Paul Lew stands before the pizza oven that he once used to cure carbon wheels in the early days. Reynolds bought Paul's carbon wheel company and later, hired him for full-time creative duties. Lew says that he once owned a slew of them and that they were easily adapted to the task. Today, however, Reynolds uses purpose-built ovens for production.
Reynolds carbon wheels start life in a freezer, necessary to prevent the two-component resin system that is impregnated into the fibers from catalyzing. Reynolds buys the raw carbon from Japan and has its specially formulated resin applied in a US factory. Unidirectional fibers (lower right) are rolled, each layer, separated by a release tape. A computerized Gerber cutting machine is used to slice the multitude of shapes that eventually become a wheel.
Kim Kington stands beside a newly machined mold-segment for an aero-profile wheel. Kington heads Reynold's Engineering department - which encompasses everything from stress-testing, designing carbon lay-up schedules, developing aerodynamic models for rim profiles, building molds and even hand-building pre-production parts. Kim came up the ranks in aerospace, building first-strike fighter jets.
Reynolds did not allow us to photograph the layup process, where pre-cut pieces of uni-directional fiber are laid by hand into the mold-halves in a very specific schedule. (Clockwise) A finished AM Carbon rim, nested into the lower half of its mold. Four ring segments are bolted around the mold-halves to form the bead cap (top). Each mold is cured separately in an oven at a specific temperature that causes the two-component resin to catalyze and harden. The tube extending from the center of the mold is used to pressurize an internal bladder to ensure the fibers are uniformly layered while the resin is cured.
A secret that Reynolds holds dear is that they mold the rims with a thick outer cap, which is then machined off in a second operation, presumably to provide a perfect hook-bead profile. The AM Carbon rim as it comes out of the mold (left), compared to the finished product (right).
Reynolds has a parallel wheel-building program (right) to dial in every aspect of the process, from spoke length and tension, to component compatibility, so that potential issues are sorted out well before the products are transferred to Asia for final production. Reynolds keeps its full-carbon wheel production (left) in-house, however, where carbon spokes are bonded to a molded carbon hub (top) and then trued on a special fixture (bottom), before being bonded and cured into one-piece carbon wheels.
Reynolds completely redesigned its rear hubs, with a new free-hub ratchet that has 72 points of engagement. The each of the six-pawls have a pair of teeth, which minimizes the ratchet lag to only five degrees. Reynolds hubs come with a complete end-cap kit that will convert the front to QR, 15 or 20 millimeter axles and the rear to QR, or 12 millimeter axles.
And, the final product emerges: Reynolds' AM Carbon wheelset has ten or 11-speed capability and also fits SRAM XXI freehub systems (all are interchangeable too). For the wheel-curious; there are 28, straight-pull butted stainless steel spokes in each wheel. The wheelset weighs 1600 grams in 26 inch and is available in 26, 27.5 and 29-inch sizes. The rim ID is 24 millimeters, with an OD of 31 millimeters - and the inner profile is designed to facilitate tubeless. Reynolds ships the AM Carbon wheelset with tubeless rim tape, valves and the afore-mentioned end-cap kits for $1900 USD.
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Too bad Reynolds never responded to my questions about sealant, maximum tire width and maximum tire pressure, which I was cautious about since they were my first carbon wheels.
Impressed with the wheels, not impressed with the aftersales service.
Nice report BTW, and nice wheels.
After the (wheel rim) component is laid up the mould is heated, often in a measured gradient, or steps of temperatures, and that triggers the full curing cycle and the component cures from gel state to hard.
I'm not sure I like the idea of them machining off a cap to make the bead hook. Shearing any fibres is always best avoided. But I am confident that they will have good reasons learned from experience of that specific rim application.
Nice rim width. Its a shame they are not proper UST or I'd buy some. Because they are not I will not.
There are also some health and safety concerns having to do with carbon fiber manufacturing (both the fibers themselves and epoxy curing) that make it a bit of a regulatory nightmare sometimes depending on location, however one would hope they'd apply the same health and safety measures in their factories overseas.
Nico Vouilloz when interviewed during the EWS said that 27.5 wheels are faster. How much faster? "1 Second faster every three minutes race time" and he's a 10 time world champ! What difference will it make to mere mortals.......... NONE. Soon I'll have no choice but to buy into the 27.5 thing as fewer 26 inch parts become available. Great. The marketers and internet dweebs who shoved this crap down our throats win.
Here endith the rant
But seriously, I have a set of 26" XT wheels and a set of old Reynolds Topo C carbon 26" wheels. The weights are identical, but the performance is not. I would take a carbon wheelset over alloy any day. I will easily pass a double-blind test on which wheels I'm running. The carbon wheels are stronger, stiffer, and they feel faster.
I will be sad to sell my 26" carbon Topo Cs as my two race bikes are 29", and I will soon be getting rid of one of those for a 27.5. I don't care about marketing, I'm just trying out different shit. Who cares?
So if you break a spoke. You have to buy a new wheel.
I'd like to get another set except that the red hubs look terrible on just about any bike that doesn't have red. Reynolds needs to get with the times and realize that most bikes these days don't have red so offering up a black hub (like my current set) would allow them to match any bike.