We’ve been rolling on these carbon hoops since back in mid-February (read our first impressions here) and can’t say enough good things about them.
They’ve spent the last three months fitted up to our Trek Superfly 100 long-term test bike, have been shod with a few different sets of rubber in that period and have been ridden all over the state.
Even ignoring the very reasonable $1400 price tag, these are a fantastic pair of wheels. The sub-1600g weight puts them into weight range that makes them acceptable for cross-country racing, but the strength and stiffness is awesome and the rim profile lends itself to bigger tyres and harder riding.
With an internal width of 23mm, these rims offer loads of support for tyres of 2.25″ or larger, giving more stability to when cornering and a broader contact patch. Coming off wheels with a 19mm internal width, the difference is immediately noticeable.
One of the key elements in the rim’s construction is the absence of a bead hook. It makes for a very strong rim wall, as the carbon is a constant width (there’s no weak point where the carbon dips in to form the ‘hook’). This gives you the confidence to push into the rocks even harder, knowing you’re less likely to cause damage to your expensive rims. 29er wheels so often exhibit confidence sapping flex, but these guys hold a line superbly, without feeling overly harsh.
Any reservations we had about the hookless bead rim construction have proved unfounded; these wheels hold onto a tyre just as securely as any other rim we’ve ever used. We tend to run our pressures in the mid-twenties range on a tubeless 29er and we haven’t burped a tyre yet.
We did find that the tubeless rim tape pulled away from the rim bed a bit when changing tyres, allowing sealant to seep into the rim cavity. This is not an uncommon occurrence with tubeless setups that rely on tape to create an airtight seal; it’s not a huge drama, just a bit messy.
To date we haven’t had to take a spoke key to the wheels, and the DT-made Star Ratchet freehub has been characteristically perfect. The freehub sounds brilliant too, as does the resounding ‘clang’ that resonates through the high-tension spokes when you shift under load.
Carbon wheels would ordinarily be the kind of investment that only the serious racer would consider, but at $1400 these wheels move into the realm of upgrades that you can afford without resorting to a diet of lawn clippings and water. For serious cross country racers, there are obviously lighter options, but as the ultimate trail riding 29er wheelset, these most be pretty close to perfect.