Santa Cruz Bicycles

Reserve 27 27.5in Chris King Boost Wheelset

Carbon wheels offer increased stiffness, more precise handling, and often a lower weight than their aluminum counterparts. They also require less maintenance, as the carbon rim is better at staying true. That being said, carbon rims can fail, and when that happens you can't just bend them back into shape like aluminum ones, hence why durability is so important. Santa Cruz understands this, and spent three years developing their wheels with the intent of making the strongest carbon wheelset on the market. After extensive testing to determine critical failure points of carbon rims, the Reserve carbon rims were created to withstand immense levels of abuse. Now, they are available with Chris King hubs, one of the leading hubs on the market, making the Reserve 27 27.5in Chris King Boost Wheelset a worthy upgrade for your trail or all-mountain bike.

Current industry standards for testing carbon rims weren't good enough for Santa Cruz, so they did what they always do, and developed their own rigorous testing. Upon subjecting other carbon rims on the market to these tests, failure at the bead was the most common downfall, but with some the nipples pulled through the rim due to a sudden increase in spoke tension. To address these issues, Santa Cruz designed the Reserve carbon rims with an extra thick bead wall and external spoke hole reinforcements, putting more material where it matters and using their expertise with carbon to create a stronger layup. Asymmetric spoke holes further improve wheel strength by equalizing spoke tension between the drive and non-drive sides. Santa Cruz assembles the wheels in house to ensure a quality build, and they use standard J-bend spokes ensuring you can find a replacement at a local bike shop if you're in a pinch.

The rims are laced to black-anodized, beautifully machined Chris King hubs. These hubs are truly a precision instrument. They have 5-degree engagement, provided by the 72 points of pawl-contact, giving you a lightning-quick pedal response when mashing up tricky climbs or ratcheting through technical sections. The overbuilt hubshells and one-piece solid axles ensure stiffness, translating into precise steering on any terrain. Their serviceable bearings help set them apart from the competition, using surgical-grade races with heavy-duty seals, ensuring years of demanding use.