Reynolds MTN AM Carbon Wheels Review
Reynolds MTN AM Carbon wheels features carbon fiber rims, straight pull spokes, sealed bearings, and interchangeable endcaps.
Reynolds MTN AM Carbon wheelset details:
- Full MR5 carbon fiber rim
- 21mm internal width, 29.5mm external width
- DT Swiss Revolution spokes
- Aluminum freehub body
- Front hub options: 9mm QR, 20mm thru-axle, 15mm thru-axle. Rear hub: QR, 135x10, or 12 x 142mm.
- 2 year warranty, "no questions asked" damage protection plan available for $250.
- Weight: 1600 (claimed), 1720 (actual)
- MSRP: $1800 USD
Reynolds MTN AM Carbon wheelset details:
- Full MR5 carbon fiber rim
- 21mm internal width, 29.5mm external width
- DT Swiss Revolution spokes
- Aluminum freehub body
- Front hub options: 9mm QR, 20mm thru-axle, 15mm thru-axle. Rear hub: QR, 135x10, or 12 x 142mm.
- 2 year warranty, "no questions asked" damage protection plan available for $250.
- Weight: 1600 (claimed), 1720 (actual)
- MSRP: $1800 USD
Details
Carbon wheels, once a rarity only seen at trade shows and beneath sponsored pros, continue to trickle down to the masses. While still expensive, each season the number of options expands and the prices slowly eke downwards. The Reynolds MTN AM Carbon wheelset is the company's all-mountain offering, designed to be light weight, yet strong enough to handle being ridden hard day in and day out.
Carbon Rim
The rims are constructed using what Reynolds has termed MR5 technology. The number 5 in this acronym refers to five different sections of the rim: the sidewall, rim hook bead, nipple bed, tire channel, and spoke face. The rims have a unique carbon fiber layup and resin formula designed specifically for the strength needs of each section. More or less material is used depending on what type of stress a section of the rim will see. For example, the spoke face needs to be strong enough to resist the pulling loads of the spoke, while the rim hook bead must be able to withstand the outward pushing pressure of an inflated tire. Once the rim layup process is complete, Reynolds uses their proprietary Inert Gas Compaction (IRG) process to mold and cure the rims. In this process, an inert gas is used to put over 300psi of pressure on the rim to compact the carbon fibers and resin, as well as remove any potential air pockets.
Reynolds' rim hook bead is deeper than most, which is why although the rim external diameter is 29.5mm, the internal channel width is 21mm. It's interesting to see such a pronounced rim hook bead, as there are carbon clincher rims on the market that do not even have a hook. The rim depth is deep enough that a longer valve stem is needed if traditional-length Presta valve tubes are used. A 32mm valve stem is a bit too short to engage with most pump heads. Using a Presta to Schrader valve adaptor (usually available for less than a dollar at most shops) is a quick way to rectify this in a pinch – it adds enough length to the valve stem to allow a pump head to fit.
Reynolds uses inert gas compaction to mold and cure their rims. Notice the unique rim bead hook design.
Hubs and Spokes
Both front and rear rims are laced with 28 straight-pull, double butted DT Swiss Revolution spokes. The spoke lacing pattern at the hub makes it so the spokes do not ever touch each other (as they would in a traditional two or three cross lacing pattern) before reaching the nipple. No special tools are needed to true the AM Carbon wheels; the alloy nipples can be turned using a spoke wrench designed for 3.32mm nipples (the black one in the Park Tool lineup).
Using different adaptors, the front wheel can be configured for a 15 or 20mm thru axle, or a standard quick release. Although the majority of thru-axle front wheels share similar design principles, the Reynolds front hub is slightly different. In many front thru-axle hubs the axle passes through an outer adaptor, then rests on the inner surface of the cartridge bearings. In this case, the adapter extends past the inner surface of the bearing and part way onto the internal aluminum sleeve. This slightly different design does mean the bearing number is 6805, instead of the 6804 more often found in thru-axle hubs. The rear wheel can also be adapted to work with nearly every frame standard out there (except for 150mm). Adaptors are included to set up the wheel with a quick release, a 135x10 thru axle, or a 142x12 thru axle.
