Six years ago, 42 mm tires were used to win Unbound Gravel. This year, most racers at the pointy end were running something around 2″, or the max that their frame and fork will accommodate. Yet, during this period, the widths of most race-ready rims – with a few exceptions – haven’t grown to suit this huge increase in tire volume. HED changed that recently by introducing the Lincoln G25 and Stillwater G50 carbon gravel wheels, both featuring 28.5mm internal and 36mm external widths.
The Lincoln G25 and Stillwater G50 replace the HED Emporia GC3 Performance and GC3 Pro, which were an excellent pair of carbon wheelsets released by HED in 2020.
That said, there are a lot of differences from the Emporia wheels. Paramount among these is the bifurcation based on depth, with the Lincoln being a 25mm deep rim better suited to climbing and adventure riding, and the Stillwater 50 being a more efficient, aero rim for racing at more constant and higher speeds, like those seen at Unbound or Mid South in a dry year.
Rim width is increased by 2.5mm internally and 5mm externally for both the Lincoln G25 and Stillwater G50.
Perhaps a bigger change, and one that seems to be trending across the industry, is a move back to hooked rims. While the lower pressure and higher volume of gravel tires seem to make hookless less of a potential drawback, it’s also important for a smaller player like HED to read the room and give the people what they want, which seems to be a hooked rim.
HED’s Sonic R36 hub is also new, and features in both the Lincoln G25 and Stillwater G50. The Sonic R36 now supports bladed, straight pull spokes, has improved serviceability, and a rapid 36-point engagement. One thing that has not changed from the Emporia is HED’s American manufacturing. HED produces and assembles everything proudly in their Roseville, MN factory.
Yes, we’ve seen gravel rims with even greater width prior to this. The Roval Terra CLX Evo – released way ahead of their time in 2019 and unchanged since then – are 30mm wide internally and 35mm wide externally. It’s fair to say that the “Evo” variant, with 30/35mm width, was not marketed as a race-focused wheelset when it launched. Instead, it was aimed at adventurous riders who wanted to explore the chonkiest terrain they could find. As gravel race organizers have sought out more extreme terrain in recent years, the Evo has quietly become the more race-ready variant, instead of its sibling, the all-road level Terra CLX, which features more all-road level widths of 25mm internal and 30mm external.
So, is this 30mm+ territory where gravel rims are headed after all? Will HED’s Lincoln and Stillwater rims quickly be overshadowed by a new crop of ultra-wide race-focused options with internal width pushed well over 30mm? It’s hard to say. While a few influential people are keen to turn gravel bikes into dual-sport motorcycles, most (in fact, the overwhelming majority) of gravel bikes in the field right now use geometry that is optimized around a 40mm tire.
Let me state that again – the geometry is optimized around a 40mm tire. Whether one can safely slot a 2.1″ tire into these bikes is often the wrong question to ask. Why? Because even if a 2.1″ tire fits, the trail figure, and to a lesser extent the rider’s center of mass will be adversely affected, and this will in turn make the bike more challenging to ride. In other words, right now, very few frames – especially ones designed to race – are designed to ride optimally with 2+” rubber. Since HED is in the business of selling an upgrade that fits existing bikes, it makes sense to align the Lincoln and Stillwater specs at the meat of the bell curve, which is still, for example, a Specialized Crux shod with 42mm tires. And so the bike industry goes, what was once considered “insane” will now be considered perhaps a bit on the safe side.
The irony of all this is that what has always separated HED wheels and rims from other competitors is just how perfect the rims and wheels are out of the box, and how nicely they ride. In a world where marketing budgets and social media presence have an outsized influence on a brand’s perceived quality, HED is an outlier. HED has adapted to a lot of change in the bike industry over the years, and they’ve done that by keeping their attention on what they do best, which is methodical, evolutionary design improvements, and perfecting the fundamentals of manufacturing. This is true whether you’re getting the most affordable aluminum road rim or the latest carbon fiber race-level product.
The HED Lincoln G25 and Stillwater G50 retail for $1,984.00 and are available now for preorder.
