Just Riding Along Gecko carbon wheelset

Just Riding Along's (JRA) Gecko Carbon Wheelset is a very impressive set of hoops designed to take on the constant knocks and vibrations the roughest gravel tracks can throw at them, while still being so light that they won't hamper your performance on the road. With a claimed sub-1,400g weight and all the strength you could need, it's also pretty amazing that they come in at well under a grand.

• Pros: Lightweight, tough as old boots, good value
• Cons: Tight tolerances on Centerlock which makes fitting and removing discs a little tight

To give you a realistic weight, with the tubeless rim tape and valves fitted the Geckos tipped the scales at exactly 1,400g and that can make a real difference to the feel of your bike. Dropping over 600g compared with the Mavic Aksium Disc wheels previously fitted, the bike became much more responsive to acceleration, sprinting and definitely climbing.

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It's okay dropping weight just because you can, but you don't want to achieve that by sacrificing stiffness and, more importantly, durability. Thankfully JRA hasn't done that.

The Geckos are solid. I certainly couldn't detect any feeling of flex on steep, short, sharp climbs, whether on the road or when scrabbling about on loose, large gravel.

The gravel routes that I tend to ride are fast and flowing in a lot of places. I can easily touch 50mph on some of the downhill sections and no matter how careful I am it's often impossible to avoid hitting at least a couple of the big stones littering the track, so I do spend a fair bit of time truing wheels up from rocky encounters.

The JRAs took some big knocks, and while sometimes the noise could be pretty scary, on inspection they had come away completely unscathed, remaining as true as they were out of the box.

Both the front and rear wheels use 24 spokes laced two-cross on both sides. They use Sapim CX-Ray J-bend spokes, although you can go for the straight pull option which builds into an even lighter set of wheels than we have here, a claimed 1,267g!

The Geckos are built to order and the spoke tension is even throughout, which makes for a stiff wheel. They are comfortable as well, though, with even 25mm tyres pumped up hard for the road never giving a harsh ride.

The rims are, as you've no doubt guessed from the title, full carbon fibre and JRA has gone wide. An external width of 27mm and 21mm internal means that tyres tend to size up a little bigger than their sidewall suggests. It's worth thinking about if you have minimal frame clearance.

JRA recommends a minimum tyre width of 25mm and the Panaracer Race L Evo 3s I used on the road came out at 27.4mm when inflated to JRA's recommended 70psi maximum pressure for tubed tyres.

Ritchey's Alpine JB's 30mm width increased to 32.9mm too.

Tyre fitment was easy enough, with both tubed and tubeless requiring little more than a bit of a push from my thumbs. I tried the Schwalbe G-One Bites and they literally popped onto the rim with a standard track pump, the bead pinging into the tyre well securely as the pressure increased.

Hubs

JRA has specced Bitex hubs on the Geckos and they are a lovely piece of kit, spinning smoothly and freely.

Rain has been few and far between over the test period but on the odd days that we did get some downpours a ride didn't see anything getting in past the rubber seals. Dust has been the bigger issue, but again it hasn't led to any creaking or groaning.

I like a rear wheel to have an instant pick-up and this is what you get here, with a six-pawl setup in the freehub. Some wheels have just four or even two.

The pawls work together in three sets of two, which gives you 48 points of engagement around the circumference. It's instant and thanks to the three stainless steel strips added to the freehub body to stop gouging, huge starting efforts aren't going to see you damaging the body from the cassette cutting in.

The only minor criticism I have of the wheels is that fitting some Shimano discs to the Centerlock splines was tight, which could either be really close tolerances or possibly the thickness of the paint between each spline.

The discs didn't slide on easily and I had to tighten the lockring to ease them into position. This meant that I needed to tap them off lightly with a rubber mallet at the end of the test period.

Build choice

On the whole it's a really well-thought-out build, showing that a well-chosen spec list of components can build into a very good wheelset, offering excellent durability and performance.

If customisation is your thing then JRA's website is a good place to start, with the Geckos coming in a range of fitments, sizes, axle choices and colours without it affecting the overall price.

Diameter-wise you can choose from 700C or 650B for starters, and you get the usual choice of freehub fitments, Shimano, Campagnolo and SRAM's XD.

Some manufacturers chuck a selection of various adaptors and end caps in with their wheels to make them compatible, but with JRA you select your choice for whichever bike they are going to be fitted to. If you like to swap your wheels around your fleet, JRA offers a full a full selection of spares on the website.

Up front you can go for 9mm/12mm/15mm thru-axles, standard quick release or specific options if you happen to ride a Cannondale with a Lefty fork.

The rear options are quick release or 12mm thru-axle in either a 135mm length or 142mm. This should cover pretty much every option out there.

There's a whole array of anodised alloy nipples to spec, like the orange versions you see here ,or you can go black or silver if you want brass.

You can even tie in the hub stickers to match too, and all of this keeps the price at just £850 which is impressive value when you take everything into account. The only thing that'll nudge the price up is 11 quid for two tubeless valves.

> Buyer's Guide: 26 of the best road bike wheels

Hunt's excellent 30 Carbon Gravel Disc wheelset was £999 when we tested it but has now dropped to £879 which is much more competitive, but still a little higher than the Geckos.

Reynolds' ATR 2 wheelset is also designed for gravel use among other things. We were impressed with the 650B version and the 700C has the same £1,300 price tag.

Overall, the Geckos are excellent wheels for gravel use without being too overbuilt to stop them offering a great performance on the road.

Verdict

Brilliant lightweight wheels that'll take plenty of abuse from gravel tracks or rough roads