Reynolds’ Attack, Assault SLG and Strike SLG Performance road carbon clinchers all become tubeless ready for 2015, and the Attack becomes available in a disc brake specific option, too. The 46 Aero also gets a disc brake option, and three Aero (46, 58 and 72) wheelsets all get tubular rim options.
Weights for the Performance line stays the same with the switch to tubeless compatibility, coming in at 1365g, 1515g and 1635g. Depths are 29, 41 and 62 millimeters respectively, and all are rated for anything from road to gravel to cyclocross.
To go tubeless the bead hook and channel had to change, and designer and aero guru Paul Lew explains…
Paul Lew: “There’s a significant difference in the way a tube type and tubeless tire fits. With a tube, the tube pushes the tire’s bead out and into the hook. With tubeless, the air pressure wants to push the tire’s bead up and over the hook. So traditional bead hooks are worthless in tubeless applications. To make it work, you need to change the bed so the bead rests on the bed of the rim (black circle in drawing). A tubeless tire actually seals at the bottom of the bead, and that pop you hear is when the tire is pressurized and snaps out of the center channel and against the sidewall.”
The hook remains in case you don’t run tubeless tires, but Lew cautions to never convert a non-tubeless rim. Not only is the bead sitting in the wrong place, but the structure of (a carbon) rim is completely different because the way the tire and air pressure is pushing on the rim is completely different. Reynolds’ layup for these new tubeless are different than the originals to address that.
The Aero tubular wheels drop considerable weight from the original clinchers. Complete wheelset weights for the tubulars are 1245g (46, 260g less), 1340g (58, 240g less) and 1420g (72, 255g less). The 90 Aero remains clincher only, but you can mix and match depths of the others to suit your particular needs.
The 46 Aero disc brake version is clincher only, no tubular disc brake version yet.
