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The FAQs: Arm yourself with Wheel Knowledge

How do I know which wheels are best for me?

I'm a skinny latte and the slightest cross winds give me the bleedin' heebee jeebies

Choose any of our 45s, you bleedin’ lightweight.

But here’s a serious point. If your nerves are on edge instead of enjoying your bike, speed gives you the wobbles, and you have no feel for how fast to take the next turn, its more than likely your frame is way too big or too small for you. Swapping out for awesome wheels and tyres might help, but if your bike has these kinds of issues then it won’t solve it all. We’re not here to sell the wrong wheels to the wrong riders as we want only truly delighted customers.

So if you’re in any doubt, get in touch via email, send us some photos of your ride and we’ll take a close look to see what might be the real issues, and we’ll be happy to advise you accordingly.

I'm a hardcore roadie, regularly ride sub 20 in my club 10 TT, and I'll never, ever buy into this whole disc brake malarky

Go for any of our dedicated superlight road builds.  You’ll find them listed in the “Rim Braking QR Axle” bit of our store.

You can’t ride ’em with disc brakes – but you won’t ever need to, ’cause rim brakes is all a hardened road racer needs, right?

But, just in case the world ever runs out of old school rim brakes, choosing any of our Disc & Rim Braking Multi-Axle wheels means no loss of speed without the need for a second pair

I'm the most powerful rider in my club. Also a Fat Bastard who breaks everything - so I doubt your puny wheels can withstand my awesome output...

Dear Mr Bastard, Sir.  We recommend you restrict your search to our 58s: the strongest, stiffest all-round wheels we make. They’re more than capable of translating  your immense power to the road with blinding speed and won’t collapse under your weight.

Even stronger, even quicker are our Nine58s.  That’s a 58 up front combined with a 9 cm deep rear. If you don’t see these wheels on sale in our webstore it because we need to keep ’em hidden under the counter.  Get in touch via our Contact page to talk us into making a pair for you. 

I've got 2 bikes, right. The very, very latest Colnarello XR1234.5 Superio Disc Aero King Dynamico (Disc Evo Evoluzione Evolucion). Its got disc brakes. My other bike just has the boggo standard brakes.

Choose any our Disc & Rim Braking Multi-Axle wheels, and you can slot ’em in both your bikes, saving you a heap of wedge to spend on next season’s XR12345.6.

I'm a climber. Going up hills fast is why I ride. I weigh like 50kg on a bad day. Obviously I must have only the very lightest wheels. But yours are truly Fat Boys and way too heavy...

Super light wheels are good for one thing – accelerating off the line. But once those few early kph have been won – at the cost of considerable personal effort – their entire advantage is blown.  From that point on, no matter which way the road points up or down, superior aero and rolling dynamics dominate how a wheel performs.  And the considerable extra stiffness engineered into our “heavier” wheels means each pedal stroke is transmitted more efficiently to the road – you’ll be leaving those superlight wheels sucking your dust.

So, if you want to ride faster up every mountain pass, keep up with the fatties on the way back down, then sail effortlessly through all the bits in between, profit from physics and ride our 58s – the fastest, stiffest and most fun wheels in our line up.

The Wheel Knowledge 

Who da ffff... ? I ain't never heard of Spin. Now Zipp & Mavic - those are real, like what the pros use.

We’ve never heard of you either. But never mind. We have now.

I never see anyone race on Spin... are your wheels just for poseurs then?

Our wheels are for everyone who enjoys riding their bike and simply wants to maximise their fun or take their ride experience to the next level.

Plenty of racers use our wheels – but in our experience working with racers and teams at all levels over the years what we found was that no one really cares. And besides, why should only racers and pro riders have all the fun enjoying the very best equipment.

One of the really great things about riding a bike is being able to experience the very pinnacle of equipment, as its cost is within the reach of most adults these days.  Contrast with eg Formula 1 – me personally, I’m still saving up for my first F1 car…

Well, if you are interested in the racing – as we admit we most certainly are – then here’s some of the cool stuff we got involved with over the years, most, if not all of which, no one other than us and the riders concerned ever knew about:

  • UCI World Road Race championships (Ide Schelling, Hayley Simmonds)
  • ITU World Triathlon championships (Catherine Jameson)
  • Numerous national Road, TT & CX championship victories
  • Victories in the Junior Men’s Amstel Gold (Ide Schelling) and Paris Roubaix (Lewis Askey)
  • Reigning Red Hook Crit Series Team Champions (IRD)
  • Reigning Red Hook Milano Women’s Champion (Rachele Barbieri)
OK, I like your wheels - but how do I buy a pair?

