When I decided to build a new bike in the fall of 2009, I knew that whatever wheels would go on the bike, none other than Mike Curiak of Lace Mine 29 would be building them. He had, after all, already built the wheelset on my Niner One 9, which were on active duty for four years without ever getting in contact with a spoke wrench. I’ve had to true every wheelset I’ve owned in the 25 years I’ve been biking, whether they were factory wheels or manually assembled by a wheel builder. Not so my first 29er wheelset with Hope hubs, Aerolite spokes and Bontrager Mustang rims out of Mike’s capable hands. They were ridden all year round for four years and remain true to this date. So when the Air 9 Carbon project was born, I approached Mike with the request to build a strong, durable wheelset for my 170 pounds. After a few emails back and forth, we nailed it to Edge AM rims, Aerolite spokes and red Chris King ISO hubs, the rear being singlespeed with Fun Bolts.
Mike finished the wheels right before heading up to Alaska for the Iditarod Trail Invitational and they arrived at my doorsteps at the beginning of March. It took until September though, until I would ride them the first time due to quite a few delays with Niner’s Air 9 Carbon frame and fork. So, now they’ve covered some miles on dry, late summer trails, wet and foggy autumn singletrack and a couple of weeks on snow-covered fire roads. The front rim proudly carried a WTB Weirwolf, the rear was dressed in a WTB Prowler up until a few weeks ago. They now both sport Continental Mountain Kings in 2.4 for the snow season.
How have the rims been holding up so far? Great! I will go so far and say that they handle abuse better than an aluminum rim. Where aluminum will end up with a ding through the anodization and into the bare material, the Edge rims end up with a light surface scratch. The wheels are by no means weight-weenie stuff, but that wasn’t the goal in the first place. They are stiff, corner sharply and add considerable volume to the tire due to the 30mm width.
Are they worth the hefty price tag? They are to me. Sure, you can certainly build decent wheels with cheaper rims, but if you’re looking for a carbon rim, forget anything else out there. Edge (now Enve) have a patented process for their rims where the spoke and valve holes are molded right into the rim instead of being drilled afterwards. Routing the fibers around the hole increases the strength of the area around the spoke hole, while drilling into a carbon rim will inevitably weaken it.
| Rim: | Edge AM 29” Clincher |
| Depth: | 32mm |
| Width: | 30mm |
| Weight: | 450g |
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tsurun reblogged this from 29inch and added:
手組ならこのリムが最強じゃない？
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fuckyeah29ers reblogged this from 29inch
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29inch posted this
