DT Swiss Offers Light, Tough Carbon MTB Rims Separately For Custom Wheel Builds

Until today, if you wanted a carbon DT Swiss mountain bike rim, you could only get it in a complete wheelset built by DT themselves. But after launching new lightweight carbon XC, all-mountain, and enduro wheels last summer with unique new manufacturing tech, DT Swiss decided to make those same new lighter AND stronger carbon MTB rims available separately for custom wheel builds. Pick from new DT Swiss XRC 310, XMC 320 & EXC 330 carbon rims – the same you’d find in their premium 1200-series wheels – and build up some killer new custom mountain bike wheels for yourself…

DT Swiss separate XRC, XMC & EXC carbon MTB rims

DT Swiss builds a lot of great complete system wheels with carbon rims – from road and gravel to XC, all-mountain, and enduro. And DT is one of the few cycling companies that produces their own hubs, spokes, nipples, and both aluminum & carbon rims at all levels. Yet for rims, DT only offered their aluminum rim on their own for custom builds.

But it seems DT Swiss was finally tired of watching wheelbuilders buy their hubs & spokes to lace them into somebody else’s rims. And thanks to their latest smart carbon rim tech manufacturing upgrades last year, selling rims separately started to look more appealing.

New Carbon Rim Tech Details

Importantly, all of this new carbon rim tech, actually already launched last year. DT describes it as “industry-disrupting rim manufacturing“.

What that amounts to is:

• a new system of multi-part mechanical molds
• laying of continuous compacted carbon fiber directly into those molds, instead of conventional smaller piecemeal layups
• less resulting carbon overlap for lighter weight, but with improved strength & durability from longer uninterrupted fibers
• molded-in (not drilled) spoke holes

• bead-to-bead continuous Carbon Shield protection layer (or layers for the EXC rim) for additional impact protection
• straight-out-of-the-mold finishes
• ‘layer-by-layer nondestructive inspection’ (likely X-ray) of every rim to ensure 100% quality control
• Fair Share crash replacement policy

DT Carbon Rim Specs

XRC 310

• 29″ only with 602mm ERD
• 30mm internal, hookless tubeless-ready
• asymmetric 36mm wide x 20mm deep external
• 28-hole drilling only
• category 3 MTB approved, for a max 110kg rider+bike system weight
• 373g claimed weight

XMC 320

• available in 27.5″ with 561mm ERD or 29″ with 601mm ERD
• 30mm internal, hookless tubeless-ready
• asymmetric 37mm wide x 22mm deep external
• 28-hole drilling only
• category 4 MTB approved, for a max 120kg rider+bike system weight
• 440g (27.5) or 470g (29) claimed weights

EXC 330

• available in 27.5″ with 561mm ERD or 29″ with 601mm ERD
• 30mm internal, hookless tubeless-ready
• asymmetric 37mm wide x 22mm deep external
• 28-hole or 32-hole drilling available
• category 5 MTB approved, for a max 130kg rider+bike system weight
• 500g (27.5) or 535g (29) claimed weights

DT Swiss carbon MTB rims – Pricing, options & availability

Three different separate DT Swiss carbon mountain bike rims are on offer: XRC 310, XMC 320 & EXC 330. Each sells for the same price of $600 / 600€ per rim.

All carbon DT rims feature low-key matte silver water transfer graphics, but also include red, gold & stealth black vinyl decals to match your bike. Carbib rims also come with black DT ProLock Hex aluminum nipples, appropriate width DT tubeless tape, and alloy tubeless valves

Of course, building up custom carbon mountain bike wheels isn’t cheap and wheels can get smashed. So, beyond guaranteeing the rims to be free from any defects before they get to your wheelbuilder, DT also offers a reasonable Fair Share crash replacement policy for all of their carbon rims. If you damage a carbon rim through real rider error, DT will sell you a replacement rim for $179 / 179€ per wheel to get you back rolling again.

All three new carbon rims are available starting today, making their way out through DT’s global distribution chain now to get to a local wheel builder near you very soon. We’ve got our eyes on a set of all-mountain rims, and hope to build up some more fresh custom wheels to test laster this month.

DTSwiss.com