Spotted as just a prototype in Taipei, American Classic’s Carbon mountain bike wheels made their official debut in Germany. Called the Carbonators, the wheels are built with fairly wide rim profiles to provide excellent handling characteristics while still remaining light enough for cross country use. Available in 27.5 and 29″ diameters, the wheels will offer tubeless compatibility along with multiple hub configurations all for an impressively low price….
As one of the latest mountain bike wheels to go hookless, the Carbonator rim uses a much thicker spoke bed and rim wall for great impact resistance and durability. The tire seat itself uses a gentle slope down towards the rim wall rather than an aggressive bead lock. The rims will be tubeless compatible with American Classic’s standard Honey Tape (included), and offer a 33mm wide external, and 26mm internal width and 24mm deep.
Built with American Classic Disc 130 and 225 hubs, the wheels allow for standard QR or 15mm/142×12 thru axle configurations. In spite of the fairly light 1595/1676g weight (27.5/29), the wheels are laced with 32 14/15g DB spokes front and rear with aluminum nipples. Perhaps most impressive is the wheelset’s price of only $1799.
On the road side, the popular Sprint 350 wheelset gets an upgrade to the rim to make it both wider and tubeless. Now sporting a 22mm external and 19.7mm internal width, the tubeless ready rim uses the same AC tubeless tape. While the rim is wider and now tubeless, AC managed to make the rims lighter as well resulting in a wheelset weight of 1396g – all for only $899.
