With the brand new Period carbon MTB wheels, Race Face was hell-bent on making one of the best mountain bike wheels by being second-best in key parameters. If that appears like an odd option to go about it, maintain studying, it’ll all make sense.
Whereas rivals’ wheels deal with being the lightest, or probably the most compliant, or the stiffest, Race Face says none of them mix all of these qualities in the suitable proportions. In order that they benchmarked the brand new Period wheels towards six prime manufacturers’ carbon path and enduro wheels, concentrating on one of the best qualities of every and balancing one towards the others.
Race Face says that by being not fairly the stiffest, or lightest, or most compliant wheels available on the market, they’re really one of the best as a complete package deal. They’re nonetheless very mild, very compliant, and snappy, nevertheless it’s how these options come collectively that give them their edge. Right here’s the way it all comes collectively…
The Race Face Period cranks debuted in late 2022 as their carbon fiber choice for path/all-mountain riders. It took benefit of Race Face’s a long time of in-house carbon fiber experience. They’re remarkably mild, not only for the class, however even in comparison with many XC cranks. But it surely’s additionally robust sufficient to come back with a lifetime guarantee, crash harm included.
Now they’re taking all of that have and making use of it to the Period carbon wheels. Developed over three years and 5,300 hours of using, they’re aimed on the “shore to the core” path/all-mountain rider to steadiness light-weight and stiffness, but in addition compliance and sturdiness. Mainly, they needed to be…
Sturdy, Compliant, Gentle & Snappy
Compliance is the new matter in mountain bike wheels, so we’ll begin there. Race Face says compliance is the property of a fabric present process elastic deformation when subjected to an utilized pressure. For wheels, we often consider it as vertical compliance, which is the flexibility of a wheel to compress (ovalize) slightly below a tough influence.
It is necessary, however Race Face’s take a look at information confirmed that for the average-weight rider on an ordinary enduro bike, at backside out, you’ll have about 5mm of vertical wheel compression. However you even have 50mm of tire compression, 160mm of suspension compression, and as much as 16mm of handlebar flex. So, does 5mm of wheel compliance actually matter towards 226mm of suspension + tire + handlebar compliance?
Yeah, it does, however you must give it some thought in a different way.
There’s additionally lateral compliance, which is the flexibility for a wheel to flex aspect to aspect throughout off-camber impacts. This helps the wheel observe straight whenever you’re pinballing by a rock backyard, so it’s much less prone to throw you off your line.
Mix the 2 in simply the suitable quantities and you’ve got the key sauce. Each lateral and vertical compliance assist the wheel higher deal with the forces that will trigger you to lose traction.
To do that, the Period carbon rims have completely different rim depths and profiles from entrance to rear. The entrance is eighteen.6mm deep, rear is 22.6mm deep.
This makes the entrance wheel a bit extra compliant to maintain your steering on observe. The rear is a bit deeper for extra lateral stiffness because it has much less influence in your steering and management, however maximizes the flexibility to rail corners and deal with off-axis landings.
Each are 30mm extensive internally, which is 1mm narrower than the Subsequent R all-mountain wheels. These maintain the thick “Anvil Edge” 4.5mm-thick bead profile to guard towards impacts and pinch flats. They’re mainly hookless, with simply the tiniest little lip inside so as to add extra width for higher pinch flat safety.
They’re constructed with 28 double-butted spokes per wheel, with completely different spoke lengths entrance and rear, however the identical size on each side of every wheel. Spare spokes are included, and so they’re normal spokes you’ll find at most outlets in a pinch.
Vault hubs on the middle of all of it
Race Face’s Vault Hubs have been on the middle of their mountain bike wheels for years and so they’re nice. The customized internals put the pawls on the outer circumference of the outsized shell, with a large ratchet ring on the freehub physique itself. That’s the reverse of the usual design, nevertheless it lets them transfer the primary bearing outboard additional for the reason that outsized internals make room for it immediately below the ratchet ring.
The non-drive aspect bearing is pushed as far out as doable, too. This makes the hub a lot stiffer, so lateral forces have much less influence on engagement.
It’s additionally very fast to have interaction, with six pawls and 60 enamel yielding 3º engagement.
Low-drag labyrinth seals maintain the crud out, confirmed within the moist and dirt of the PNW the place they’re based mostly. The hubs are available in 6-bolt brake mounts for now; a Middle Lock model is coming later in 2024.
Claimed weights are 1750g (29er) and 1692g (27.5”). MSRP is $1,599 ($2,150 CAD) and features a Lifetime Guarantee, crashes included (they’ll simply substitute the wheel).
So, does chasing second make them one of the best new path MTB wheels? We’ll see, now we have a few units on take a look at. First impressions are superb. I smashed them by loads of roots and rocks throughout a latest launch occasion, nailing one large root at full pace and full compression popping out of a G-out. It shrugged it off, and I stored rolling, with seemingly no momentum misplaced.
I’ve been a fan of their Subsequent SL wheels for years, and the Vault hubs are superior. I’ve additionally ridden and trusted Race Face’s carbon cranks for a lot of, a few years with zero points. These appear to stay as much as their claims, positively value a glance. Lengthy-term evaluation coming in a number of months.
