New WCS Vantage is their first carbon mtb wheel in more than two years. The old version was trying to be fully tubeless…not tubeless ready, but tubeless, period. But they couldn’t ever get it quite the way they wanted and make it light enough. So, they went with a hookless bead wall and ended up with a 1,510g wheelset (27.5″) that’s 26mm wide inside…
The bead has a slanted seat to help lock it into place. The rim has an asymmetric profile with an utside width of 32mm, depth is 25mm.
Spoke flanges on the hubs are offset from one another so the spokes don’t rub on each other, same as they’ve done on other wheels for years.
End caps are swappable without tools, and you can even pull the whole axle out for servicing or swapping freehub body types. Available in standard and boost, price is TBD available by summer, and since they are a 2018 product we’ll have to wait a bit to get ahold of them.
Inspired by Tom Ritchey’s late mentor Jobst Brandt, the new JB Alpine tire is meant for anyone that rides road but likes to veer off now and then. It’s a 2018 product The tires are new, so not out just yet, but will come in 700×30 and 700×35 widths once available this summer, the larger of the two getting a tubeless ready construction with Stronhold Casing protection for the WCS level.
It’s also available in a full black wall. Claimed weights are 374g for the 35mm tire, 321g for 30mm.
The Speedmax semi-slick cyclocross tire grows to include a 700×40 size, making it a perfect gravel bike option for fast rolling with some bite in the corners. Tubeless ready, weight is 540g, and it also gets Stronghold Casing at WCS level.
We’ve seen the Megabite before, but wanted to show its place in the new range of 700c dirt tires. It has the most aggressive knob pattern and comes in a tubeless ready 700×38 with a claimed weight of 410g.
