SRAM Launches New Ultra Light Rise XX Wheels for XC Racing

It looks like giant’s 27.5 marketing campaign has failed. With Sram going all 29er, the 29er is now the official xc racing wheel of the industry.

Why are you comparing tubular rim weights to clincher rim weights? Tubular is always lighter. Look at Enve’s “old” (as of today) rim weights, the tubular are around 100g lighter. This comparison doesn’t make sense to me, you have to look at the system weight. If you look at Schwalbe racing Ralph weights for similar sized tires the tubulars are about 100g heavier so it’s a wash. And ultimately makes Enve’s new clincher weight all the more impressive.

So I will likely never own these wheels nor the new fork and yes the price is insane. But so must be the massive R&D program at sram right now! Theyre coming out with huge new projects and products right and left! New brake line, new wheels, new fork, new drivetrains.

I don’t what exactly is new in these wheels. German manufacturers have offered uber-light wheels for ages, just not so extremely expensive, they cost about 1000 euros a set, whihc is half the price of this american ones by SRAM or ENVE.

On another thing, people bitching about price, would you ever actually own a set of mountain tubulars?

There are a bunch of people all over the internet complaining about the price of current top spec parts. I say that they aren’t expensive enough. Even at the top levels there are measures being taken to keep costs down. Remember when XO used to come in nice plastic boxes? Now it comes in the same crappy cardboard as SX-3.

If you want to make the worlds most expensive you have to gold plate the frame and use alligator for the saddle. Maybe instead of bitching at the prices, you should be thanking companies for taking the time to make this stuff, and in 3 years when they trickle that tech down to your price point, you can enjoy it too. But until then, keep buying your open mold Chinese wheels and finishing DFL in your weekly cat 5 races.

(deleted) So if I use open mold rims I’ll finish dead last, but if I shell out for SRAM I’ll win, because the decals say SRAM? They’re a bargain because they’re not plated in gold and wrapped in alligator hide? Apparently SRAM managed to keep the price down to only $2700 by delivering them in frugal cardboard boxes. I’m sure there are people out there that would own mountain tubulars that would rather pay $1200 for a set than $2700. And I’m gonna call it now, the predictive steering RS1 combo is going to be a huge failure. Some people…

No, Gerald, you are miss reading me entirely. I am saying that the Chinese open mold stuff is just that, open mold. There is no innovation being done, they are only trying to maximize profit. The cardboard boxes comment was an example of cost cutting on top level groupo’s. The DFL comment was to the people bitching about not being able to buy top spec parts that don’t need them. And the gold and alligator was about this bike. https://bikerumor.com/2013/12/24/24k-gold-extreme-mountain-bike-worlds-most-expensive-fatbike/

the only way to make it more expensive was to gold plate it, not to put nicer parts on it. I think that is more than a little wrong.

Looks like BikeRumor got their embargo dates/pictures mixed up. Those are definitely tubeless clincher rims, not the tubular rims that are shown on SRAM’s website or the video.

You do know that Ned Overend has retired and NORBA doesn’t exist anymore, right?

Ok, so Stans’ Valor rims are only 285gr and cost less per set, WTF?
I do not see any innovation here which would have required a huge R&D budget.
Internal rim width?

Well at the pro level tubbies are still king , but the hardcore roadie set who actually buy there own components, high end clincher and tubeless are the the steadily chipping away at tubular tires. So sram going tubular , just introducing a gimmick that you do not need but the gear queers will have to have because it’s shiny, new and generates a lot of parking lot buzz.
As for the price , whewww , maybe they could have saved money by using Shimano hubs.

I went back and read some other posts, and according to BR readers, companies like Dash and ENVE should be long out of business, but both of those companies are growing. Hmm.

Psi Squared- And you get the award for consistently distasteful and unpleasant posts.

My prediction is that Predictive Steering will have the same success as the Hammershmidt. Anyone remember it?

P.S.: I would like to be as rich as Colin.