From idea to truing stand
The Wheel Journey
Born in Italy. Sourced from the specialists. Handbuilt in the UK. Follow every component from where it’s made to the moment it rolls out of our workshop.
The route
Five stops, one wheel
When we designed our wheels we went looking for the best of everything, rather than the nearest supplier. Click a stop to jump to it.
Shenzhen, ChinaCarbon rims
Our rims are moulded for us in Shenzhen, the heart of the world’s carbon fibre industry, using a Japanese Toray T700/T800 filament mix for the right balance of strength, compliance and weight.
Every profile is U-shaped and hooked, so it stays aerodynamically stable across a wide range of yaw angles and seats tubeless tyres cleanly. Before a rim makes it into the range it has been ridden over tens of thousands of kilometres of the roughest terrain we can find.
- Toray T700/T800
- U-shaped profile
- Hooked, tubeless-ready
- 25mm to 40mm depths
- 21.5mm to 30mm internal
BelgiumBladed spokes
Sapim have been drawing spokes in Belgium since 1918. Their CX-Ray is the benchmark for ultra-distance wheels: a bladed, high-tensile steel spoke with one of the best strength-to-weight ratios available and exceptional fatigue resistance.
Our Dnipro and Poltava wheels use CX-Ray throughout. The Odesa comes on round Sapim D-Light spokes as standard, with a CX-Ray upgrade for riders who want to take them to the next level.
- Sapim CX-Ray
- Sapim D-Light (Odesa)
- 28 or 32 per wheel
- Fatigue-resistant steel
TaiwanHubs you can get parts for anywhere
Our hubs come from Taiwan, the centre of the world’s bicycle component industry. The standard build uses the Bitex BX160, a light, serviceable star-ratchet hub with twin 90-tooth ratchets for near-instant engagement. For the premium build we fit the DT Swiss 350: the hub more ultra-distance racers trust than any other, with DT’s Ratchet system, tool-free freehub swaps and spares in almost every bike shop on earth.
Both are Centerlock, both take Shimano HG, SRAM XDR and Shimano Micro Spline freehubs, and both are simple to service with basic tools. Road and all-road wheels use 12x100mm front and 12x142mm rear thru-axles. The Poltava 29er is built on the DT Swiss 350 Boost, with 15x110mm front and 12x148mm rear axles. Our original hub partner, Trailmech of Poltava, Ukraine, has paused production because of the war. Read about our relationship with Trailmech and why every wheelset still carries a Ukrainian name.
- Bitex BX160 (standard)
- DT Swiss 350 (premium)
- Star ratchet
- Centerlock
- HG · XDR · Micro Spline
United KingdomHand-built, by one pair of hands
This is the stop that makes a Zolla wheel a Zolla wheel. Having scoured the world for components, we trust only experienced UK wheel builders to bring them together. Each wheelset is laced, tensioned, trued and dished by hand, then stress-relieved and checked again, by the same person from first spoke to final check.
A well-specced, well-built handbuilt wheel can last a lifetime. The difference is in the tension: even spoke tension around the wheel is what keeps it true and the spokes alive over hundreds of thousands of load cycles. Your wheels arrive taped, checked and ready to ride, with a spare spoke in each length in the box.
- One builder per wheelset
- Tension measured
- Stress-relieved
- Tubeless taped
- Spare spokes included
- Five-year warranty
ItalyBorn and tested in the mountains
Zolla started life in the remote Italian mountains, where steep gradients, questionable road surfaces and big miles make the perfect proving ground. Our first prototypes were raced at the Two Volcano Sprint in 2019, from Vesuvius to Etna, and the race has been a testing ground ever since.
Nothing joins the range until it has been raced. The wheels you buy are the wheels we ride.
- Mountain test HQ
- Two Volcano Sprint since 2019
- Raced before released
Stop four, in detail
How a Zolla wheel is built
Machine-built wheels are laced and tensioned in minutes. Ours take a good deal longer, and that is the point.
Components checked
Rim, hub and spokes are inspected, spoke lengths calculated for the exact rim and hub pairing, and the rim’s valve hole and seam checked before anything is laced.
Laced by hand
Spokes are laced in the pattern that suits the wheel, with bladed spokes aligned so they slice through the air rather than fight it.
Tensioned evenly
Tension is brought up gradually and evenly around the wheel. Even tension is what keeps a wheel true for years, so we measure it rather than guess.
Trued and dished
The wheel is trued laterally and radially and centred over the hub so it runs straight in the frame and the brake rotor sits true.
Stress-relieved
Spokes are loaded hard to bed them in and release any wind-up, then the wheel is re-checked. A wheel that skips this step loses tension on its first big descent.
Taped, tested, shipped
Tubeless tape and valves fitted, a tyre seated to check the bead, tension measured one final time, then boxed with a spare spoke in each length used, typically three, and sent with a five-year warranty.
The range, side by side
Which wheel is right for you?
| Odesa35mm all-road | Dnipro40mm wide-rim | Poltava29er MTB | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | All-road adventure: gravel, touring, mixed-surface ultras | All-road racing: aero on road tyres, room for gravel | Off-road ultras, bikepacking, trail |
| Rim depth | 35mm | 40mm | 25mm |
| Rim width | 29mm external, 21.5mm internal | 32.9mm external, 25mm internal | 30mm internal |
| Tyres | 28 to 30mm optimal, up to 50mm | 28 to 32mm optimal, up to 50mm | Proper MTB tyres, as big as your frame allows |
| Spokes | 28 Sapim D-Light (CX-Ray upgrade) | 28 Sapim CX-Ray | 32 Sapim CX-Ray |
| Carbon | Toray T800 | Toray T800 | Toray T700/T800 |
| Proven at | Badger Divide FKT, Blaenau 600, Wild West Country | GBDURO, Transcontinental, Seven Serpents | Trans Balkan Race, Blaenau 600 |
| From | £885 | £1,085 | £1,190 |
All wheels are disc-brake with Centerlock rotor mounts, and ship tubeless-ready. Choose Bitex BX160 or DT Swiss 350 hubs when you order. The Poltava is built on DT Swiss 350 Boost hubs. Not sure? Email us and we’ll talk it through.
Ready to roll?
Every Zolla wheelset is covered by a five-year warranty on materials and workmanship, and we keep spares for everything we build.