American Classic’s Argent Road Tubeless is an entirely new wheelset with a deeper rim profile than their original Road Tubeless wheels. The originals are meant as a race wheel, the Argent is the everyday training/riding wheel.
The rim is 30mm deep and 19.4mm/22mm wide (inside/outside). Rim weight is claimed at just 390g, and wheel weights are listed as 568g front and 786g rear (1372g set).
They’re built with AC bladed spokes and alloy nipples and get a new dark gray anodized color. Spoke count is 18/24 and is compatible with Shimano 11-speed. To do that, they used a 1.85mm wider freehub body and a thinner lock nut on the opposite side, and the wheel is redished. Parts and service are available to retrofit their older wheels for 11-speed, too…
The 11-speed freehub bodies are dark gray, making it easy to pick them apart from the silver 8/9/10 speed hubs.
Parts are $85 for the 11-speed freehub body and two new bearings. Redish labor is extra but necessary to get the rim centerline back where it needs to be, and unlike Zipp’s retrofit deal, AC says your local shop can do it if they’re comfortable building wheels. Hubs are the same, only the freehub body and non-drive side bolts change…and the dish.
Bead hook profile on the Argent gets tweaked slightly from his other road rims.
Hubs all get the new dark gray ano, doing away with the black ano or white paint.
Price will be under $1,400 and include standard chromoly skewers. Tubeless rim tape is pre-installed, but you can run them with tubes and tires.
Not shown, all wheels get new graphics and branding. Mountain bike rims get the “Cloud”, road bike alloy rims get “Upper Cut” shattered graphics, the ‘cross/trekking wheel gets “Galactic” dot patterns and carbon road wheels get “The Tour”. Some of the rim graphics spill to the hubs on a few models.
New 101-Series rims are their first standalone rim offered to anyone to build up with whatever hub and spokes you want.
Weights are a very respectable 329g (26″) – 357g (650B) – 381g (29er)
All three share the same extrusion, which uses thicker walls than their higher end rims on their wheelsets. This was done to make them “less finicky” for shop folks to build up. That said, they’re still really light. Some of that lightness comes from using about a 5mm shallower height that what you find on their XC and AM wheels. They’re 18mm tall and 21mm/25mm wide (inside/outside). That’s narrower than their wheelset rims, too.
The thicker walls also make it easier to manufacture, and the extrusion shape helps make it competitively stiff. Shook said it’s made to be as strong as the competition but lighter.
Pricing finalized soon, they’ll be under $100.
