First Look: WTB's HTZ E-Bike Wheels Are Designed For Toughness, Not Lightness
While weight is a major selling point for e-bikes, people who ride them regularly are often more concerned about longevity. Components designed for regular bikes generally have a much shorter lifespan on an eMTB.
Enter WTB's first e-bike specific wheelset. A 29" wheelset weighs around 2,691 g, according to WTB, which is at least half a kilo heavier than a typical alloy DH wheelset. The payoff, WTB say, is toughness and longevity to cope with many seasons of the most demanding e-bike action, plus heat sink hubs to improve braking on long descents.
The i30's cross-section is on the right, next to a WTB KOM rim. Photo credit: Mountain Bike Connection Summer - Rupert Fowler.
Starting with the i30 rim, which has existed before as a rim-only but not as a wheelset. It has up to 20% thicker walls than WTB's enduro-duty KOM Tough rims. It also has a highly asymmetric design, allowing the same length of spoke to be used on both sides of the wheel for easier replacement, with similar spoke tensions too for a stronger and stiffer wheel. The rims are claimed to weigh 718 g in 29" and 678 g in 27.5". They come set up with tubeless tape, plus a solid rim strip to stop spokes poking through the tape if the wheel does (somehow) get bent out of shape.
The Pillar spokes are 13-gauge single-butted, going from a chunky 2.3 mm diameter at the hub to 2 mm at the DT Swiss nipple. There are 32 spokes per wheel.
The freehub contains six sets of pawls which all engage simultaneously to minimise the stress on each one to better cope with the mighty torque modern e-bikes can produce. The tradeoff is a slower engagement; the freehub has a middle-of-the-road 42 points of contact for an 8.5° engagement angle.
The hub axle sleeves are 17 mm in diameter (not 15mm), which increases the stiffness of the hub and so reduces stress on the bearings. The freehub spins on three bearings for XD and HG varieties, while the Microspline ones house four bearings (as many as will fit) in order to reduce play and wear while spinning under the tension from the chain. All driver bodies are steel, not alloy.
Photo credit: Mountain Bike Connection Summer - Rupert Fowler.
Finally, the hubs have extra material around the 6-bolt rotor mount. WTB claim these heat sinks improve heat dissipation by up to 10%, helping to reduce peak brake temperatures and brake fade.
Pricing:
Front wheel: $329.95 / €299.95
Rear wheel: $439.95 / €399.95
Wheelset: $769.90 / €699.90
For more, visit www.wtb.com
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* I know this shows my age and not everyone is aware of these 26'' 900G anchors we once rode with..
This whole "ebike" specific "durability over lighter weight" concept doesn't make sense to me at all. Wheels today are just so well built and the bits are strong enough that what bike you're on doesn't matter. Special wheels for an extra 10-20lbs is a marketing gimmick, as are the silly heat sink fins? I'm not saying wheels are indestructible at all, but not more or less on a different bikes.
The only components I see wearing faster and more consistently are cassette and chains. That's been the normal buy it when you see it parts for the people I ride with.
The fact you have "never" had an issue may suggest your riding style is either not as aggressive, or you have a great amount of finesse. I charge hard with not much care for smashing over rock gardens.
Before the "ride smoother" comments come, F&^% that, I don't wanna. I'm happy repalcing a rear rim every season but may take a stouter one if I can.
Anecdotal I know, but it's what I have. Maybe we're just lucky? Or my hardtail days and trials made me "smoother"?
I think flat pedals mean you are harder on rims as well. Just can't unweight the same. Sure you can unweight for a few rocks but not over and over like clips.
Anyway I think this is a pretty cool product but I'm pretty happy with the combo of DH casing rubber and Cush Core wich is probably mandatory for a hard charging rider in some locals that doesn't want flats regardless of how beef the rim is and I'm not sure I'd want to add another 800g of rolling weight.
Now I mostly ride Angel Fire in New Mexico with occasional trips to Purgatory/Paja/CB/desert riding and I break wheels like its my day job. The riding isn't "gnarlier" per-se, it just faster with sharper rocks. FWIW its also typically flatter and infrequently wet, so which is gnarlier probably has more to do with your own personal riding strengths and weaknesses.
The guy who brought up skill/riding literally said "or you have more finesse" suggesting that maybe he wasn't breaking things because he's a much better rider. Don't think there was any hate going around.
By contrast when I was younger and dumber I used to do a wheel or three every season, but it was the 90's and parts were just rebranded road stuff. Plus, a good sized ding on the side wall was enough to scrap a rim since it was also your brake track.
I lived close to the Nashbar headquarters back then and we would make monthly trips to grab wheels since they were 75% off at the store.
I am 240lbs. My budget does not support high price wheels I have destroyed several wheels at the low to mid range level. I now have a set of budget friendly "e-bike" wheels - the really do seem indestructible in comparison to "regular" wheels at low to mid-range price point.