The six pawl freehub body houses three sealed cartridge bearings.
Setup
To match the AM Carbon's “all-mountain" moniker we set them up with a folding Maxxis Minion DHF 2.5" in the front and a 2.3" Specialized Butcher Control in the rear. We used the supplied tape and valve stems, along with the correct amount of Stan's sealant to set them up tubeless. The front tire popped into place without any issues, but on the rear tire we had trouble stopping the tire bead from diving below the rim hook. Even after using soapy water the bead still didn't want to seat evenly. We finally got it to an acceptable point, but it took longer than we would have liked. The extra thick bead hook of the rim is the likely culprit in this case. It does an excellent job locking the tire into place, which is great for preventing the tire from burping air when riding, but can cause headaches when seating a tire. We also found that the supplied valve stems didn't provide a very tight seal. Little bubbles of Stan's continued to find their way past the stem long after the rest of the tire was ready to go. We used tubes for part of our testing as well, and found that we ran into the same difficulties getting the tire to seat properly.
The red anodized rear hub shell has 24 engagement teeth.
Riding impressions
Claimed weight for the Reynolds AM Carbon wheelset is 1600 grams, although ours weighed in at 1720 grams. They are light, although not as light as some other carbon wheel offerings currently available. We didn't notice the lower weight of the wheels as much as how they seemed to take the edge off of rougher sections of trail. The feeling was akin to riding with a couple psi less air pressure in your tires; subtle, yet definitely noticeable. The carbon rims paired with higher tension straight pull spokes make for a stiff, responsive wheelset – there was no noticeable flex under hard cornering or during out of the saddle pedal mashing. We tested these wheels to the full extent of what we consider all-mountain riding – our test circuit included off-camber roots and rocks, high-speed berms, and the occasional drop or jump. We wouldn't recommend taking these wheels into the bike park (that's definitely not their intended purpose), but they do seem able to take a fair amount of beating before needing some love with a spoke wrench. We did manage to knock the wheels out of true a couple times – one particularly hard landing into a jumble of roots completely loosened a spoke on the rear wheel. In each case, we were able to true the wheels back into shape without any issue, and the rims themselves survived the testing without any damage.
Issues
The rear hub has 24 engagement teeth, which equates to a 15° engagement angle. We would have liked a lower engagement angle for those slow speed, technical trails where quick engagement makes maintaining forward momentum easier. When we took the freehub body off to examine the internals we noticed one of the small springs that secures the pawls to the freehub had broken. We're not sure when this occurred - because the other pawls were still engaging, we didn't notice that one had ceased working. After speaking with Reynolds, we learned that our test wheels were an early production run with only three pawls. The current, updated version now features six pawls, which should better disperse the forces applied during hard pedalling. Regarding warranty issues, all Reynolds wheels are backed by the company's two year warranty against manufacturing defects. However, riders looking for a little more protection for their investment can buy into the Reynolds Assurance Program (RAP) for $250. The RAP provides two years of no-questions-asked coverage should the wheels become damaged. "No questions asked" means just that - whether you come up short on a gap or you drive into the garage with your bike still on the roof rack, Reynolds has you covered.
Another issue, which we mentioned earlier, is that longer stemmed tubes are needed due to the deeper than normal rim profile. The valve stems supplied for running the wheels tubeless are long enough, but if you want to install a traditional Presta tube you will need one with a longer stem length (48mm as opposed to the more common 32mm).
We fitted the Reynolds MTN AM Carbon wheelset to our Production Privee hardtail for testing, thereby ensuring that they saw some proper abuse.
