“Gearing Up” For Our Wheelset Reviews

August 19, 2008 by Kovas Lapsys
Filed under Wheelsets

We thought it might be fun to build some excitement for our upcoming series of posts which will review these high-zoot wheelsets.

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Industry Nine:

Industry Nine (I9) has been all-the-talk the past year or so. The guys who ride them swear by them. 3 month wait for a custom set - what?! Super stiff alloy spokes, 120 points of engagement, proprietary spoke and hub design, any anodize color you can image, tubeless or tubed…they sound too good to be true. Promises to be lighter, stiffer, faster, stronger than anything out there…

Rohloff:

Ok, so not necessarily a wheel, but more a hub/transmission system the Rohloff speedhub gives you 14 speeds, the equivalent gear ratio of a 3×9 drive-train, but without the mess of derailleurs, dual shifters, extra cables, triple rings, and cogsets. You use only 1 ring up-front, so clearance on your bike is improved while maintenance is reduced. This is not the funky Toy’s-R-Us transmission system of old - this is a hardcore part that takes all-mountain rides and gobbles them up and spits them out… There’s two guys who ride Ellsworth Truths on the same trails I do. I run into them now and then. They both have Rohloff hubs and they swear by them - almost cult-like. With a Rohloff hub you can shift at a standstill, and even better, shift under load. The whole system is sealed (from shifter through hub), so there’s next to no maintenance for your ride. You can run a disc or rim-brake setup (who does rim brakes?!) and you can chose the rim and spokes for your personal set up.

Mavic:

Mavic makes some delicious wheels for all-mountain riding as well. While every racer knows about the crossmax SLR and SL models, fewer riders have taken to the slightly beefier ST series. A couple years ago I owned a set of crossmax XL wheels, no longer in production. The wheelset was suprisingly light, but absolutely bombproof. In my opinion, I9 took a note from the crossmax series from mavic when they designed their AL-spoked design. Crossmax ST was the next generation to replace the XL wheelset (aimed at the everyday weekend-warrior and all mountain rider).

Crank Bros:

Have you seen these? Everything Crank Bros touches is uber-cool. The engineering and machining that goes into these makes them an art piece in themselves.

DT Swiss:

The XR series seems to have a wheel for every rider looking to upgrade from stock. From carbon rims to wide enduros - a very solid line up.

Do you have one of these wheelsets? Is there a set not mentioned that we should give a serious look at? Please, respond below in the comments section.