Knight

27.5 Enduro Project 321 Boost Wheelset

While it's not the most demanding part of enduro racing, most of us at the Competitive office take pride in our climbing and—if we're being perfectly honest—do take pride in our KOMs and PRs. Knight's 27.5 Trail Wheelset, built up here with Project 321 Boost hubs, help us out in that regard. Knight claims the wheels are stiffer than the other white-on-black carbon dream hoop brand, but that stiffness doesn't come at the cost of an unruly ride on the way back down. The rims remain compliant enough to smooth the trail, and an increase of 30% on the impact resistance front means they'll be smoothing brake bumps for seasons longer than the competition.

Given that Knight was founded by ex-pats from leading wheel and frame companies, the rim construction is something special. But before we get there, the Project 321 hubs definitely warrant some attention. The hubs are built around a freehub that uses six pawls in offsetting sets in order to bring engagement to below three degrees. You read that right. We're not 100% certain, but we think this may be the lowest engagement angle on any pawl freehub design, and since the pawls engage via magnets instead of springs, resistance from friction is reduced while you're freewheeling.

As hinted above, the rims are no slouch, either. They're built around Knight's EPS form, which eliminates the imperfections (and the risk of structural failure they produce) of construction processes that use inflatable bladders to shape the inner face of carbon. Knight's method ensures that the rim's interior is wrinkle free, features no areas of resin pooling, and molds to the precise spec that the engineers cooked up in their virtual kitchen. It also means there isn't any excess material hanging around to resist accelerations, another source of encouragement for our (usually) informal KOM competition across the office.