Cannondale’s eventual replacement, and would eliminate that niggling “it’s these cheap wheels that are holding me back” feeling.

$3-point-something K amortised over 10 years isn’t that much, right? Cue Her-Indoors’ eye rolls.

And because of my big wheel-switcheroo, when I did finally get a good set of wheels for the Cannondale, I’d be able to put the wheels I had been using back onto the XC MTB, and then the wheels it had been using could be put onto the AWOL, and its wheels... you get the idea.

Building a Do-It-All Road and Gravel Setup

Assembling such a do-it-all beast was a lot trickier than I thought it would be, and broke pretty much all of Shimano’s ridiculously conservative compatibility charts. But in the end it all came together beautifully.

I ended up going with a do-it-all rear based on a Spank XC / gravel wheel with a 35mm Cinturato Hardpack tyre - just enough tread to keep me rubber-side-up on gravel without being too draggy on the road.

But for the front, I swapped between a 700c Zipp XPLR 101 gravel wheel for tarmac, running the narrowest slick I could on such a wide wheel, and a 650b MTB wheel running a 47mm Cinturato M tyre.

Neither of the front wheels were ideal for their intended purpose, but they were still quick enough to only cost me a place or two on the Friday group rides, and it was a joy to behold on gravel.

Why I First Looked at Reserve

But of course, when all your riding friends are sporting the latest CF wheels that came with their equally fancy gravel bikes, a man starts to dream long before he has the money to make those dreams a reality.

And so I started to research.

Before long I realised that Reserve’s 42/49 wheelset probably deserves its reputation for being the nicest-riding, best value high-end all-round road / light gravel wheelset available.

These are wide enough to run gravel tyres, shallow and light enough to suit the local rolling terrain, aero without being silly and feature hooked construction, so I could still use all the old tube-only tyres people keep giving me.

And they manage to deliver all this with no weight limit, un-killable DT Swiss hubs and easily serviced non-proprietary metal spokes with external aluminium nipples.

But what really attracted me was Reserve’s very generous customer-at-fault replacement policy, in addition to their manufacturing defects warranty.

I’ve never trashed a set of wheels, but then again, I’ve never been able to afford a set of carbon fibre wheels, either. The policy looked almost too good to be true.

But I’m friends with a family of state XC champions who have had to call on the policy and they said the process really was painless. I realise it might have had something to do with the sheer amount of money that family has put through their LBS, but once they convinced the shop owner that the wheels failed in normal riding and racing, Reserve quickly came to the party.

All I had to do now was save my pennies.

Why Schmolke Kept Getting My Attention

But years ago I found online a stupidly powerful rear blinker for commuting and the only shop selling them in Australia at the time was Bspoke Velo.

I’d subscribed to their newsletter then and stayed subscribed because I liked reading about the innovative stuff Martin stocked, but which I could not afford.

Martin kept featuring Schmolke wheels. On paper they seemed phenomenal. Even the cheaper SL versions were significantly lighter than comparable Reserve wheels, were made from top grade carbon, and oozed that undeniable allure of boutique German exotica.

As I said, I don’t race. Well, do you call the final sprints on Friday a race? And the cheaper SL versions had the weight and features I was looking for. But they still cost more than the Reserve wheels.

And how did they actually ride in the real world? I couldn’t find anything online to tell me. And what about their customer-at-fault guarantee? Could it possibly compete with Reserve’s?

Perhaps I’ll just stick with Reserve.

But I couldn’t get the Schmolkes out of my mind, and those 42/49s were just a bit deeper and heavier than I really wanted.

Warranty, Crash Replacement and the Questions I Needed Answered

So I contacted Schmolke directly and asked them to clarify their two separate guarantees.

It took a bit of back and forth to nail down specific answers to my very specific questions. Sorry to take up so much of your time, over there!

But the upshot was that manufacturing defects were covered at their expense for the first three years, and customer-at-fault crash replacement was covered for the first year with a 50% discount, a 30% discount for the second year, and then a 15% discount for as long as you owned the wheels after that.

I put a bunch of different scenarios to Schmolke Germany to ensure the sorts of accidents I was anticipating would be most likely to occur, such as a single rim failure where the hub survived intact, would be covered without having to buy a whole new wheelset, even if it was at a discount.

I’ve discovered that pretty much every wheel manufacturer, including Reserve, also has two separate warranties. One for manufacturing faults, with two years being standard, and a separate customer-at-fault warranty, which in the real world ranges from forgedaboutit to Reserve’s warranty discussed earlier.

Yep, Reserve still trumps Schmolke when it comes to customer-at-fault replacement. But Schmolke's answers, as well as the time and effort both Schmolke and Martin at Bspoke Velo put into answering my questions, convinced me that I’d be dealing with sensible people offering sensible solutions should I ever need to make a claim.

So, having established that the gap between Reserve and Schmolke’s at-fault warranties wasn’t that big, I was still in the dark about how the SL 37s actually rode.