Navigate to our Shop in the top menu, and inside the Wheels category simply click on the wheels you like. Then choose from all the available build options you’ll find in the drop down menus, then hit the big red Add To Basket button.

If you’d like to see how several different wheels compare, tick the comparison box for each wheel set of interest, then finally the little red arrow to load a side by side comparison chart of key specs.

Inside every wheel product page, look out for the Key Specs and Great For boxes summarising key features and benefits of each of the wheels we make.

If you need to check the full specifications of your wheels, you’ll find them listed in the Specifications tab next to Description.  

Once ordered, your wheel configuration is entered into our production schedule, and will complete between 2 – 4 weeks during low season (usually late summer thru Autumn), and up to 4 – 6 weeks during peak seasons.

Depending on your country of residence, delivery is via secure courier with tracking and in-flight options, and is as fast as next working day for UK destinations, 2 – 5 days for most European, North American and Canadian destinations.

Are your wheels tubeless?

Yes

Tube / no tube rim tape is supplied with all our wheels.  Use the tape either way – with or without an inner tube. 

To ride tubeless just add your favourite flavour of sealant, tubeless rated tyre & valve. 

Do you ship to my country?

We ship our wheels worldwide.  If our web store tells you we don’t reach your country yet, tell us where you are via our contacts page and we’ll get back to you with a quote.

Please note the price you pay in our store reflects the total cost to make your wheels and deliver them to you.  Your order may or may not qualify for free shipping – but please remember that this is only the cost of physical transport from us to you.

Your country of residence may impose additional customs duties and/or taxes, which are not included in the price you pay us.  Such charges will usually be billed directly to you by the courier company handling your import.

Before purchasing from us we recommend you check with your country’s customs department to determine if / how much any such charges will add to the cost of your wheels.

What's the best tyre, size & pressure?

The ultimate set up for the road on any Revolution Series rim is still obtained with an inner tube and a supple, cotton cased open constructed tyre like the Vittoria Corsa Competition in size 25 mm. This will actually measure 27 – 28 mm when installed on your Revos at 60 psi and higher.

This combo delivers it all: optimum cornering and wet weather grip, Rolls Royce levels of comfort, and effortless speed.

Optimal pressures are only 60 – 80 psi. You won’t go any faster with more air, just waste energy and reduce comfort levels.

A bigger tyre requires more air so can end up being less comfy and slower: you’ll need +10 – +15 psi more for each successive increase in tyre width.

Our pick of the all weather / winter tyres for the road is the Vittoria Corsa Control, this time in size 28 mm.  Unlike the Competition version, this is a true-width 28 mm tyre, so measures 28 mm installed.

Riding your Revos tubeless? Then with a 25 mm tyre we recommend 80-95 psi to maintain a good airtight seal over all surfaces.  This set up is not as quick, not as grippy, nor anything like as comfortable as riding the tubed 25 mm combo above.

Caution: please don’t ride with such low pressures as given here on ordinary wheels.  It is only the extreme stiffness and optimised internal width of the Revo rims that enables safe riding at such low pressures.  A lesser skinny rim, or any rim less rigid cannot maintain control of the tyre sidewall without the aid of much greater air pressure.

My bike's all blacked out stealth so can I get the Black Lightnings finished in matt?

The bad news is we no longer finish our rims in matt satin.

The good news however is that’s because we found a superior finish which is both longer lasting and easier to keep clean.  It’s a deep gloss but its big visual advantage is that this increases the depth and intensity of our dark graphic colours – especially black. It also makes our concentric carbon weave absolutely pop in 3D too.

So with the palette of deep grey and black graphics we tend to prefer, the overall look of our rims is still very much stealth  – and if you like the murdered out look, much more intensely black in the case of the Black Lightning edition.  

Ceramic bearing upgrade?

We use industry standard sizes in all our hubs, so it’s easy for you to swap out our bearings for a ceramic alternative if you really need to throw some money and time down the drain.

We don’t build our hubs with ceramic bearings as they simply don’t deliver any real world benefit over the purposely specified UK standard wet & miserable weather sealed bearings we use.  Our standard bearings are entirely stainless steel, run smooth and free and last thousands of miles on average, with just a little care and attention given every now and then to ensure your hubs are well maintained.

