INTERBIKE 2009 – DT Swiss promised some new suspension goodies at the indoor show, but they had their new Tricon tubeless RR 1450 Road and XM 1550 Mountain Bike wheels on display at the Outdoor Demo.
Both the road and the mountain bike Tricon wheels share several features:
- Fully sealed tubeless rim…no need for sealant!
- Straight pull spokes
- Unique “boat” spoke mount in rims
- Two-Piece bonded hubs
The RR 1450, true to DT Swiss’s naming scheme, weigh in at 1450g for the set.  They’ll retail for about $1,400 US and use 18 / 24 spokes front/rear.  The rims are 20mm wide and are Road Tubeless.
Hit ‘more’ to see the MTB wheelset and the unique spoke and hub features close up…
Because the rims are completely sealed on the inside, there’s no need for rim tape, sealant or strips.  Just mount the tubeless tire, inflate and off you go.
If the rim is fully sealed, how do those spokes thread in?  Hmmm… better scroll down to see.
The RR1450 Road wheelset has white hubs and rims with black spokes.  That white star-nut bolt you see in between the spoke flanges is a set screw to prevent the spoke flange from rotating…scroll down for further explanation.
The XM 1550, as the name suggests, weighs in at 1550g for the set and will retail for $$1,350.  They counter the road set’s color scheme with black rims and hubs and white spokes.
The mountain bike rim is 26mm wide, which is a few millimeters wider than normal, but not the widest on the market for XC rims.  Both the road and MTB rims have a concave rim profile to counter the high spoke tension these wheels use to improve lateral stiffness.
The XM 1550 wheelset comes with CenterLock rotor mounts, but DT Swiss makes 6-bolt adapters.  The mountain bike wheels have several hub axle options, and any of them can be changed after purchase to accommodate changes with your bike:
- FRONT: 9mm QR / 15mm QR axle
- REAR: 135mm 10mm thru bolt / 142mm X-12 12mm thru axle
(Not sure what that X-12 axle option is?  Don’t worry, by the time Interbike’s over with, you will.  Yes, it’s another new standard.)
Here’s the “boat” that the spokes stick into at the rim.  The “boat” slides in, then spoke tension holds it in place.
The hubs are two pieces.  The hub shell is pretty thin, and DT Swiss’ rep said that rather than beef up the shell or risk having the higher spoke tension pull on the shell and potentially affect the bearings, they created a stronger flange that’s bonded to the shell.  The flange handles the spoke tension stresses.  To keep the flange from spinning, they have screws with tapered, smooth ends that fit flush into the holes on the shell.  Above, shown apart, below they’re lined up.