Oh well, I thought: just keep saving and when you finally get the money together, see what the prices of the SL 37s vs the 42/49s are and choose accordingly.

The Moment That Made the Decision

But wouldn’t you know it, Schmolke put on a factory discount that got their prices down to similar levels to the Reserves. I’d have been an idiot not to jump now, right?

And Reserve 42/49s were not only not on sale, they were completely sold out across Australia, despite various stockists promising “more stock coming in October 25”. As I write this in April 26, you still can’t get 240 / HG versions in Australia.

Martin passed on the factory discount, allowing for freight, GST, exchange rate and so on, and we had a deal.

Even Her Indoors came to the party. But not only would I have to sell all my old road bikes and most of my spares to fund it, I’d have to take it out of next year’s pocket money budget. And not complain when she bought even more shoes. And agree to go on a cruise for her birthday. And... well, you get the idea.

Totally worth it.

Purchasing, Delivery, Unboxing and Setup

So I transferred the money, and let’s see. Schmolke says two days to build and ship, Bspoke says seven days to get to Melbourne, allow another three to get to regional Queensland.

Well, that was the idea, but obviously the response to Schmolke’s discount surprised even them, because they ran out of hubs.

Communication from Martin and Schmolke was excellent, but this pushed the ship date out and in the end, it took almost six weeks for delivery.

Looking around the web, delayed delivery on built-to-order wheels bought in sales are par for the course and shouldn’t be an issue if you buy at any other time of the year.

Frustrating, but I’d waited this long. What’s an extra few weeks?

But when they finally turned up and I went to register them on Schmolke’s website, the delay had put me past the “Register your product within 28 days” time limit.

Time to put Schmolke’s “We always act in the interests of the customer” to the test.

So I emailed them and got a response within a few hours saying I could just register using the delivery date instead of the purchase date.

Test #1 passed.

The box arrived in perfect condition and with plenty of protection.

Black Dog approved.

But no wheel bag or spare spokes, disappointingly. Just as well they’re built with external nipples and easy-to-find, straight-pull steel spokes.

Checking the Weight

Unboxing, step one: check the weights.

Yeah, these are just domestic scales, but that’s 60g more than the claimed 1210g for both wheels.

How can this be?

Well, it turns out that the claimed weight is without rim tape or valves. Clever, Schmolke. Almost too clever.

Keep that in mind when comparing weights between different manufacturers. Reserve, for instance, gives their weights including rim tape and valves.

Build Quality

Hmm, not quite perfect.

There was about 1mm wobble both radially and laterally on both rims, according to my eyes and my extremely cheap and dial-less wheel truing stand.

I don’t have a spoke tension gauge, but they all produced the same pitch when struck with a spoke spanner. And the pitch was pleasingly low. These are not super-highly strung, harsh wheels that rely on tension for strength.

This made getting rid of the lateral wobble a breeze. You will need a spoke holder to maintain the orientation of the spokes, though.

I managed to halve the radial wobble without too much swearing.

All my other wheels have much more lateral and radial wobble, despite my best efforts, and I can’t say I’ve ever noticed lateral or radial wobble in the real world until I break a spoke.

As for the hubs, they were astonishingly smooth.

I’ve used wheels with regularly serviced Dura Ace hubs, DT 350s and Zipp’s ZR-1 hub, which are supposed to be the bee’s knees. But these 240s are a clear step up.

Even without tyres mounted, I couldn’t feel any kind of friction when I gave them a spin. And spin they do. For ages.

And when they do finally stop, the front wheel always stops with the valve at the bottom.

The rear 36t ratchet has the additional friction of the freehub, which is pretty noisy. But if you spin them by holding onto the endcap rather than the freehub, you’ll get the same result.

Noice.

Setup

Easy as.

Don’t forget to not put grease on the centrelock interface. Under heavy braking it’ll heat up the grease, making it more viscous and more likely to flick out and contaminate the rotors.

Mounting the tyres can be a nightmare for some rim / tyre combos, but not here.

I used tyres from my existing Synapse setup, with an asterisk - more on this later - and they were a little easier to mount than on their previous rims.

Not sloppy, but not so tight that I had to finish mounting at the valve.

Seating the tyres was also a breeze. It really was just a case of apply the compressor’s inflator and pull the trigger.

Everything popped into place, including the Schwalbe G-One Ultrabite that had been a real pain to inflate on the old rim.

I know what you’re thinking - why such a chunky gravel tyre?

Well, and here’s the asterisk I laid down earlier, since I ordered these wheels, I stumbled upon a used front 30mm Hunt front wheel for crazy cheap, so that’s now my front road wheel, while the Schmolke front with its wider / stronger rim is my gravel wheel.

A Quick Comparison With Hunt

The Hunt wheel does provide for some interesting comparison.

I’d put them a step above, say, Elite wheels, which many of my friends swear by, due to the Japanese bearings and UK based customer service.

