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TPE17: Ritchey gets a slick gravel tire, revamps WCS Vantage carbon mountain bike wheels & more

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New WCS Vantage is their first carbon mtb wheel in more than two years. The old version was trying to be fully tubeless…not tubeless ready, but tubeless, period. But they couldn’t ever get it quite the way they wanted and make it light enough. So, they went with a hookless bead wall and ended up with a 1,510g wheelset (27.5″) that’s 26mm wide inside…

The bead has a slanted seat to help lock it into place. The rim has an asymmetric profile with an utside width of 32mm, depth is 25mm.

Spoke flanges on the hubs are offset from one another so the spokes don’t rub on each other, same as they’ve done on other wheels for years.

End caps are swappable without tools, and you can even pull the whole axle out for servicing or swapping freehub body types. Available in standard and boost, price is TBD available by summer, and since they are a 2018 product we’ll have to wait a bit to get ahold of them.

Inspired by Tom Ritchey’s late mentor Jobst Brandt, the new JB Alpine tire is meant for anyone that rides road but likes to veer off now and then. It’s a 2018 product The tires are new, so not out just yet, but will come in 700×30 and 700×35 widths once available this summer, the larger of the two getting a tubeless ready construction with Stronhold Casing protection for the WCS level.

It’s also available in a full black wall. Claimed weights are 374g for the 35mm tire, 321g for 30mm.

The Speedmax semi-slick cyclocross tire grows to include a 700×40 size, making it a perfect gravel bike option for fast rolling with some bite in the corners. Tubeless ready, weight is 540g, and it also gets Stronghold Casing at WCS level.

We’ve seen the Megabite before, but wanted to show its place in the new range of 700c dirt tires. It has the most aggressive knob pattern and comes in a tubeless ready 700×38 with a claimed weight of 410g.

RitcheyLogic.com

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Bigschill
Bigschill
7 years ago

Tom… we need something a bit bigger. How about some 700x 45’s?

Adam
7 years ago
Reply to  Bigschill

I actually had a convo with their marketing director when they first announced the tires to us and said the same thing. 40c would be nice, 45 would be killer. Knowing Ritchey, I’m sure they have something in the works.

cracked frame
cracked frame
7 years ago
Reply to  Adam

The only thing is, it will take them 5+ years to get there. TR takes forever to bring products to market. It took them too many years to make a 29er wheel and tire when others had been doing it for a long time. Same goes for the gravel/adventure scene. Hitting a single or a double every time doesn’t put points on the score board.

Dolan Halbrook
7 years ago
Reply to  cracked frame

Still waiting for the WCS dropper..

PabloE432
PabloE432
7 years ago
Reply to  Dolan Halbrook

Or a breakaway gravel frame..

Dolan Halbrook
7 years ago

I’m really surprised the 30c version of the JB Alpine isn’t tubeless. Seems like an otherwise perfect competitor to the Schwalbe S-One.

JasonK
JasonK
7 years ago
Reply to  Dolan Halbrook

I didn’t even realize the narrow version wasn’t tubeless until you pointed it out. I’m surprised too. I have four S-Ones (AKA G-One Speed) and IMHO, they’d be hard to beat. They weigh 10 grams more on my scale than the claimed weight of the non-tubeless JB Alpine, and they work fantastically well.

I’m one of about fifteen people in the world who would jump at the chance to buy a Jobst Brandt tribute tire. Little-known fact: Brandt designed the Ritchey logo used on the downtubes of his frames (where the diagonal leg of the R stretches to touch the diagonal leg of the Y).

I’m a little surprised that on the JB Alpine tire the tread at the shoulders is oriented at what looks like less than 45 degrees to vertical. I’d imagine that you’d do better with a tread at closer to 70 degrees from vertical for cornering traction on soft surfaces. But Tom Ritchey knows a thing or two about tire design (as did Brandt). I’d be curious to hear Ritchey’s reasoning.

Dolan Halbrook
7 years ago
Reply to  JasonK

I remember JB’s posts on the various “rec.bikes” newsgroups. Now I’m dating myself.

Like you, I’d love the chance to try these out, provided I don’t have to go back to tubes. Here’s hoping the production version rectifies that.

FWIW, my last S-Ones were ~310g each… actually lighter than claimed. How often do you see that?

cracked frame
cracked frame
7 years ago
Reply to  Dolan Halbrook

See my above post.

Sean Kelly
Sean Kelly
7 years ago

Agreed. That tire could keep me from selling my 10 year old Ti road bike. Would be able to use it for hauling the kids on dirt roads instead of selling and replacing it. Tubeless would be fantastic for that

Marty
Marty
7 years ago

The 38c megabite NEEDS to have a bigger option (and should have NEVER left the line), and the 40c speedmax needs to have a bigger option (and should have NEVER left the line). I love Ritchey’s tires, but for crying out loud, leave products around, would ya?

Njego
Njego
7 years ago

wow, I’m impressed with these comments, you guys sound like real Ritchey insiders!

Mark
6 years ago

RIP Jobst Brandt. I wonder what he’d think about all this?

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