Miche K1 EVO wheels review

Flyweight Italian XC hoops

This competition is now closed

By Tom Marvin

Published: August 8, 2023 at 4:00 pm

The K1 EVO is Miche’s lightweight XC and marathon race wheelset, which received an update in late 2022.

The new wheels are light at 1,392g, and come with a broad unidirectional carbon fibre rim, ready to support the current crop of wide cross-country tyres.

In testing, the wheels provided snappy acceleration with forgiving handling.

However, scope for home servicing is a little limited, and needs plenty of prior planning.

From the outside, the K1 EVO features a new UD carbon fibre 29in rim. This has been broadened and given a 29mm internal width, which is appropriate for up to around 2.4in tyres.

This width is becoming increasingly prevalent in cross-country, thanks to low rolling resistance and better bump absorption of the wider rubber. Basically, there are few downsides to broader tyres.

The rims have a hookless design, so there’s no rolled-over hook on the top edge of the rim. We’ve found this poses no issues with tyre retention, and in theory helps cut weight.

The rims are 25mm deep, which is relatively shallow, and the vertical rim wall itself is also shallow.

The spokes enter an asymmetrical rim bed. This means they don’t sit in the centre of the rim, but are offset to allow for better triangulation over the hub body.

Each wheel has 28 stainless steel double-butted straight-pull spokes, held in the rim with alloy nipples.

The hubs feature a Center Lock rotor interface, and come as standard with a Shimano-ready MicroSpline freehub. The rear axle requires the use of two 12mm hex keys to release for bearing or freehub swaps.

The wheels come with a 6-bolt adaptor, rotor lockring and a pair of wheelbags.

The rider plus bike weight limit for these 1,392g wheels is 97kg.

While not baggy, the rims don’t feel overly tight to fit tyres to, and the low height of the vertical rim wall means getting a tyre lever under the tyre bead is pretty easy.

I found tyres popped into the rim wall without resorting to a pressure canister. During testing, I didn’t burp tyres, or suffer any punctures.

On the trail, the K1 EVO wheels impressed.

Their weight is competitively light at under 1,400g, however if you’re pushing that 97kg weight limit, you might want to consider burlier hoops.

Their lightweight nature will impress weight weenies. Any shaving of grams will help uphill in some small way, and while it’s impossible to say these will make a marked difference to your uphill speed, their lack of weight certainly helps psychologically.

While Miche doesn’t state the hub-engagement angle, it’s not quite as quick as the best out there, which often have 0.5 to 3-degree engagement, but I didn’t find them too lazy for my tastes.

Over harsh chatter, the rims seem to give a slightly muted feel, reducing harshness, which leads to lessened fatigue on longer rides. Their shallow rim depth, and potentially softer spoke tension, are likely contributing factors here.

There seems to be a similar performance level on off-camber sections of trail, where the wheels moulded nicely to the ground, helping me hold a line and boosting grip.

The wheels don’t get pinged and pushed off line too easily, further calming the ride.

At 78kg kitted up, and fitted to a 12kg bike, I’m getting towards the weight limit of the wheels. Despite Miche saying these wheels are stiffer than the previous version, I could get them to twang a bit, especially when pushing hard into corners, or landing skewed.

Here, there’d be a tell-tale noise from the spokes.

This is, I feel, moderately acceptable. The target rider may well be a bit lighter, and while they twanged, they stayed true throughout testing. That said, at the top end of XC racing, riders push their kit really, really hard.

My only real frustration during testing came when I wanted to fit an XD freehub.

It was then that I realised I’d need two 12mm hex keys to swap the freehub, and bearings if needed.

It’s not overly common to find 12mm hex keys in bike tool kits, let alone a pair. As such, my workshop time was delayed. I would strongly recommend purchasing a pair when you buy the wheels to save any last-minute pre-race stresses.

Though we’ve heard of some reliability issues with Miche hubs, my set seemed in decent condition after four months of regular use.

The K1 EVO wheels are a fine set of cross-country wheels.

Their light weight is appealing (so long as you’re suitably light too), while their trail manners mean you won’t be rattled to pieces on rocky courses.

The broad rim bed helps keep tyre pressures down, while grip is aided by their fairly soft feel.

Just make sure you have some hex keys to hand well in advance of any short-notice maintenance.

Senior technical editor

Tom Marvin is a technical editor at BikeRadar.com and MBUK magazine. He has a particular focus on mountain bikes, but spends plenty of time on gravel bikes, too. Tom has written for BikeRadar, MBUK and Cycling Plus, and was previously technical editor of What Mountain Bike magazine. He is also a regular presenter on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel and the BikeRadar podcast. With more than twenty years of mountain biking experience, and nearly a decade of testing mountain and gravel bikes, Tom has ridden and tested thousands of bikes and products, from super-light XC race bikes through to the most powerful brakes on the market. Outside of testing bikes, Tom competes in a wide range of mountain bike races, from multi-day enduros through to 24-hour races in the depths of the Scottish winter – pushing bikes, components and his legs to their limits. He’s also worked out that shaving your legs saves 8 watts, while testing aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. When not riding he can be found at the climbing wall, in his garden or cooking up culinary delights.