Pinkbike's take:
 | The biggest question which surrounds carbon wheels is "Are they worth it?" With a price tag of $1800 we found ourselves asking the same thing. Granted, the AM Carbons are lower priced than many of the other carbon wheelsets currently available, but it's still a hefty bit of change. Plus, when you add in the price of the Reynolds Assurance Program the price difference shrinks substantially. For comparison, an Easton Haven wheelset weighs in at 1450 grams with a retail price of $2500, and a SRAM Rise 60 wheelset weighs 1330 grams (claimed) and sells for $2000. We could almost justify the cost if there was a significant weight savings, or an element of guaranteed durability that meant we wouldn't need a new wheelset for a few seasons. The RAP program is appealing, and looks like a good option for those who are historically hard on wheels, but we'd like to see it cover a time frame longer than two years. As it is, unfortunately there's not a characteristic that makes these wheels inherently better than much lower priced aluminum rimmed offerings. Don't get us wrong, the Reynolds AM Carbon is a fine wheelset, but it's lacking that spark, that extra bit of charm that would make us reach for our wallets. -Mike Kazimer |
www.reynoldscycling.com
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btw, like the article says, these are super hard to set up tubeless--hard to seat the bead.
lastly, fyi, you can buy a set of 2011 Reynolds on Ebay for about $700...reach for you wallet, I say.
Hubs are still going ok, we'll see how they last after a year or two. They've gone through some decently rough stuff and walked out fine (though i do use Specialized 2.4 on front and 2.2 on rear which are quiet a big bag).
As above, there is a decent difference between the feel, strength and ride of carbon rims to justify them over alloy. Just as per carbon frames vs alloy. No they won't replace alloy rims, but they are that next step up in performance i feel.
Weight wise, yes they do turn out similar to alloy wheel sets (e.g. Mavic Crossmax SX - which id say is the alloy benchmark in this category and a huge fan of) but just being the lightest i don't think is their main purpose. Ive no doubt the strength of these rims long term is a main feature, the feel and stiffness when riding is spot on, and something that does justify the extra price (as mentioned i bought mine for cheap anyway so the price wasn't an issue). As carbon gets more popular and more accessible in wheels im sure the price will come down. But its not like Mavic are reducing the price of their wheelsets now either is it?
I also found them to be the easiest tubeless setups i've ever used. A decent air compressor to pop them in always helps. But ive never had air leaks or one problem with this setup with a few different (AM type) tyres now.
Rims should be stiff and durable The wheel assembly made of properly dimensioned spokes fitted on a properly dimensioned hub.
Proper suspension action is: Tire, then suspension give. Soft plastic-rims are unsound engineering if they deflect.
Cathar rides a very sound rim package at 5x less the cost and will last for a long time. Novatec is rebuildable with proper bearing sizes. All for 450 a set. Reynolds keeps making great tubing. Backed my car into my 35 year old reynoldstubed race bike. Hated myself for a month.
@Dubstepqt - down from the horse... come down, that's it, come on, won't hurt you... take your time... now: why you assume we don't see, what you see? Why do you think we weren't there where you were? hmmmm? Why do you see what I don't have within? Why don't you see what I have within?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZKog8Oww-I
by the way, only suckers pay msrp.
Jaame - Good question! I got the list of tubing and sheet pricing from Reynolds I, then learned briefly about how do you form and weld elements from different metals, then I learned how do you make a different sorts of carbon fiber objects. the quite obvious comes out: aluminium is waaaay cheaper than CF as a material, and a quite a bit cheaper in forming and processing. so I'd rather ask:
Why the hell are aluminium frames so bloody expensive?! At least those from Far East
Who knows?
I still believe carbon rims would smash just like aluminium if you hit a massive rock. That's why I would never consider them until the price comes down to more like $100 American per rim.
So... where is the price coming from... manufacturers tend to fart all over the place with info on technologies and materials, if they remain silent on it (and No Tubes does) it usualy means they have nothing important to say (but that's assumption). Also looking at the sections, they simply use less material on extrusion, + no eyelets, this is where the weight comes from, so no hiper diper alloys includign M5, Maxtal, manipulated AL-7063 forged ultimate purge technology.