I also agree with @voleman here: wheels and bikes in general are insanely good in 2022. I did put a carbon rim on the rear of my eeb, DD casings with no inserts. I ride mostly on dirt, but my lines/skills are suspect, so I dunno. I can still lock my brakes up at the bottom of the longest run I know...today's light duty stuff is light years more durable than back when I started riding mountain bikes...it hasn't been that long, only really maybe 15 years?
full disclosure: I feel pedal bikes are solved for all but a very small group of riders. I'll get by.
this eeb has more miles on it than my last three pedal bikes combined. I cracked my first reserve carbon rim out back, rode the stock aluminum wobble ring for a week until its replacement arrived. I've rebuilt the shock twice and serviced fork twice. Many brake pads and tires. Broke a brake lever (and I think a rib) at the start of this summer.
3000 miles is a whole lot of trail dude I couldn't be happier with this bike!
And really, I couldn't give a shit about a couple chains / derailleurs over the life of this bike, as I've only suffered TWO FLAT TIRES! I'll take that any time.
But seriously, I'm 155lbs wet living in Ontario and I still break rims, and often lace up new wheels for customers. I literally cannot fathom how someone 10lbs up on me, living in BC with an ebike, doesn't damage rims as often as I do. Most people would say I ride fairly smoothly, just went shit goes wild shit goes wild. You can clean a gap 100 times, you case it once and that's that.
People like us exist, hence why these wheels exist. If you're pushing yourself, you're damaging parts.
Oh Ebikers….. you can save that 600g with a little more riding at least. ♂️
More torque through the wheels means more torque through the ground, which just demolishes any argument that ebikes don't hurt trails. A plain unboosted human can already break traction and move dirt, so an e-bike that requires an extra strength wheel is definitely moving even more dirt.
That's not how the extra weight works, because otherwise heavy riders would be screwed.
Although the rims shown look like an improvement on the current Papier Mache construction they use now; I have no doubt the bead wall will fold like a stripper picking up cash on the first ride.
Then here I am 282lbs geared up riding a 41lb "real" mountain bike (XXL Nicolai G1), surrounded by a pile of components which I have broken over the years. So if a normal rider on a +15lb E-bike requires all these beefier components what do I need at +120lbs over them? By E-bike market logic I should be riding a motorcycle with the motor removed and drivetrain fitted?
Jokes aside, as a big guy this wave of E-bike specific components is a blessing, now my components might last a season instead of a couple months. Nice.
However, beefier parts for we who break stuff all the time, I'm completely here for that!
That said it’s good to see eBikes generating some development in the durability area, even if it is all for the wrong reasons
I run lighter wheels on my ebike than on my MTB because the ebike is for solo cruising while the MTB gets hammered at bikeparks and gets all the ‘dicking about up the woods with the lads’ type abuse
If a wheel set with all the bits (calipers, cassette, tires and rotors) weighs somewhere between 12-15 lbs, then the rest of the bike is around 20 lbs. That means the frame and everything attached to it is between 57 and 61% of the total bike weight. Now, add 15-20 lbs to the frame and the frame is now between 70 and 74% of the total bike weight.
I know it's rough math but I wonder if that could be a reason E-Bike wheels "need" to be beefed up?
Today: Put a E-specific sticker on it and sell it as expensive heavy junk ( just like european bio food lol )
Well jokes aside, most of the E-bike stuff really is just pure marketing. I work at a bike shop and those E-bike wheels are junk. They are not even true from the factory and heavy as hell.
A Dt Swiss ex wheelset will hold up much better which is exactly what I did to my ebike.
I'm open to the idea if it'd actually do something, but I want to see some data or thermal imaging or something. Otherwise, it's just more stress concentrations and extra machining that I'd have to pay more for.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqMuxfHd9Vg
Every one of those wheels has held up just fine despite the Hybrid DT's being the only set that were built for ebikes.
At some point the pretense of the electric bicycle will fall away and we'll revisit the evolution from bicycle to motorcycle of 100 years ago.
I don't mind the evolution of the ebike, but do object to this as a means to allow motorized vehicles on public lands where they aren't allowed. The bike industry is really happy to sell these things to people at 10k or more a pop, not concerned about land use/access issues.
They're just number-wanking with those fat spokes. They think bigger numbers seem better when trying to sell durability. Except e-bikes don't see higher peak forces than a normal bike, so they don't need an increase in ultimate strength. They need tight tolerances to keep everything in its proper place and alignment, so it can handle the normal trail/enduro/whatever bike loads across many more repetitions.
As for the bike company mentioned: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A62GRLAI-7E. The guy is drilling spoke holes 2' into the video. Indeed lots of blind people there, still making mighty fine bikes.
*Because the solution to that isn't just bigger and heavier shit, it's more precise stuff that doesn't wear out as fast. Who cares if your hub is overbuilt if it's not well made and munches bearings? It's not taking bigger hits than a normal bike, it's just taking more. You need a solid budget for chains, tires, and brake pads & rotors, not heavy ass wheels. You need well made wheels with tight tolerances that stay tight so those repeated average hits, that are still well within the ultimate strength, don't cause exponential wear (a worn part wears faster, and then it wears even faster, and then it wears even faster...).
It's like needing brake pads more often on a truck that hauls big loads versus a truck that mostly drives empty. The loaded truck doesn't need to be over-loaded, doesn't need to be pushed beyond its limits, to still wear things out faster. It's just doing more work (force by distance), not too much work.
I don't ride in the Midwest. I ride in a place that's also pretty well known for eating bikes and riders.
If their story sells then still it is mission accomplished, I guess.