Wheel R&D With Reynolds Cycling

Typically, when a press release comes across our desks it's full of buzzwords, registered trademark symbols, and so much hype that you need a bucketloader to dig down to the actual details. This piece from Reynolds is a little different - it lays out the steps that go into choosing a new wheelset, and provides a brief look at the R&D process used for their own carbon wheels, all with a refreshing lack of cliches. Read on for a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into Reynolds Cycling. - MIke Kazimer



Press Release

When the terrain is unforgiving, quality equipment does count.

So what makes some wheels better than others, and some truly great? This is a question a lot of people are asking these days. Wheel and tire dimensions are suffering an identity crisis so severe that it’s almost absurd to call anything a ‘standard’ anymore, and that’s caused a lot of confusion in the world of mountain bikes. That’s not to say that there isn’t really good product rolling around out there, but with so many choices now, how does one choose?

It really comes down to how you want to use your wheels, your expectations, and what you’re willing to pay. When it comes to money, some are always going to go with the least expensive option for a variety reasons, and that’s perfectly fine. You can’t ride what you can’t afford in many instances, and that's fully legit. But there are others who are quite simply skeptical of better, more expensive technology, and that’s understandable too. There is a saying that you should avoid buying into new, unproven ideas and products until they’ve been thoroughly tested and validated.

Bernard Kerr subjects carbon rims to some brutal real-world testing

In the case of testing, one would hope that products don’t make it to market without checking this box. This is in large part what professional athletes do for brands. Yes, they are brand ambassadors as well, but their larger value really lies in taking the new stuff that’s been computer designed and tested in the lab, and then taking it out for some real-world thrashing.

Outside is the real proving ground, and in the case of carbon rims, athlete testing provides a level of validation for things that simply cannot be reproduced or evaluated in a laboratory. The bike industry is famous for making claims that don’t often mean much. If something is lighter that’s great, as it can help you climb a bit easier, but it’s not the full story. Likewise, making something stiffer sounds like progress, but it’s not always better. These are the things that can be measured in a scientific environment, but the element that matters most is how something improves the ride and durability of your bike.

How does it feel and perform when a person rides it? In the case of carbon rims, it can be a really complex question as so many things go into creating a ride experience. Like building a carbon frame, engineers can specify shapes, dimensions and layup when setting out to build a new rim. They can target how the structure will respond to a variety of vertical, lateral and torsional loads, and also build the rim channel to work well with a range of tires. Once they’re satisfied with the results they get from running computational tests, the process moves on to the next phase, making the molds.

Mold engineering specs are carefully checked, and then the CNC machine is precisely programmed.


Every mold is milled from solid steel taking hours to complete.

Unlike bending drawn aluminum into a hoop, going from CAD drawings to a carbon fiber rim is a much more involved and lengthy ordeal. All those dimensions must be programmed into a CNC machine just to produce the first mold. It’s not until the mold comes out of the machine, is finished and inspected that the actual rim building process can begin.

Carbon prepreg is cut and sorted according to precise layup schedules; every strip of carbon ply is meticulously laid into the mold by hand.

Once the layup is complete, the mold is sealed and readied for the oven.

With the mold complete, carbon can finally enter the mix. Following the specifications supplied by the engineers, the rim builders now go to work. They have to pull the correct prepreg carbon plies, cut them to size and stage them in preparation for assembly. Putting all the pieces together is a painstaking process done by hand. Following the engineering roadmap, the individual plies are laid into the mold one at a time and in proper sequence. Once the layup is completed, the mold is clamped together and prepped for the curing process during which the rim will literally be baked under high pressure.

What comes out of the mold is a carbon fiber rim. It still needs some finish and cleanup work to remove bits left after molding, but structurally it’s ready to go. And go it does, straight to testing. No one gets to ride anything until the rims are built into full wheel spec and then properly beat on in the labratory. Hopefully they pass the full battery of tests otherwise it’s back to the drawing board and the layup needs to be re-engineered. Even rims that pass testing are still pushed to the point of breaking though, as the engineers can then closely inspect the damage and learn from what they find.


After the factory testing is all done, then it’s on to the fun stuff—riding. The point of creating a new product is to make something better after all, and when it comes to wheels, that means they should improve the ride of your bike. So off to a team of testers they go, including those athletes we talked about. The wheels get ridden for their intended use and well beyond, trying to find the limits, but more importantly to gauge how they will react across a wide range of conditions.

Ride testing is the crucial final step before the wheels get the nod for final production. Sometimes the feedback delivered by testers reveals something unexpected, but more often it’s that extra step to dialing in ride feel. This part has nothing to do with those claims of being the lightest, stiffest or whatever. It’s way more about subjective feel and on-the-trail impressions. Do they feel overly stiff and chattery, or do they give you more traction? Do they track well or do they get bounced around? Do they feel like they accelerate well and provide extra snap out of corners? It’s a lot like dialing in suspension really, in that you hope to find the perfect balance of compliance, support and control. Once that balance is found, the wheels are ready for market.


There’s a lot that goes into making a good carbon rim wheel that is both durable and rides well. It’s a process that can help transform the ride of your bike. Because there are so many steps involved, it does come with a bigger price tag than analogous aluminum rim wheels, and whether you’re willing to pay for it is always going to be a personal decision. In truth, when considering dropping the cash for any major purchase, you owe it to yourself to try before you buy, much like the ride testers do. If you want to feel the difference for yourself, there’s no better way than to demo a set of wheels on your own bike. We call it Ride to Decide.

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MENTIONS: @ReynoldsCycling

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