About HED Cycling
HED Cycling is an American bicycle wheel company built around a simple idea: make cyclists faster through better engineering. Since 1984, HED has helped shape the development of aerodynamic bicycle wheels for road cycling, triathlon, gravel, racing, and performance riding.
What began with Steve and Anne Hed and an obsession with making a faster bicycle wheel grew into one of cycling's most recognized wheel brands. Today, HED continues to design, develop, manufacture, assemble, and test performance wheels from its home in Minnesota.
The History of HED Cycling
HED Cycling was founded in 1984 by Steve and Anne Hed in Minnesota. Long before aerodynamic equipment became standard in professional cycling and triathlon, Steve was experimenting with ways to reduce aerodynamic drag and improve the interaction between the bicycle, wheel, tire, and rider.
Those early experiments helped establish the philosophy that still guides HED today: performance should be proven through engineering, testing, and real-world riding rather than created simply for appearance.
From early aerodynamic disc wheels to modern wide-rim carbon wheel systems, HED has spent decades challenging conventional bicycle wheel design. Aerodynamics, stability, tire performance, structural integrity, and serviceability all play a role in how a HED wheel is developed.
Born From Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics have been central to HED since the beginning.
Bicycle wheels rotate through constantly changing airflow, interact directly with the tire, and experience wind from a wide range of angles. Designing a fast wheel therefore requires more than making a rim deep. Rim depth, rim width, tire shape, crosswind behavior, spoke configuration, and overall wheel construction must work together as a system.
HED's approach to wheel development has helped push cycling toward wider, more aerodynamically integrated rim and tire combinations. That philosophy can be seen throughout today's HED wheel lineup, from versatile road wheelsets to deep-section triathlon wheels and full aerodynamic disc wheels.
Designed for Real-World Speed
The fastest wheel is only useful if a rider can confidently use it. That is why HED evaluates more than straight-line aerodynamic performance.
Wheel depth, crosswind stability, tire compatibility, internal rim width, rolling resistance, braking or rotor interface, hub performance, spoke tension, durability, and serviceability all influence how a wheel performs outside of a test environment.
The result is a range of HED bicycle wheels designed for different riders and different terrain, including road racing, triathlon, time trialing, gravel riding, endurance cycling, and everyday high-performance riding.
Carbon Bicycle Wheels Built in Minnesota
HED's Minnesota facility remains an important part of the company and the way its wheels are produced.
HED carbon rims are manufactured in Minnesota, where the team controls critical stages of the production process rather than treating the rim as an anonymous finished component. Wheels are then individually assembled, tensioned, dished, trued, inspected, and prepared by experienced wheel builders.
Keeping engineering and manufacturing closely connected allows information from production, testing, athletes, dealers, and customers to make its way back into product development.
Hand-Built Bicycle Wheels
A premium rim is only part of a great bicycle wheel.
Spoke selection, spoke tension, dish, hub alignment, bearing quality, and final inspection all influence how a wheel rides and how well it performs over time. HED wheels are individually built and inspected by people who understand how those components work together.
This hands-on approach also supports something increasingly important in modern cycling: serviceability. Bearings, spokes, freehub components, axle hardware, and other service parts should remain accessible so riders can maintain their wheels for years instead of treating them as disposable equipment.
Road Bike Wheels
HED road wheels are designed to balance aerodynamic efficiency, low weight, predictable handling, tire performance, and durability.
From versatile mid-depth carbon wheels to deeper aerodynamic profiles, HED offers road wheel options for riders looking to race, climb, ride fast group rides, compete in events, or simply make their road bike faster.
Triathlon and Time Trial Wheels
HED's history is closely connected to triathlon and time trial racing, where aerodynamic efficiency can have an enormous impact over long distances.
Deep-section front and rear wheels, aerodynamic rim profiles, and rear disc wheels allow athletes to build wheel combinations around speed, course conditions, handling preferences, and race-day demands.
HED continues to develop wheels for athletes seeking measurable aerodynamic performance without ignoring the stability and reliability required to actually race them.
Gravel Bike Wheels
Modern gravel riding places different demands on a wheel. Wider tires, lower pressures, rough surfaces, impacts, long distances, and changing terrain all influence wheel design.
HED gravel wheels use wide rim profiles designed around modern gravel tires to support stable tire shapes, confident handling, efficient rolling, and dependable performance across pavement, dirt, and mixed terrain.
Why Rim Width Matters
HED has been an advocate for wider bicycle rims because the relationship between the rim and tire has a significant effect on how a bicycle performs.
Matching rim width to modern tire widths can improve tire shape, handling, aerodynamic integration, ride quality, and the ability to use appropriate tire pressures. Instead of evaluating the rim and tire separately, HED develops them as parts of the same wheel system.
More Than Four Decades of Wheel Development
Cycling technology changes quickly. Tire widths have increased. Disc brakes have become standard across much of performance cycling. Tubeless systems have matured. Gravel has created an entirely new category of performance equipment.
Through those changes, HED has continued doing what it has done since 1984: testing ideas, refining wheel designs, building products, listening to riders, and searching for ways to make bicycles perform better.
That continuity matters. HED is not a brand created around a single product launch or marketing trend. It is the result of decades spent specifically studying bicycle wheels.
The HED Difference
Choosing a wheelset means choosing more than rim depth or weight. It means trusting the people who designed it, the people who built it, and the company that will support it after the purchase.
HED combines decades of aerodynamic development with Minnesota manufacturing, experienced wheel building, modern rim design, and a commitment to producing wheels that riders can race, ride, maintain, and depend on.
From the first aerodynamic experiments in Minnesota to today's carbon road, gravel, and triathlon wheels, the objective remains the same: build better wheels and help riders go faster.
Explore HED Cycling
Whether you are building a road race bike, preparing for a triathlon, upgrading a gravel bike, or searching for your next high-performance wheelset, explore HED wheels and find the setup built for the way you ride.
