Boyd Cycling goes wide w/ new 650B Gravel wheels, plus prototype 2018 sneak peeks!

Just in time for company founder Boyd Johnson to race them at the Southern Cross, the new Boyd Cycling Jocassee carbon gravel road bike wheels are ready to roll. Or, at least three pairs of them are, look for production versions to hit dealers by early May.

The wheels use a new hookless, tubeless-ready full carbon fiber rim laced to their own hubs with bladed spokes. They’re designed for ultra wide 45-52mm tires, which ends up with about the same outside diameter as a 700×25, so gear ratio and all that will feel exactly the same when swapping between the two. Crush the details, plus a look at more new stuff, below…

Jocassee is a wilderness preserve in upstate South Carolina that has 133 miles of dirt roads and thousands of feet of elevation gain.

The spoke holes are offset 2.8mm from center to even out spoke tension.

Measurements are 24mm internal, 30mm external and 36mm deep

Available early May at latest, $1,650 per set with their Quest hubs. Swap for White Industries CLD hubs for a $350 upcharge.

They have a claimed 430g rim weight, and the complete wheels with bladed spokes and brass nipples come in at 720g (front) and 856g (rear), or 1,576g total.

Even wider will be their 27.5+ carbon mountain bike wheels. These are an early prototype, but planned measurements include a 3mm spoke hole offset, 38mm wide internal, 44mm external and 25mm deep.

Rim weight is TBD, these are a very early sample. One of the differences between this and their current carbon mountain bike rims is that it gets a 3mm bead sidewall versus 3.5mm on their standard 29er carbon rims. They’re testing to see if the bigger “plus” tires negate the need for a thicker sidewall, which means they’ll put about a year’s worth of real world riding on it before finalizing. So, Spring 2018 is the earliest you’ll see it.

Another 2018 project is this baked-in reflective logo treatment. It’s laid on over the clear coat at the end of the layup process, and is then baked in during final production so it can’t peel off. The reflective logo is something they want to put on all road wheels eventually, and this is the first iteration for testing.

Lastly, the ceramic braking upgrade they showed at Interbike last fall grows to cover the entire rim surface. Functionally, it’s the same as there’s no structural benefit to the rest of the rim, but it looks better. Directly above, the full ceramic coated rim is on the left, and the ceramic-brake-track-only rim is on the right, which had a standard black ano finish on the rest of the surface. It’s a $150 upcharge per wheelset and will be available by early May 2017.

BoydCycling.com