Boyd Cycling’s Jocassee gravel wheels get wider, lighter 700c version

Hey K-Pop,

There will always be somebody who is willing to sell a product for cheaper, and there will always be somebody who is willing to cut the corners needed to sell a product for cheaper.

Light Bicycle (using your example) has done a good job in the past few years of making a name for themselves and there are plenty of people happy with their wheels. However, I still think we have some great advantages.

The rim differences.
We use an offset rim bed on all of our wheels which helps to even out spoke tension between right and left side. The new Jocassee wheel is dedicated hookless as it’s specific to gravel wheels. With this, compared to the LB rims we are coming in at 353 grams for the 700c whereas the rim example you gave is 430 grams.

One thing to note as well, we have our 36 road disc and Pinnacle rims that are made in the same mold. By swapping out the sliders we make a hooked version for road and a hookless version for gravel. The gravel version has an internal width of 23.4mm, whereas the hooked version has an internal width of 22mm. I have noticed where the Light Bicycle rims share the same inner and outer dimensions, which should not happen given the different width requirements of a hooked versus hookless rim.

The hubs differences
Obviously DT Swiss is a great hub option, and they are selling a lot at OEM prices. This is where the “always somebody willing to sell cheaper” comes into play. For the companies who won’t want to follow the MSRP rules set forth by the manufacturers they will sell the hubs for less than wholesale pricing. A lot of times these companies will get cut off, but then will buy at OEM pricing again under a different company name.
This may do the consumer a “favor” at the expense of bike shops and the manufacturer, but is not the game of ethics we want to play.

Our Quest hubs tick all the boxes of what you could want in a hub set. We stock them with Enduro Abec 5 LLU/LLB bearings, they have great flange geometry, tool free service and freehub body swapping, and come in at a very respectable 120 grams for the front and 245 grams for the rear. Add to this the 5 degree engagement, and the ability to run J-Bend spokes versus straight pull, and we have a hub that quite a few custom wheel builders have started buying as one of their premium options.

We do all of our wheel building in house in Greenville, SC and for over a decade the quality of our wheel builds has been the consistent mark of praise for people who rides for years without ever having to touch their wheels for service. All wheels are hand built, go through multiple levels of QC, and have to be held to the tightest of specs to leave the building.

We also employ one of the most amazing crews I have ever seen (sure, I am biased). Our wheel builders and other crew work incredibly hard and as a business owner I am proud to pay them a wage that has allowed them to raise a family, buy a house, and even plan for retirement. Since 2009, since we started the company, we’ve had 5 separate people buy their first ever house while working for us. This is something I take a lot of pride in.

Lastly, we have tons of inventory in stock, including all the parts needed to quickly get a customer rolling again if anything should happen. Gravel riding sees people taking their equipment to the extreme, and sometimes an unexpected situation can occur where a new part is needed. We have a lifetime warranty, and a lifetime crash replacement program that gets a customer back up and riding again. We also support independent bike shops throughout the country (and world), and continue growing our dealer network. It’s a lot of fun working together with other small business owners, especially when we can be in a situation to help them.

Overall, we are having fun and business is going crazy. Sure, there may be somebody will will try and sell cheaper. However, when you look at the combination of wheel design, build quality, product availability, product support, and our standing behind every product then I really like our price to performance ratio. I know a lot of customers and bike shops agree with me.