Stan's NoTubes

Valor Team 29in Boost Wheelset

Stan's NoTubes has already defined the wave of tubeless innovation that swept the industry over the past few years, and now it's wasting no time getting on the Boost bandwagon. The Valor Team 29in Boost Wheelset takes carbon, tubeless rims to new levels of efficiency and cat-on-carpet tracking. Compared to the Valor Pro, the Team version has a higher engagement angle (ten degrees instead of five) and a heavier spoke loadout; however, the stiffness of 110 and 148mm Boost hubs more than makes up for those differences.

Regardless of the differences in hubs and spokes, the rims are the same across the Valor line. They're also the real stars of the show, and their success goes far beyond the secure, tubeless seating of the Bead Socket Technology (BST) that made Stan's name in the industry. The rims are also a bit wider than yesterday's XC models, which makes for more air volume while accommodating the current trend toward larger, plusher tires.

For all those features, our favorite part of the Valor is the Radial Impact Absorbing Carbon Technology (RiACT) design, which addresses one of the key issues we've had with carbon rims: they're often unforgiving. As the name suggests, RiACT lets the rims flex radially by up to 7mm without sacrificing watts to flex. By squishing a bit with big hits, the wheels stay glued to the trail, rolling through obstacles rather than bouncing over them to maintain traction. Of course, this has a much smaller effect than a bike's suspension, but in the high-speed world of XC, every little bit helps.