First Ride: Crankbrothers Carbon Synthesis Wheels
Crankbrothers have a new wheelset on the way, and it's far different from their past creations. The Synthesis carbon wheelset is actually different from a lot of what's out there right now, and that could be a good thing.
The wheels are not your standard run-of-the-mill carbon hoops. They're designed to be tough, but if they do fail, that failure is supposed to happen in a non-catastrophic way. There's a front and rear-specific rim design and wheel build, and a lifetime warranty. That alone should raise an eye, but there's a little more to it.
The Synthesis wheel system comes in three different rim set configurations - one for XC, one for all-mountain/enduro riding, and one for DH. Crankbrothers have designed the front and rear wheels to give specific ride characteristics and to create a system that they claim improves performance, handling, and ride quality over many traditional wheelsets.
The wheels are not your standard run-of-the-mill carbon hoops. They're designed to be tough, but if they do fail, that failure is supposed to happen in a non-catastrophic way. There's a front and rear-specific rim design and wheel build, and a lifetime warranty. That alone should raise an eye, but there's a little more to it.
The Synthesis wheel system comes in three different rim set configurations - one for XC, one for all-mountain/enduro riding, and one for DH. Crankbrothers have designed the front and rear wheels to give specific ride characteristics and to create a system that they claim improves performance, handling, and ride quality over many traditional wheelsets.
Synthesis E11 Wheels
• 27.5" and 29"
• Intended use: Enduro/All-Mountain
• Carbon rim, front and rear-specific "tunes"
• Crankbrothers/Project 321 hub - 2.5-deg. engagement
• Wider inner front rim width, narrower rear
• More compliant front wheel, stiffer rear wheel
• Designed to fail in a propagation mode
• Lifetime warranty on rims
• 1,825g
• $2,399 USD
• $699 USD rim only
• Crankbrothers
• 27.5" and 29"
• Intended use: Enduro/All-Mountain
• Carbon rim, front and rear-specific "tunes"
• Crankbrothers/Project 321 hub - 2.5-deg. engagement
• Wider inner front rim width, narrower rear
• More compliant front wheel, stiffer rear wheel
• Designed to fail in a propagation mode
• Lifetime warranty on rims
• 1,825g
• $2,399 USD
• $699 USD rim only
• Crankbrothers
The carbon wheel system is available in a few different configurations. There is a standard hub with 17 degrees of engagement, and a fancy hub with Project 321 internals and 2.5 degrees of engagement. All of the wheelsets have Sapim spokes, with the higher end E11 wheels coming with Sapim's CX-Ray in the front and CX-Sprint in the rear. There is also a rim-only option for those wanting to build up their own sets.
The XCT and Enduro wheels both have a standard hub option for $1,699 USD/EUR or the Project 321 hub and higher end spokes for a cool $700 USD/EUR upcharge. The DH wheels are only offered in the high-end build and sell for $2,399. The rims in both wheelsets are the same and can be purchased by themselves for $699 each. The Enduro wheelset is available for purchase now and the DH/XCT wheelsets will arrive in late 2018.
Brian Park photos
Background
The design and development of the Synthesis took Crankbrothers several years; it's not an evolution of their previous wheelsets but a completely new approach and philosophy on wheel systems.
Jason Schiers Crankbrothers photo
Few would contest that the wheels that Crankbrothers produced in the past didn't quite deliver what the company may have hoped for. You'd see the wheels under sponsored riders, but it was rare to see anyone shelling out their hard-earned money on a set of Crankbrothers Iodine wheels. Crankbrothers had to make some changes in their development team and the way they engineered products to get the results they wanted.
That change was largely in the addition of Jason Schiers. If that name isn't familiar to you already, Schiers has been around the bike industry, and
That change was largely in the addition of Jason Schiers. If that name isn't familiar to you already, Schiers has been around the bike industry, and
Shiers admits that joining on with Crankbrothers initially wasn't an idea that he nor many people he knows and trusted would consider the best move - their track record for wheels hasn't been stellar. He worked with them as a consultant for about 18 months, and then as the pressure built for him to come on full time he came up with a wishlist that included quite a few asks, including having a new development center in Utah - SR56. SR56 is used for designing and developing carbon and Selle Royal brands.
