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Alto’s smooth rolling wheels get disc brake hubs in time for cyclocross

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Alto-Velo-CCX40-carbon-disc-brake-road-cyclocross-wheels

At the beginning of 2015, Florida-based startup Alto Velo debuted their highly flanged hub design on some incredibly glassy internals. Called R-Symmetric, the design was built with complete wheels in mind since they designed and spec’d specific rim drilling angles and placement, and specific spoke tensions. The idea was to create wheel that balanced lateral stiffness with ride quality and rolled like it was on ice.

Then, at Interbike last year, they showed us prototypes of disc brake versions, with hopes to have them out early this year. That timeline came and went, but now, finally, they’re on sale.

“It was interesting, man. We had the 3D model at Interbike last year,” said co-founder Bobby Sweeting. “But we went back and forth on design and tolerances to really try to dial in on what people wanted most -the cyclocross people in particular- with an eye toward our mountain bike line that’s coming next year.”

Those design changes over the past year were done to ensure that their disc brake hub was good for anyone that needed a disc brake hub, regardless of discipline…

Alto-Velo-CCX40_Rear-carbon-disc-brake-road-cyclocross-wheels
Above and top, the CCX40 uses a custom 40mm deep carbon fiber rim.

They kept their interchangeable axle design that lets you change out from QR to 12mm or 15mm thru axles in less than a minute. Each axle type does require a specific axle as opposed to end caps and spacers – it’s replacing one part with another single part, all of which are available separately. Check our original story for internal and tech photos.

Alto-Velo-Disc-Brake-Hubs

The front hub uses the oversized flange on the non-drive side to make up for the offset required to make room for the disc brake rotor. Their testing showed that the widest offset and tallest flange isn’t necessarily the best solution because of what it does to spoke tension, and it’s doubly challenging to make a really good front disc brake wheel because there’s less width to play with. So, they did a lot of testing to balance ride quality with lateral stiffness at the right point. The result is an almost equal tension from left to right, which they say combines with their ultra-precise internals to make for a very smooth, balanced and strong wheel.

Internals are almost identical to their road hubs with the adjustable end cap, sealing system and freehub parts. The only key difference is a switch from 71802 bearing to a 71803 bearings on the front hub. Those are both angular contact bearings, the difference is going from a 15mm ID to a 17mm ID, which means you’re getting a larger, 17mm front axle inside the hub, which makes the hub stiffer and makes it compatible with all three front axle standards. That’s also why they went with 6-bolt rotor mounts rather than Centerlock, as it made it much easier to use their interchangeable axle design. That’s not to say you won’t eventually see a Centerlock option, but it’s likely a ways down the road.

The AX26 is the alloy rim option (and only tubeless ready option) with disc brakes.
The AX26 is the alloy rim option (and only tubeless ready option) with disc brakes.

The rim also saw changes. Anytime we made changes to the hub, we had to change the rim, because the UD fibers in the carbon rim are all specific to the bracing angle of the spoke and the lacing pattern. So every time we made a change, we wanted to see it proven on the computer but also in real life. I think we went through four or five laminate structures. They’re very subtle, appearing almost inconsequential from a 10,000 foot view, but when you see the data from the testing, it was totally worth it to take our time and make sure that what you’re getting is exactly what you expect. In true engineering fashion, we overanalyzed everything until we were six months late. But just in time for ‘cross season…the following year.

The alloy rims are tubeless ready, and they’re made by Velocity in Jacksonville, FL (just up the road from Alto Velo’s HQ). It’s a custom drilled version of Velocity’s 26mm deep Aileron rims.

The CCX56 offers a deeper 56mm carbon fiber rim option for aero pursuits.
The CCX56 offers a deeper 56mm carbon fiber rim option for aero pursuits.

The carbon rims are made by one of the top Asian suppliers using Alto Velo’s own molds and design, which is necessary to work with their unique spoke angles. These are not officially tubeless ready yet (they’re working on it), but they’re using a new multi-angle drilling pattern to match both the bracing and lacing angles to have exactly linear placement of the spoke – there’s no bending tension or kinks in the spokes. That’s why they really strongly recommend buying a complete wheel from them rather than just the hubs for your own custom build.

Weights are lower than they expected, with all of the gram here, gram there trimming helping shave 50-60g of comparable hubs from competitors. The rear is 270g and front is 114g. Complete wheelset weights and specs are:

Alto-Velo-AX26-alloy-disc-brake-road-cyclocross-wheels2

AX26 claimed weights are 707g front, 878g rear.

