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EB14: Reynolds Carbon Road Bike Wheels Go Tubeless, New Disc Brake Options

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reynolds assault strike performance carbon wheels go tubeless with more disc brake options

Reynolds’ Attack, Assault SLG and Strike SLG Performance road carbon clinchers all become tubeless ready for 2015, and the Attack becomes available in a disc brake specific option, too. The 46 Aero also gets a disc brake option, and three Aero (46, 58 and 72) wheelsets all get tubular rim options. 

Weights for the Performance line stays the same with the switch to tubeless compatibility, coming in at 1365g, 1515g and 1635g. Depths are 29, 41 and 62 millimeters respectively, and all are rated for anything from road to gravel to cyclocross.

To go tubeless the bead hook and channel had to change, and designer and aero guru Paul Lew explains…

reynolds assault strike performance carbon wheels go tubeless with more disc brake options

Paul Lew: “There’s a significant difference in the way a tube type and tubeless tire fits. With a tube, the tube pushes the tire’s bead out and into the hook. With tubeless, the air pressure  wants to push the tire’s bead up and over the hook. So traditional bead hooks are worthless in tubeless applications. To make it work, you need to change the bed so the bead rests on the bed of the rim (black circle in drawing). A tubeless tire actually seals at the bottom of the bead, and that pop you hear is when the tire is pressurized and snaps out of the center channel and against the sidewall.”

reynolds assault strike performance carbon wheels go tubeless with more disc brake options

The hook remains in case you don’t run tubeless tires, but Lew cautions to never convert a non-tubeless rim. Not only is the bead sitting in the wrong place, but the structure of (a carbon) rim is completely different because the way the tire and air pressure is pushing on the rim is completely different. Reynolds’ layup for these new tubeless are different than the originals to address that. 

reynolds aero wheels get tubular rim options

The Aero tubular wheels drop considerable weight from the original clinchers. Complete wheelset weights for the tubulars are 1245g (46, 260g less), 1340g (58, 240g less) and 1420g (72, 255g less). The 90 Aero remains clincher only, but you can mix and match depths of the others to suit your particular needs. 

The 46 Aero disc brake version is clincher only, no tubular disc brake version yet.

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John
John
9 years ago

Paul needs to have one of the graphic artists at Reynolds work up a diagram for him. LOL!

Also, no widths?

Rico
Rico
9 years ago

Sweet! More tubeless wide carbon goodness. Nice move Reynolds. I hope they make a tubeless version of the higher end wheels as well. I’m tired of the tubular hassle on my race wheels.

Jasen
Jasen
9 years ago

“With tubeless, the air pressure wants to push the tire’s bead up and over the hook”
hmm… if this is true, why does tubeless and hookless rims work on a mtb since there is no restriction if the air pushes the bead up? Does other kind of physics applies for mtb rims compared to road rims?

Kyle
Kyle
9 years ago

Any pricing info?

that guy
that guy
9 years ago

Are they angular drilling the rims yet?

just me
just me
9 years ago

I may or may not have grabbed a catalog at EUBIKE. Widths are the same as the non tubeless versions 25mm external and 17mm internal.

Colin
Colin
9 years ago

@ Jasen

Pressure. Hookless rims have a 35-45 PSI limit. Road and MTB tubeless are completely different animals because of the pressures involved and the friction they create or don’t.

Brad
Brad
9 years ago

Jansen-I agree with you so I must be missing something too?! I run a set of hookless wide mtb rims (Light Bicycles) and the tires don’t even come close to being pushed away from the rim bed. Doesn’t the tire bead prevent this from happening since it keeps a consistent ID?

Mr. P
9 years ago

I understand pre-tubeless rim beds and beads, as well as the changes required to make rims/tires reliably tubeless, and have to say that the explanation or quote in the article was still very difficult to comprehend – even though it does provide some insight into how the tire behaves in different environments.

P

Von Kruiser
Von Kruiser
9 years ago

Road tubeless is dangerous business w/ the high pressure like Collin said. Most brands do not advise converting their clinchers to tubeless for carbon rims. Hope Reynolds has figured it out so it is safe. Guessing they have since this is a huge deal to come forward saying it’s ok.

greg
greg
9 years ago

Reynolds says nothing about converting conventional clincher tires for their wheels. In general, the Kevlar beads stretch too much.
Re: hookless beads- check what he writes again. Tubeless tire bead sits sealed on the rim bed floor as opposed to the head hovering over that floor and sealing on the hook. He even goes to say that his rims don’t require a hook for tubeless. The hook is there for tube-type cross-compatibility.

Rico
Rico
9 years ago

Yeah it’s not dangerous with a carbon bead tubeless specific tire. I don’t know why people insist on using normal folding tires for tubeless. You can build up the bed with stan’s tape and make it inflate, but if the bead is stretched at all it will be dangerous imo.

Tila
Tila
9 years ago

Did Reynolds thought be in 2015 of my new disk wheels, but am disappointed, this is nothing.

Only 46 in disk (want to rear 90)

Only clincher in disk, no tubular (will necessarily tubular)

Since I need to find a different provider me for my new disk frame…

Aaron
Aaron
9 years ago

Been Running Michelin Pro4s (non tubeless tires) tubeless w/ regular ol’ Stan’s on Pacenti SL23 tubeless road rims for about 6 mos now… Been 99% golden. Wore a tire through without any flats during the lifetime of the tire, I’d say that’s pretty dang good. Average pressure I run is about 90psi.

Can’t speak for carbon tubeless though. Glad Road tubeless is getting some traction!

EM2
EM2
9 years ago

Am i the only one here who understand that tubulars are lighter and more SAFE ?

Grill
Grill
9 years ago

Finally brought out the Aero line in tubular. About damn time.

Bog
Bog
9 years ago

Dear Reynolds, your rims are good so please fix your hubs first! Or at least use DT hubs on all wheelsets.
Thanks?

TomT
TomT
9 years ago

@EM2: I totally agree tubulars are the best option for road racing.
For training however…but who trains with carbon wheels?

Rico
Rico
9 years ago

Nah, not really EM2. It’s not any safer than tubeless properly setup. Tubeless specific tires and rims are the safest combination in my experience, and they simply don’t flat or leak.

Tom T – I also do ride carbon wheels for both training and racing because our team sponsor gets them for us. It’s affordable now, not like 5 years ago when this was a common notion that you save the carbon wheels for race day. We do train and race on tubs with Veloflex on all wheels. But I still know that tubeless is faster, lighter and it’s the future. Most of all it’s set it and forget it and no extra shit in the pockets because you just don’t flat.

Bill Atkins
Bill Atkins
9 years ago

These tubeless wheels do not hold air. Bought a pair fresh off the boat from Taiwan and returned them after two frustrating weeks trying to get them to work.

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