We first saw the new wheels on Greg Williamnson's Unno Ever at the Losinj World Cup DH. The Unno team have been a partner in the development process.
The other piece to the engineering puzzle is Mello Bouwmeester - Mello had his own company in Australia, manufacturing rims, specifically, the first single-wall carbon rim, which was gaining traction among downhill racers for its outstanding durability and compliance. The two wheel designers' products were positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum. Mello and Schiers linked up and Schiers ended up convincing Mello to come and work with him at SR56 after a few drinks.
Mello Bouwmeester Crankbrothers photo
Bouwmeester's single-wall carbon rim concept flew in the face of all contemporary rim design at the time...
...but its thick flanges and narrow cross-section could handle more punishment than any contemporary thin-section hollow rim. Bouwmeester photos
With the two minds together, they decided that if they were going to bring another carbon wheel to market, they needed to do something completely different than what was currently available.
Seen these before? We didn't think so. Crankbrothers' Synthesis rims use massively thicker walls in high impact areas. The front rim (left) is wider and more compliant than the heavier-constructed rear-specific rim (right). Crankbrothers photo
Crankbrothers Synthesis Wheels are Born
The philosophy behind the new guard at Crankbrothers is to develop products that actually improve the ride experience, not just something to bring another product to market...commendable this day in age when at times it seems there's often a new standard just to be different.
The team developed a number of wheelsets, some very compliant and some very stiff, and then put them under a variety of test riders. Schiers claims that they ended up getting a mixed bag of feedback on each set. Some were too stiff, some were not stiff enough. Mellow developed compliant wheels, Schiers made stiff wheels. After some frustration with the results of those tests, they started to mix and match the compliant and stiff wheels. At this point, the team found that everyone agreed on one mix...something Schiers says he hasn't seen before in 20 years of wheel development. The result was a more compliant front wheel with a stiffer rear wheel.
Brian Park photo
It's a pretty simple concept: more compliance to let the front wheel find its way, and then more stiffness in the back wheel to help the bike track well. An analogy that was made was how most riders run a little less pressure in their front tire than the rear. If the front wheel is too stiff, it won't flex and hold the trail. Rather, it will skip around and ride poorly. Conversely, the rear wheel has to be stiff to manage larger hits and power through impacts with more force. With the idea of a more compliant front wheel and stiffer rear wheel figured out, the SR56 team could now start the development process.
Crankbrothers' top-drawer 321 hubs are an option on enduro and XC wheels and standard on the Synthesis DH wheelset. Crankbrothers photo
Across the board in the Synthesis wheel system, the front wheel is more compliant than the rear. It has a reduced spoke count, a lighter gauge spoke, and a lower spoke tension. The rim itself is slightly lighter and the inner rim width is slightly wider - this is to match up with running a slightly wider tire up front and allow the tire to have a rounder profile. The rear wheel has a higher spoke count with a higher spoke tension, and the rear rim has a slightly narrower inner width to sharpen up the tire profile for cornering. The rear rim wall is thicker to handle higher impacts. Crankbrothers claim is that this builds a super tough and durable wheelset but one that has a compliant ride quality.
Front/Rear Rim Comparison Chart
Durability and a Controlled Failure Mode
The rims have been under the bikes of the Unno World Cup DH team for some time now. The SR56 engineers claim they are happy with the results, especially from the rock-laden tracks in Losinj and Mont Sainte Anne as the wheels were in more of an R&D phase rather than a final and refined product at that point.
Everything can eventually break, but the well-known fact that carbon wheels can fail catastrophically is a contentious issue that a lot of riders are rightfully concerned about. Schiers says he's been obsessive about the way carbon fails and how to manage catastrophic failure ever since he worked to make the first Edge/Enve wheels.
