Earlier this year I was able to spend some time on the Chris King GRD23 wheelset. It was during the tail end of Portland, Oregon’s rainy season and I rode the wheels, photographed them, and started typing, yet I kept thinking about the wheels and have revisited this “short and quick” review many times over. I was just trying to figure out what I was hung up on or why this particular review was so difficult. Even though I had almost nothing but good things to say. Sometimes it turns out that great products are simply hard to talk about.
The GRD23 is Chris King’s first foray into their own “house” wheels. Featuring a FusionFiber rim (we will get to that) with, you guessed it, a 23mm internal width paired to their legendary center lock R45D hubs. King’s design intent for these was for an all-road wheelset or a perfect wheelset for someone who wants to swap between their slightly-plump-road bike and their gravel bike.
Note: since I did the testing and took forever to wrap this up they have followed up with the deeper more road oriented ARD44.
