If you want to drop some weight on your fat bike, wheels and tires are a good place to start. Because of the massive size of fat bike rims and tires, there’s often a good amount of weight savings to be found. When it comes to rims, that often means looking into carbon fiber, though designing a carbon fiber fat bike isn’t the easiest thing to do. After issues with their Carbondale rims, Borealis has stuck to aluminum or carbon rims from other manufacturers.
Rather than giving up on their desire to create their own carbon rim though, Borealis instead is teaming up with Reynolds Cycling to make it happen. By combining Reynolds’ experience with carbon with Borealis’ knowledge of fat bike rims, the team has put together a carbon rim that will be made in the USA and looks to check off a lot of boxes when it comes to fat bikes…
When designing the new rim, weight was a big concern but durability was just as, if not more important. The Borealis Elite carbon rim is designed first and foremost to be an all-terrain wheel rather than just a snow wheel. That means being able to withstand aggressive riding on the most punishing terrain. On top of that, the wheel had to be easy to set up tubeless, and be able to hold the tire well at extremely low pressures. These are all the areas of the design that Borealis offered their expertise, while Reynolds made it happen with their carbon magic.
Using a double wall, full carbon construction, the 32h Elite rim is also a hookless design that is meant to make Setting up tubeless tires a breeze. Measuring in at 85 mm wide and 80 mm internally, the rim will be available exclusively through Borealis and will be made in Salt Lake City.
Elites will be available in rim only, or in complete builds with either Borealis or I9 hubs. Pricing starts at $1000 per rim which may sound a little steep, but Borealis and Reynolds are comparing this rim to something like an Enve rim which has a similar price tag and a lot less material. Complete wheel builds will start at $2300 with Borealis hubs.
Weight is claimed to be 610 g per rim which works out to an actual weight of 2,210g for a wheelset with Borealis hubs as measured above.
Wheels and rims will be available the first week of October through Borealis and their dealer network.
