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New Atomik Carbon road disc wheels go fast, stop faster

Written by Tyler Benedict
9 Comments
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atomik carbon disc brake road bike wheels with aero rim profiles

In May, Atomik Carbon debuted their full carbon road tubeless clinchers, designed with a proprietary resin and layup mix for the brake track. Now, though, they’ve taken two of the sizes and given them proper disc-brake-only rims. They stick with the aero “U” shape, but lose the brake track and get laced to 6-bolt disc brake hubs…

atomik carbon disc brake road bike wheels with aero rim profiles

atomik carbon disc brake road bike wheels with aero rim profiles

Like the rest of their rims, they use their own design and are laid up with Japanese Toray carbon fibers. The rim choices are 38mm or 50mm depths, both measuring 25mm wide at the top and 17mm wide inside the bead hook. Complete wheelset weights are claimed at 1,619g (38) and 1,740g (50), both laced 18/24 with bladed Sandvik Stainless Steel spokes. Hubs are their own, using a 54-point four pawl, 24-point engagement mech rolling on stainless EZO bearings.

atomik carbon disc brake road bike wheels with aero rim profiles

They come pre-taped for tubeless set up and include the valve stems, axle or QR hardware based on your choice, an extra spoke in each length, and a 10-speed cassette spacer. Retail is $1,549 per pair.

AtomikCarbon.com
Tyler Benedict
11,280 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
8 years ago

The hubs aren’t “their own”, unless they bought Pro-Lite and moved their equipment from Taiwan to Florida. Rims are “their design” by way of modifying existing Light-Bicycle rims from China by a couple mm and pay something like $7k for a mold to officially call it theirs. You know, real innovation.

With the industry going through a contraction it would be nice to clean house of the gazillion ‘wheel companies’ that all use the same exact formula.

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myke2241
myke2241
8 years ago
Reply to  Kernel Flickitov

To their defense, Atomik has been around awhile. But yes, I’m not sure if companies think we’re stupid or not. I know you have to introduce your products with some flair but it gets old knowing where these are coming from.

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Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
8 years ago
Reply to  myke2241

It’s not the source I have a problem with. Light-Bicycle and Pro-Lite make great product. What cannot go on much longer is rebranding companies being blatantly disingenuous by claiming “their technology”, “their design” when in fact it isn’t. And if it is, it turns out to be slight variances from already existing designs by the OEM that only turn out to be millimeters or a cosmetic variance. Buying a mold from Light-bike, Mega or Giga is basically paying for right to claim ownership of your own faux tech. There’s just too many wheel companies that are doing the same exact thing with the only difference being the branding. The wheels sector of the industry is more overcrowded than ever, it will implode at some point because there has to be more to it than just choosing what decal looks cooler.

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Mick
Mick
8 years ago
Reply to  Kernel Flickitov

Thank You, Kernel…+1
Designing a decal & spec’ing bearing quality is often the extent of the design & engineering that actually goes into many of these brands

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Allan
Allan
8 years ago
Reply to  Kernel Flickitov

Hey Kernel how do you know that? I’m not questioning you, I’m genuinely curious. A quick Google search didn’t yield anything conclusive. The only reason I’m asking is if I’m ever in the market for new wheels, I’d like to know where they’re being sourced, and if I’m just paying for a rebranding.

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Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
8 years ago
Reply to  Allan

Seen it all. 30 year industry vet. The rebranding isn’t my problem, there are some fine “rebranded” wheels out there, many I would choose before the factory brand that they emulate. For example the Light-Bicycle U-shaped rims from China that are a direct copy of Zipp’s Firecrest line are by in large a better quality rim. From layup to finishing to QC. These Atomik are probably fine wheels too. My dissent isn’t towards Far East manufacturing or the performance and durability of their product. That was an issue about a decade ago, those days are long gone. The crux of my argument is claiming the OEM’s tech as their own. Kind of nitpicking with the whole biz aspect of it but it pains me when I see it and have no problem calling BS, because there’s something just so slimy about it. Like a snake oil salesman.

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Atomik Carbon
Atomik Carbon
8 years ago
Reply to  Kernel Flickitov

Hi, Kernel:

Thanks for your comment.

We understand your concern, but would like to assure you that we engineer all of our products from scratch, and you will not find Atomik Carbon under any other name ever, unless we decide to license our tech or sell molds we no longer use to other brands.

Our single wall aerospace foam-core fat and plus rims are a great example. We are the first—and only—to market with this tech in a mountain wheel.

The differences in a road wheel are more difficult to distinguish, but we manufacture in Taiwan (not China), and have machines that mix our own carbon pre-preg to our exact specifications. Cheaper Chinese companies source rolls of off the shelf fibers and you never know what quality you will get.

Yes, even the hubs are in fact ours—NOT rebranded.

You are absolutely right about the saturated wheel market, which is why we will continue to go to great lengths to think outside the box and engineer products that set us apart.

Cheers,

-Atomik

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Antipodean_eleven
Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago

That’s the issue though with everything being made in China (etc.) by ‘open’ factories, isn’t it? Anyone can go in and build or extend a brand by buying pre-existing, open mould, product and whacking some graphics on it.

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