Alto-Velo-carbon-disc-brake-road-cyclocross-rims

The carbon options weigh in at (claimed):

  • CCX40 Clincher – 693g F / 873g R
  • CTX40 Tubular – 591g F / 771g R
  • CCX56 Clincher – 750g F / 926g R
  • CTX56 Tubular – 598g F / 774g R

All are laced 24 front (2x/2x) and 28 rear (radial/2x). They’ve already shipped the first few sets, and they’re available now through their website. Demo sets will be at Interbike’s demo day, too. Retail ranges from $1,385 for alloy, carbon starts at $2,050 and runs up to $2,195 depending on rim depth. Choose from eight logo decal colors.

AltoCycling.com

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Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
8 years ago

Bobby Sweeting,

Any chance independent wheel builders are going to have standalone hubs available in the future?

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago

Wheel builders can already buy them! We don’t allow shops to sell individual hubs or rims to their customers, but we’re perfectly happy if you’d like to buy a hub set and have a professional lace it up with a different rim. We simply want to control the build process and be sure that whoever is building with Alto parts is doing so properly and to our specifications. Please shoot me an email and I can help to get you set up. Thanks!

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago

Wheel builders can already buy them! We don’t allow shops to sell individual hubs or rims to their customers, but we’re perfectly happy if you’d like to buy a hub set and have a professional lace it up with a different rim. We simply want to control the build process and be sure that whoever is building with Alto parts is doing so properly and to our specifications. Please shoot me an email and I can help to get you set up. Thanks!

Chefdog
Chefdog
8 years ago

Better change the name to “Alto Wheels” That was a big stink over the name and they changed it this year…

Chefdog
Chefdog
8 years ago
Reply to  Chefdog

The name in the title, that is.

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago
Reply to  Chefdog

Haha, that’s right, we don’t want any trouble!

RobertW
RobertW
8 years ago

Looks like the center to drive flange and center to non drive flange are switched.

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago

Thanks for taking a close look at the numbers, Robert, I’m sure many people just skim past them! All of the numbers in the table are correct. Please feel free to shoot us an email if you have any questions about them or want to check out the details!

Guest
Guest
8 years ago

Sorry if I missed something but is there a reason for the drive side rear spokes being radial?We always read that this isn’t a great idea for torque transfer.

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Great question, and one that we get often! We initially thought this as well, and tested multiple lacing patterns before arriving to a radial/2x for the rear. There are a few reasons why it tested better in both lateral stiffness and torsional stiffness: First, this design is all about spoke tension balance. The more tangential the spoke is to the torque tube, the more tension is required to dish the wheel in that direction. So a radial/2x pattern emphasizes the amount of tension required on the non-drive spokes, gaining another 8% in balance between the two sides. This makes for a much stronger wheel laterally, and cuts down on the risk of a spoke break quite dramatically. Second, when looking at torsional stiffness, there’s a difference between looking at the drive side flange by itself and looking at the wheel as a complete system. When look at the flange as it’s own system, you are correct that a crossing pattern is much stronger in torsion. But when looking at the big picture we realized that for the hub to “twist up” and have poor torsional stiffness, the entire torque tube of the rear shell would have to deflect and eventually yield. The material stiffness of the 7075 aluminum drastically outweighs the torsion seen while braking or accelerating, so the radial pattern ended up being non-consequential in this regard. In fact, the improved lateral spoke tension balance actually did more to improve torsional stiffness than a drive side crossing pattern, to the tune of about 2%. We believe that this is simply due to the overall stronger structure, but honestly aren’t quite. I hope that helps, and please keep the questions coming! I always like to chat about our design intent, but I try not to write an essay!

Peter
Peter
8 years ago
Reply to  Bobby Sweeting

Which begs another question: why 2x lacing on both sides of the front wheel?

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago
Reply to  Peter

That one really comes down to braking forces, which are obviously quite a lot with disc brakes! We attempted a radial non-drive and 2x drive pattern on the front wheel, for the same reasons I mentioned earlier regarding the rear. But we eventually decided on the 2x pattern on the non-drive side to ensure super smooth and robust braking performance.

Jeb
Jeb
8 years ago

“Second, when looking at torsional stiffness, there’s a difference between looking at the drive side flange by itself and looking at the wheel as a complete system. When look at the flange as it’s own system, you are correct that a crossing pattern is much stronger in torsion. But when looking at the big picture we realized that for the hub to “twist up” and have poor torsional stiffness, the entire torque tube of the rear shell would have to deflect and eventually yield.”

^^^^ This. I’ve had to explain this on more than one occasion.

Bobby Sweeting
8 years ago
Reply to  Jeb

You aren’t alone, Jeb, we get this question really often! Keep fighting the good fight, haha.

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