But despite being 7mm shallower and nearly 3mm narrower internally than the Schmolkes, the front wheel is about 130g heavier.

Yes, the valve ends up at the bottom, more or less, when you give them a spin, but you can definitely feel friction and even a bit of notchiness in your hands.

Not on the road, but you’re definitely losing a watt or three at the hub compared to the 240s. And who knows what they’ll be like in a few years, when the 240s are just hitting their stride.

On the Road: The First 2500km

OK, onto the main event. What are they actually like when they’re doing their thing?

Well, about as good as when James Brown does his thing.

Or to put it another way, these wheels are really, really nice.

Smooth. Strong. Light. Not noticeably harsher than the wheels they replaced, but noticeably faster.

Let’s start with gravel.

On the front, compared to my old 650 front setup, I’m now sporting a 7mm narrower tyre, measured, and a 37mm carbon rim rather than a low profile aluminium MTB rim.

On the rear, however, I just transferred my 35mm Cinturato Hardpack tyre from the old Spank wheel over to the Schmolke, so only the wheel is different.

Combined, this works out more than half a kg lighter than my previous gravel setup.

I must admit that the aero profile and weight saving isn’t translating to transformationally faster speeds, but 2ish kph quicker uphill and 3ish kph faster down are marginal gains that you can actually measure.

And if, like I was, you’re a bit nervous about taking expensive, road-focussed CF wheels onto gravel, don’t stress.

Most of my gravel riding has been category 1 and 2 dirt roads, with a bit of category 3 thrown in.

These wheels have proven to be very strong. I’ve ridden over a lot of sharp, exposed rocks without issue, as well as some big corrugations and washed out culverts at speed.

I’ve even hit a pothole so hard that I threw my neck out, but the wheels just sucked it all up.

They’re still as true today as the day I mounted the tyres.

Comparing the road setup is a little trickier, as I’m not using the Schmolke wheel on front and it’s kind of unfair to compare a gravel wheel with the Hunt, which is a proper road wheel.

But it’s definitely lighter and quicker than what I was using before, without any worries about harshness or strength.

I don’t really know what else to say about on road performance.

I can tell you how they compare to my previous, admittedly esoteric setup, but I have very limited experience with comparable CF wheels. So I’m not really the man to ask for comparisons.

But if you have specific questions, get Martin to pass them on to me and I’ll happily answer.

Buyer’s Remorse?

These wheels aren’t cheap.

There are lots of Chinese-made wheels that are cheaper, but in all my procrastinating online searches, I’m yet to come across any wheels since I bought the Schmolkes that represented better value for money.

Do I Wish I’d Gone Deeper?

No.

As I said, I am descending faster, but descending is by definition a relatively short portion of any ride.

And if you’re riding in a group, the deeper rims don’t do you many favours unless you’re on the front.

The weight of a deeper rim, however, never goes away. Nor does its susceptibility to cross winds, nor the propensity for a harsher ride compared to shallow rims.

Do I Wish I Had the Wider Reserve Rims?

Again, no.

The Schwalbe G-One I run at the front measures at about 41mm with the Schmolke rim, a full 6mm wider than the official maximum width that Cannondale says the Synapse frame can accommodate.

If I was running the wider Reserves, I’d definitely be getting tyre rub on the fork.

But if I had a different bike and was safely running 50mm gravel tyres, then I probably would like a wider rim.

But balanced against that is the aerodynamic and weight issues of having to run at least a 30mm tyre that the Reserves stipulate.

I can’t ever envisage myself wanting to buy tubeless road tyres wider than 28mm, and according to Schmolke’s website, the 37s’ “best aerodynamic properties are achieved with a tire width of 28mm”.

So for me, the width of the Schmolkes is plenty wide for gravel, and if I ever want to use the front Schmolke wheel as a road wheel, which will happen once I can afford to upgrade my XC’s wheelset, it’ll work very well for that.

Do I Wish I’d Paid Extra for TLO?

Do I wish I’d paid the extra for ceramic bearings or carbon spokes, i.e. the TLO version with a $1400+ premium, rather than the SL version?

No.

Sponsors are not paying for my equipment, and as competitive as the Friday morning peloton gets, I really don’t think I’d consciously notice the difference.

Except when things go wrong.

There’s a school of thought that ceramic bearings don’t last as long as good steel ones, and there’s a real limit as to what a home mechanic can do to keep your rims straight if the wheel is laced with carbon spokes.

Not to mention the lower maximum weight the TLOs are rated at.

I don’t know if that’s because the carbon spokes flex less, or if they’re weaker, but for someone who rarely rides smooth roads and isn’t putting out huge watts, I think the SLs are a much smarter buy.

Your roads / income / power output may differ.

Final Verdict

So, yeah, even after just 2500km, I’d do it all again if I had to.

And given the quality of the rims, hubs and spokes, I expect to be saying the same when my friends on their Chinese wheels are onto their second or third set.

And can you give a better recommendation than that?