Bearings are not the reason our wheels are stiff n fast.  All of that comes courtesy of everything else that makes up our wheels.

Our bearings are actually the exact same material and seal specifications, and sourced from the same OE manufacturer as DT Swiss use for their rightly famous and expensive 240 series hubs.

Can I get the yellow stickers? I can't find them in the store...

Our wheels don’t actually have stick-on decals as we find they just end up ragged, easily scratched but much even worse, the edges lift and trap road grime. So our wheels don’t use any stickers at all. Instead the water based graphics we create are inlaid before the rim’s protective UV lacquer is applied. This preserves not just the carbon fibre but also the graphics and makes keeping the rims clean and smooth super easy.

Every rim graphic we produce only ever has a really small production run for the simple reason we get bored making the same look over and over again. 

And as we don’t make thousands of pairs every week, (or even in a month or multiple years) it means each pair of Spin On These wheels is always something quite rare, and truly a limited edition.

If you look back at the wheels we’ve made over the years, (you can find ’em on our insta feed & youtube channels) you’ll see all kinds of graphics, from fluoro oranges and greens, to camouflage patterns, to race team specials and plenty more of the stealthier varieties.

But sorry, the answer to the yellow graphics just like every other discontinued series is that once we stop making those and the very last pair has sold, you’ll no longer find them listed in our store. They’re gone for good.

But maybe you’ll like our next edition even more – keep an eye on the store as it’s coming very soon!

What type of spokes are used - j bend or straight pull? And what is your opinion?
J bend.
 
We make our spokes from 2.0mm diameter Sandvik 18/8 stainless steel wire – that’s the same grade Sapim use for their top end spoke, the CX Ray.  Our spokes are light, very strong, with very high fatigue rating and lifespan.  They’re finished matt black using an oxidation process, and they feature an elliptical aero bladed profile, compared to CX Ray’s much simpler flat blades.  
 
J bends are not weaker than straight pull spokes – but they’re a lot easier to find / replace when you need one than a straight pull spoke. 
 
The reason j bends appear to break in this region is when they’re laced into hubs with oversized holes, which is required of most hubs in order to facilitate mass production machine building. 
 
As we don’t machine lace our wheels, it means we can drill our hubs as tight as the external diameter of the thread on our spokes. This makes threading a much more difficult job, but it means virtually zero movement of the spoke inside the hub, eliminating the fatigue stresses responsible for the most common spoke breakage. This is what makes a J bend spoke appear to be weaker than a straight pull – but this is not true as these types of breakage near the J bend only occur in lesser built wheels.
 
Straight pull spokes on the other hand require a reinforced machined hub flange, whereas all of our hub shells are forged n order to deliver the same strength and durability but at lighter weights.
I don't have a bike right now but I've got 3 followers on instaface. Interested in sponsoring me?

Err, no.

I've got 3 million and my youtube is going gangbusters

Probably still no – but feel free to get in touch to let us know what your collab proposal for world domination might be.

Where can I get spare and service parts for my wheels?

Navigate to Shop in the top menu and head to the Everything Else category. It’s broken down into various categories such as axles, bearings, accessories and more to make your search a bit easier.  But if you can’t find the part you’re looking for, click the magnifying glass in the top menu, and type directly to search the entire catalogue.

We stock all hub service parts, brake pads, bearings, drives & freehubs, as well as replacement spoke packs. Next working day dispatch worldwide.  Parts ordered before 10:00 UK time may dispatch same day whenever this is possible.

Fast Fat Boys! These Fat Boys are faster then my Enve 3.4 with DT Swiss 180 hubs. Over my 19 miles it beat my best time by 4 seconds.

- John J on his Black Lightning 58s -

Hi Drew, Wheels are still awesome. They have 10s of thousands of miles on them now and still true.

- Ali M via email in July 2020, about his DM8 Original Fat Boys, purchased 2016 -

I’m blown away by these wheels. Can only compare them to my Roval CLX 40s but they're so much nicer & much stiffer. But it’s the ride quality that really stands out. just lovely. Transformed the bike.

- Simon G on his Black Lightning 58s -

What more do you want from a wheelset? They look great, ride amazing, fast, light and great value for money.

- Dean K on his Black Lightning 58s -

Great service as usual. Freehub turned up in a timely manner and after double checking install with Drew I had it fitted and bike rolling again in no time. Done 1,000km+ since on the road and all is well 🙂

- Phillip A -