I wish Mavic did as wide or wider rims as ZTR, or used such thing like BST, as their rims are not the best with sealing non proprietary UST tyres. Still I go with the "local production"
I wouldn;t touch another pair of Stan's rims. In my opinion, they're light because they're weak.
I'm going to get Spank race28s next. I'm told by people who actually use them that they are very, very strong and still only 500g each.
In five years, I'll go for some ENVEs when they can be had for $500 American a pair.
What is you impression on how are enviornmental issues on Taiwan, do factories care a lot? How is garbage/sewage/dangerous goods handled? I am asking because we have all this hipocrisy here, banning of chemials in agriculture in EU while EU based companies use worst shit in Asia polluting their land, farmers and sell food back to Europe poisoning "their own people". Some f*ckers are so deep in their own shit that they even accuse China of using DDT and India of disposing chemicals, used in clothing production, straight into the ground water and rivers... ehhh
Taiwanese people see Chinese people as animals. It wouldn't surprise me if everything you hear about China is true. They have no fish in the rivers, they throw babies away if they die, etc etc etc. I'll say two things for the Chinese though. 1. They're not America's bitch. 2. They work harder than any other race on earth for less money. When you put those two together, the rest of the world had better watch out! Actually I'll add 3. Even the ugly girls are thin, which in y opinion is better than ugly and fat ha ha!
I have to replace my dually as I cracked the frame, my bike budget is around what these carbon wheels cost :-/
Plus, you think that they are quite expensive for your taste. Yet, you would love to have a carbon frame, whοse value is equivalent to two bikes. Nice.
They are worth triple what I paid for them.
not sure about Reynolds build quality on their wheels? although they do 'look' nice....
my first experience of Reynolds was their 700c "Attack" road wheelset, fitted brand new out the box to my shop managers road bike
this guy hardly rides his expensive CF road bike and he is a small guy with light body weight, he rode his brand new wheels home and back to the store, about 15km in total on smooth city roads, wheels started rubbing on his brakes
the front wheel required truing, and the rear wheel required re-tensioning and truing
I then checked another set of Attack wheels brand new in the store with a Park spoke tension meter and found a 20% difference in spoke tension on both driveside and non-driveside on both front and rear wheel spokes, both wheels were relatively straight on the wheel truing stand
this suggests to me that the wheels have not been built well, or the rim is not particularly straight, which is why a first ride will throw the wheels out of true and tension
not acceptable for a £1200 wheelset
www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1194594
Wider carbon rims, and lighter overall too!
Already running a set myself and would keep these if I could.
Once you've ridden a carbon wheelset (built well) you really will realise how much the stiffness and power transfer improves the ride of your bike.
They only wheelset I've ever had that can even compare to the stiffness was 24in Sun Doublewides, but they weighed a ton!
The first ride on carbon rims was a bit daunting until after a while I forgot that I was on carbon rims. The rims were very very strong.
The only downside was that Reynolds would not reply to emails requesting information on maximum tire pressure, maximum recommended tire size (I didn't want to split the hook of the rim), and if it was okay to set them up tubeless. If a company doesn't answer my questions, I never buy their product again.
Good product; non-existent customer service.
1. Stiffness - you never feel/experience flex
2. Dampening - they definitely handle trail vibration better
3. Durability - they can handle conditions that cause ALU rims fail
4. Weight - key is not to compare directly to the lightest ALU rim in a category. You need to think more in terms ratio of weight to stiffness and durability. I.e. compare the carbon rim weight to weight of the stiffest, most durable ALU rim in a category or even the next category in some cases.
5. Maintaing true - I ran Enve AM's all season (Mar-Nov) which included Super D and Enduro racing. I had to true my wheels just once, and even then, that was to to optimize.
As the author indicated, more manufactures are offering up carbon options, which means more choices for us and with every purchase by early adopters, the advantages of economies of scale begin to kick in. Prices will go down over time.
Just got some Hadley hubs.. excited for a nicer wheelset as I have never ridden anything but a stock wheelset..
$1800 for wheels.. wow, not on a teacher's salary..
lolno.