newmencomponents

During hard riding there are plenty situations (sideloads and heavy braking) where the spokes on the opposite side to the occuring loads completly loose tension momentarily. 250N sideload at the tire contact patch is enough for an average aluminium enduro wheel. While riding over straight perpendicular bumps you won't notice a difference with lowering spoke tension. If you don't ride hard enough you also won't notice a difference - the classic theory applys. We find that especially on rough natural trails with off camber sections and rough/bumpy corners you do notice a difference at some point. "At some point" means that you have to go really low, about 700-800N on the steep spoke angle side to make it obvious. What's happening isnt that the spokes "flex/bend/stretch", but rather that the rim can move around more in relation to the hub. I get that in theory you think that the rim can only move in relation to the hub when the spokes stretch but in reality an aluminium rim goes into a "potato-chip" shape. This completly relieves some spokes from all their tension which allows for the rim to radially and axially move around the hub. This is in our mind also the main difference why carbon can be harsh and shallow aluminium rims are more forgiving and this rim deformation in a lot of cases also is the reason why you get tire marks inside your rear triangle during hard cornering. Almost all carbon rims don't go into that "potato chip" shape during riding due to their inherent axial stiffness and especially shallow aluminium rims do this very easily. There is basically zero difference when you measure vertical deformation of a wheel, no matter the rim material or rim height so that "vertical" compliance" doesnt come from literally radial deformation of the rim. A Stans rim doesn't compress more than one of those older Enve rims under radial load at the hub axle/tire contact point (ok, maybe a few hundredth mm). I hope it gets clear what I am trying to say as for me it gets kind of difficult to find the proper English words for some things I am trying to say.

He is riding them since last fall, check his IG :)

@Rodeodave: The hubs are machined and assembled across the street of our office in Germany and the wheels are built and trued to very even spoke tensions also in Germany.

As described in the article our initial plan was developing XC/trail carbon fiber rims. For that type of use the advantages of carbon fiber is obvious, you simply get lighter, more efficient wheelsets. During our development process we have been able to improve the strength of the flanges a lot over the time. Due to the layup process being automated we also have a very low chance for mistakes/errors in during the production process. In the end we have a wheelset which weighs in at 1600g for 29" and is durable enough for the EWS riders from the Cube Action Team. Feel free to check out Zakarias Johansens latest instagram post if you want to see what they have to hold up in the real world: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_2mCwrnjJj/ If you use an aluminium rim for proper enduro racing it will always get small dents und flat spots. With the carbon fiber rim you can always true it to perfect spoke tension and side/height deviation again. They just don't wear the same way alloy wheels do IF they hold up.

There are various reasons for this decision. When developing our new hub we had three design targets in mind: - further improved reliability - less noise - strong enough for e-bike use Evaluating our options with in house lab testing of various prototypes and also competitor hubs we have come to the conclusion that a large designed pawl system is the only way to combine all of the above for us. for once star ratchet drivers are inherently noise and also we believe that a well designed pawl system is more reliable. With a star ratchet system it CAN happen that the ratchets don't fully engage and then when you only put down slight power the ratchets will be damaged. With a pawl system when only one pawl engages (you always have to expect that something CAN go wrong), if you dont have a peak force right at the time where not all pawls were engaging (very slim chance) nothing will be damaged. Especially after doing a lot of testing with e-bikes (yes we know not everyone likes them) we figure that the more reliable option is a large and well designed pawl system.

They are brushed with colorless anodizing = silver. I agree it is hard to tell with the pictures taken in the bright sunlight.

@wowbagger: the 157mm SP hub is in the works. We do offer the 32h J-Bend hub with 157mm spacing and it is available right now.

the point is that the spokes get lenghtened by 8mm when they get tensioned while building the wheel. Under riding situations the forces of the spokes in a regular wheel get distributed so unevenly that under extreme breaking for example certain spokes lose almost all of their tension when they were tensioned to 1200N. With the fibre spokes the forces are distributed much more evenly onto the different spoke holes, since there would have to be much more movement in the wheel before a spoke loses as much tension as a steel spoke does - thus the fibre spokes last much longer on our drum teststand than any other wheel we have tested so far (the rims for example dont crack at the nipple hole). The stiffness of the wheel is basically the same though.

@SuperstarComponents: sorry but if you don't even know that spokes in every regular wheel behave like this under high braking forces and slightly less so under acceleration and impact forces you have probably not fatigue tested any wheel yourself properly yet and looked at what is happening with the wheel. That the rim holds up so much longer at the spoke holes than the rim of any other wheel we have tested on our drum teststand yet, just underlines our point. The forces in the wheel are distributed much more evenly onto all of the fibre spokes under stress instead of having the forces peak on certain spokes in the wheel under certain riding situations. I can also assure you that every wheel we have tested has been properly tensioned by my very self but considering your aggressiveness I am not sure if you are even trying to have a proper discussion.

@MikeBikerson: Maybe you spoke too soon and at a claimed msrp of 1200€ for a 1230g trail wheelset there might be a string of hope some people can afford one?