Stan's NoTubes Re-Invents the Clincher Mountain Bike Rim
Meet Hugo 52, you may be seeing a lot of him in the future. And if not, he will have inspired us to look at rim design in a whole different way. - Stan's NoTubes photo
The most important product I saw at Dealer Camp in Park City, Utah, was an aluminum rim. Stan's NoTubes was trying to solve the problem of mounting huge tubeless tires to fat bike wheels and in doing so, invented a totally new rim design. The Hugo 52 rim separates the tire beads between a tubular central structure in the rim which carries all the major bending and torsional loads forces. The tire beads are mounted on tiny low-flange wings that extend from either side of the tubular structure. Hugo 52 rims and wheels are designed for mid-sized "Plus" fat bikes, but the ramifications of the design are certain to cross over to all clincher-type wheels.
A cross-section of the 52-millimeter-wide Hugo rim shows the tubular core, flanked by lowered bead wells for each side of the tire and the bead locks which capture the tire against the rim's flanges. The tire is installed by slipping it over the outside of the entire rim, and then popping each bead into the Hugo rim in the conventional way.
The raised central tube and the rim flanges are designed at the same height, so if the tire is flattened against the rim by an impact, the force of the blow is distributed across a wide area. Theoretically, that will reduce or nearly eliminate pinch flats and carcass bruises. The fact that each tire bead has its own "rim well" allows the beads to sit exactly where they need to be to air up without trouble. Finally, the locking section that is built into the rim flanges retains the tire should it go flat. To further stabilize a flat or low tire, the center of the tread is supported by the raised rectangular spine in the center of the rim. While the Hugo 52 rim is far from a fully developed concept, it could be the most important development for the bicycle wheel for the past 100 years.
Stan's NoTubes designed the Hugo 52 rims radical profile to solve the difficulty of mounting up fat bike tires in tubeless configuration. The width of conventional fat bike rims allows the jumbo-sized tires to flop around the well in the center of the rim and prevents the beads from spreading out towards its raised edges, where the beads can begin to seal. The Hugo rim's central rectangular tube naturally spreads the beads apart and forces them to remain in an optimal position for inflation. Once the tire is inflated, the beads are fixed in place by locking ridges. Spoke holes in the rectangular section can easily be sealed with Stan's standard-width tape, and its shape helps to direct sealing fluid to the tire's sidewalls and tread crown.
Bead-seating ridges, in combination with wider flange spacing and the rim's raised rectangular spine, all work together to keep the tire on the wheel should it go flat or soft. If a bead is forced off of its locking ridge, it will be guided by the central spine to remain in place, which should greatly stabilize the tire and help to keep it on the rim, instead of wadding up in the frame or fork. Finally, the raised center section can be exploited to support the center tread area of the tire when a flat occurs in the same manner that the inner liner of a run-flat automobile tire does.
Niner's latest steel hardtail, the ROS-Plus, is based upon the 29-Plus rim and tire combination that the Stan's Hugo 52 was designed for. The mid-sized tire rolls faster on hardpack and pavement, while approaching the cross-terrain capabilities of the more massive fat bike.
Because the spoke holes penetrate the raised, tubular section, the Hugo 52 rim can be easily sealed with a single wrap of tape, used for conventional-width rims. On the bike, the Hugo 52 rim looks deceptively thin, because its support structure is internal. There is no missing the fact that the Hugo wheel is a radically different concept when you see it mounted up to a tire. At present, Stan's NoTubes has no immediate plans to scale the Hugo 52 down for conventional-width tires, but the future applications are definitely being discussed. I believe that the first step for the Hugo design would be a downhill racing wheel. Aaron Gwin's manly, but heartbreaking ride down the mountain on a bare wheel was, in my opinion, yet another display of how foolishly inadequate the present clincher tire and rim interface is for DH competition - or for any type of off-road cycling, for that matter. Meanwhile, the mountain bike industry continues to feed and breathe life into a dead body while its children are starving for a real solution. The good news is that Stan's apparently has invented one. - RC
Stan's NoTubes
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Surely if I wanted to filter through all this crap first I woulda gone to punparty.com? And yes I do have a sense of humour. f*cking rubbish puns don't really do much to tickle it. They just clog up the otherwise reasonably interesting comments section.
Anyway, I don't think i made any personal remarks about anyone, I didn't insult anyone, i just stated my opinion. I believe you are the only one who has been throwing the insults around, calling people you have never met douches. So perhaps you should try getting a little perspective before you start your little tantrums?
I'd be more impressed with tubeless that mounts easy, doesn't require rim tape, never burps and airs up with a hand pump.
Most significant wheel development in 100 years? Not even close. But hyperbole does make for a great article!
Here we go again...
I can think of a lot worse!
I like the idea of these rims, but I wouldn't buy Stan's again because they are soft.
HA!
No. It really hasn't. Rim brakes perhaps? Derailleurs? Bottom brackets? Freehub bodies? Seriously man, I work in a bike shop as a mechanic, and there are A LOT of things in the bike world that give me huge headaches. Clincher rims are definitely not high on that list. What actually inspired that sentence RC?
Thank goodness for those tubeless bung repair kits!
www.pinkbike.com/news/THE-Eliminator-rim.html
Mavic designed their xmax enduro rims pretty thin, at the request of their riders. Wider front rim, more grip, thinner rear wheel for less rolling resistance (as the tyre is rounder)
I've got a 35mm set of wheels from velocity, and I find them a tad too stiff. And tyres are just way too big when mounted on them.... Had to try them out though :-)
Add a set of lunker rims to your big wheel bike and about the only thing it does well is go in a straight line - forget about ripping tight and nimble single track. Are people that into going just going straight these days?
Also, is more air volume actually a good thing for a large % of riders? Wouldn't it work like air shocks, where the "spring rate" become less progressive as there's more air volume in the spring? I guess the riders that like less progressive air spring rates (ex. higher volume air cans, or fewer air spring spacers/bottomless tokens) would be more into this stuff.
Don't know what happened to it seemed like a reasonable idea, probably a bit heavy though. Much like the moto & schwalbe tube in a tube idea, not inflateable but could be retrofitted to any rim?