Home > Bike Types > Road Bike

Rolf Prima builds ultralight Eos3 road carbon clincher with new U.S. made rim

16 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

2016-rolf-prima-eos3-carbon-clincher-rim-brake-road-bike-wheels2

Rolf Prima is on a mission to build their wheels from U.S. parts, going so far as to build their own alloy rim rolling facility. Now, they can add carbon rims to that list, too!

Made in the Pacific Northwest near their Eugene, OR, headquarters, the new rim is a tubeless ready, rim brake clincher that was two years in development. It’s laced to their TdF6.0 hubs, which get a “special ballistic coating” and use White Industries’ titanium Freehub body and newer T2 rapid engagement internals.

The result is the new Eos3 wheelset. Using just 30 total spokes between the two wheels, they weigh in at a scant 1295g…


2016-rolf-prima-eos3-carbon-clincher-rim-brake-road-bike-wheels1

Rolf Prima says the design is both light and aerodynamic, getting a 32mm deep, 25mm wide profile. They roll on Enduro Zer0 ceramic bearings.

“Several years ago we set out to do as much as we could in house and in the USA. In this project we chose one of the hardest things to develop: a tubeless compatible, light weight, rim brake carbon clincher. This required us to think more creatively and develop a new tooling system from the ground up, which was pretty exciting,” said Rolf Prima Senior Engineer, Joel Wilson. “The quality of tooling and innovative tooling design makes it possible to achieve the light weight rim that we were looking for.”

Price is TBD, expect them to ship in May 2016. We’ll have more info on these and several other new wheelsets from them at NAHBS this weekend.

RolfPrima.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

16 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kevin
Kevin
8 years ago

Just love Rolf wheels.

Ashok Captain
Ashok Captain
8 years ago

Aero AND light, yay! They certainly look the biz. A review on how they brake and corner would be interesting!

Myke
Myke
8 years ago

Probably not stiff enough for most

Tom
Tom
8 years ago

Agree with Myke, but I’m sure an “everyman” version with a few more spokes and a few more grams will be close behind.

LowRider
LowRider
8 years ago

I have the Fulcrum’s Racing Zero Carbon which look similar in spirit to these sweet wheels, and they simply rock!

Gef
Gef
8 years ago

I’ve had my doubts, but I’ve been thrashing a set of Vigors for a couple of years now, and they’re still great. Haven’t had to true them or anything, which is a good thing since they run internal nipples.

ChrisC
ChrisC
8 years ago

Once the company became independent again (after the Trek years) they started putting out some absolutely AMAZING products.

spike
spike
8 years ago

I have a set of the original Rolf wheels from the 90’s, before trek, and I still bust them out from time to time as a back up wheelset. They have never required truing or any maintenance. I’ll admit I’m a little scared to ride on them, but only when I think about it. They were never very light, but they made for great crit wheels back when I raced. Nice to see they are still making great wheels.

Alex
Alex
8 years ago

I have Rolf Prima wheels. They’re AWESOME. Plenty stiff, and never need truing. These 100% USA made new wheels looks pretty sweet!!!

Charles
Charles
8 years ago

These look pretty soft. I can see them bouncing between the brakes if you were to crank down hard enough…

Also, what’s a “special ballistic coating”?

silverlining
silverlining
8 years ago

I would like to know if they can build an equally light version in the same minimal paired spoke design for discs?

Nope
Nope
8 years ago

@Charles Fascinating opinion based solely on your PERCEPTION of how they LOOK. Truth is Rolf makes some bombproof products, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to try some you are missing out.

Jonathan
Jonathan
8 years ago

Is the Eos3 wheelset the only carbon clincher rim made in USA? Does that mean their other carbon clinchers and tubular are made elsewhere, e.g. overseas?

Alex
Alex
8 years ago

@Jonathan: Rolf Prima builds all their wheels by hand in Eugene, OR. Hubs are made by White Industries, in California. Some of their rims are made in the USA, and some are not. Most of their aluminum rim production is now USA made. The Eos3 carbon rims are fully made in the USA.

Cheese
Cheese
8 years ago

Very nice. When can we expect a disc cross version?

george ritter
george ritter
6 years ago
Reply to  Cheese

just bought a set of Eos3’s, disc. Sweet wheels, more responsive than a bunch of high end wheels.. i weigh 210 and these wheels rock..

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.