Having both the Mercury Wheels headquarters and some of the country's best trails just up the road from our offices is a convenient convergence of geography. It allows us to spend some time putting the X1 Carbon Enduro 27.5in Boost Wheelset through its paces on some pretty gnarly terrain. We can attest to the fact that these rims are stoutly stiff, in no small part due to the beefy Boost axle widths, which translates to snappy responsiveness on climbs and razor sharp tracking through root lattices and rock gardens.
The rims are built with a hookless bead, which—almost counterintuitively—makes the rim-to-tire bead connection more reliable for tubeless setups. Burping and tire blow-offs are actually more common with hooked rims, and the hookless models demonstrate improved tire retention on-trail. By eliminating the ridge of material constituting the hook, hookless beads also enjoy increased structural integrity—a definite plus when you consider that the X1 Carbon is built for the rigors of enduro violence. We have found that mounting some tire brands can be a little tricky, but once they're on, the bead holds a tubeless setup as confidently as any other manufacturer's.
