Those same crazy lightweight mountain bike wheels we saw last summer with Pi Rope textile Vectran spokes just got a new stealthy all-black limited edition. The just a bit more than one kilogram Pi Rope Squirrel Black Edition XC wheels are available in limited numbers, and exclusively through German online retailer r2 bike now…
Pi Rope Squirrel Black Edition ultralight textile spoke XC wheels
courtesy r2bike.comThe heart of the wheels is of course Pi Rope’s braided Vectran polyester fiber textile spokes. Pi Rope’s founder Ingo Berbig gave us the details last summer on his high breaking force Vectran spoke tech.
He also mentioned at the time potentially coloring spokes black (or other colors) for some production runs, as it also helps protect the fibers from UV degradation, something that otherwise requires an additional white treatment to the raw fiber spokes. Their partnership with r2bike.com, one of the primary retail channels for Pi Rope complete wheels, has now yielded this special limited edition wheelset.
Pi Rope Squirrel Black – tech details
The Pi Rope spokes require a larger, unique nipple connection at both hub & rim, so the complete wheels use components developed in partnership with Newman, another German company.
The complete 29″ RL Squirrel X.22 Carbon wheels have a real weight of just 1074g on r2bike’s scales, with a rider weight limit of 125kg with gear. That breaks down to just 490g for the front wheel & 584g for the rear.
The wheels feature the X.22 22mm internal (26.9mm external) x 18.5mm deep lightweight tubeless-ready carbon XC rim produced by Newman. The special alloy hubs with 10° engagement, also made by Newman, are laced up with 24 28 straight pull Pi Rope spokes, are Boost spaced, and offered with either a Shimano cassette or SRAM XD driver.
Pricing for the r2bike-exclusive limited Pi Rope Squirrel Black Edition cross-country wheels is 2150€, just a bit higher than the standard edition announced last summer.
