Tune never disappoints with a collection of weight-weenie certified goods, and this year there was a big focus on wheels. Some are using their own rims, and some with ENVE and Spank rims.
Founder Uli Fahl said they spent a lot of time and money this year investing in their own carbon fiber manufacturing facility. He wanted to be independent from other suppliers to have control over the quality and cost, and a big part of what they’re aiming toward is producing their own rims. “It’s my aim to be the best in the lightweight category,” Fahl said.
Looking forward, he hinted that their new product introductions run in cycles, and we should note that there aren’t any new hubs shown this year. Take that to mean we should expect some innovation there next year. It’ll be really interesting to see if that figures in with the new carbon plant.
Anywhoo, those 650B clincher mountain bike wheels you’re looking at above weigh in at just 1060g for the pair…
That light weight comes partly from the 243.5g rims that look plenty wide (they’re really shallow, though). Eventually they’ll run these with their own rims (these are made for them) in 650B and 29er…but probably not 26″ wheels with the lightweight carbon rims. Even Tune sees this as a diminishing market.
For the more aggressive rider, there’s the Spank rimmed wheelset using Tune’s King and Kong hubs laced together with Sapim spokes. Tune’s hubs are available in a wide variety of colors, as are the rims and spoke nipples, so you can make it as pretty, stealth or gaudy as you like.
The 26″ wheelset comes in at 1,251g. Compare that to over 1,900g for the stock Spank Spike 28 Race wheelset with the same rims and you see why we love Tune. This weight’s likely with standard QR, but their hubs are available with various thru axle options, including Maxle and Syntace X12.
Tune claims their Skyline road wheels are the lightest out. They use their first in-house made carbon rims. They have special ground glass spheres in the brake track molded in during production. These rims come out of the mold looking like this, there’s no finishing. It takes a couple rides to “break in” the brake surface and wear down the glossy finish, then the glass particles add a lot of friction between it and the brake pad for solid braking. Because its worked into the resin and fibers, it won’t wear off. It requires harder braking pads and it’s a patent pending feature.
This one is 25mm deep and comes in at just 844g for the pair. 844 GRAMS! They’ll come out with deeper rims and are working on a clincher version, too.
This was funny to me: ENVE wheelsets are offered because they haven’t gotten their own road carbon clinchers where they want them…and I quote: “(ENVE’s rims) are very good, no problems with them, but they are heavy.”
Lest you think everything’s carbon rimmed in the Black Forest, there’s the TSR30 alloy aero rims. They’re meant as a “budget” offering or for those that aren’t willing to put carbon rims into a crit race.
At the top are Tune’s new Riser Handlebars that’ll come in 680mm and 800mm widths. Weight is as low as 130g. If that’s not light enough for you, they still offer the Schmolke flat bar (bottom) at just 95g.
Two new thru axles join the line: The DC X-12 thru axle for Syntace X-12 systems at right will have adapters available it to work with other 12×142 systems, too, including Specialized’s and other bike brands. On the left is the carbon fiber shafted version of their lightweight 15mm thru axle front introduced last year.
At risk of stealing some of the thunder from our upcoming post dedicated to Brake Force One’s tech and updated system, Tune offers their own version called Kill Hill. They machine the calipers down a bit and offer it in a wider variety of anodized colors. They’ll also offer the new glow-in-the-dark brake hoses and other things we’ll save for later. We don’t want no heads ‘splodin’.
Matchmaker compatible mounts are offered, as are their own brake pads that have a Tune-specific compound.
Last but not least, purple ano is still an option on most of their goods…and you can get matching purple graphics on the alloy rims mentioned above.