Synthesis' ultra-thick carbon sections have some trade secrets hidden inside them that can't be duplicated by traditional thin-wall tubular-section types. The resin system used in the carbon is a special high-impact formula, while the layup schedule is tailored to disperse impact events. Nobody is talking about specifics here, but similar materials and layups are used to protect drivers in F-1 race cars, where catastrophic carbon failure is not an option. Those materials require additional thickness to disperse energy - a feature the new rim profile incorporates.
Schiers says that they're not the absolute lightest out there, but they fail with a propagation type failure...more like an aluminum wheel. You'll get a deterioration before a complete failure. He claims that if people are developing carbon wheels, then they have a responsibility to manage the failure of carbon wheels and make it safe and controlled. I won't argue with that.
Synthesis E 11 Specs:
Brian Park photo
Performance and Ride Impressions
I have quite a few days on the Synthesis E 11 wheels on a smorgasbord of terrain ranging from long steep fire road climbs with chunky and extra-rocky descents to more mellow undulating trail loops. The wheels are set up on my Specialized Enduro 29 test bike. The E 11 wheelset has the Project 321 hub internals with 2.5-degrees of engagement and magnetic pawls. 28 Sapim CX-Ray spokes in the front and 32 Sapim CX-Sprint spokes in the back. The front wheel has an inner rim width of 31.5mm and the back is 29.5mm.
With the Synthesis wheels installed I found that the bike does feel pretty damn connected, especially in chunky terrain, and the wheels don't feel overly stiff - in a good way. They track well, and felt solid charging into whatever terrain I found, but there was no harshness or any unwanted deflection.
The Project 321 hubs are a nice complement to the system. I've grown to appreciate a hub that has a high amount of engagement, especially in zones where you may need a pedal kick to get up and over whatever is in your way, and these hubs have 144 points of engagement. Necessary, no. An upgrade? Hell yea. Additionally, the hubs are nearly silent. It's half as loud as a Chris King freehub, and a magnitude more quiet than an Industry Nine.
As far as the durability of these wheels goes, breaking carbon wheels is something we are usually pretty good at. I have run the wheels with lower tire pressures than is probably a good idea, pinging the rim through all sorts of rocks at full speed and so far, I have had no issues.
Time will tell, and I'm really curious to see how well the Crankbrothers rims continue to hold up. Even more than that, If they do fail, I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out. The idea of a "safer"
The Project 321 hubs are a nice complement to the system. I've grown to appreciate a hub that has a high amount of engagement, especially in zones where you may need a pedal kick to get up and over whatever is in your way, and these hubs have 144 points of engagement. Necessary, no. An upgrade? Hell yea. Additionally, the hubs are nearly silent. It's half as loud as a Chris King freehub, and a magnitude more quiet than an Industry Nine.
As far as the durability of these wheels goes, breaking carbon wheels is something we are usually pretty good at. I have run the wheels with lower tire pressures than is probably a good idea, pinging the rim through all sorts of rocks at full speed and so far, I have had no issues.
Time will tell, and I'm really curious to see how well the Crankbrothers rims continue to hold up. Even more than that, If they do fail, I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out. The idea of a "safer"
Crankbrothers photo
I'll continue to put miles on the Synthesis wheels to see how they hold up at home in North Carolina, especially through the fall season as leaves blanket rocks that have taken many a wheel in the past. We'll do an update once we have more time on them, as I'm sure anyone who's dropping that kind of money on a wheelset will appreciate a long-term test.
 | So, did Crankbrothers reinvent the wheel? I wouldn't go that far, but they certainly have a unique product on the market, one that's different than anything they've produced in the past - and that's a really good thing. The Synthesis wheels do offer a high-quality ride in a complete package. Knowing they are engineered to fail in a way that is safe, and also have a lifetime warranty, suggests your body and wallet will be better protected. My initial impression is that they've created a serious contender in the sacred circle of high-end carbon wheels. If that's what you're after, their ride quality is certainly better than many I've ridden. |
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No thanks but go ahead and buy them, we'll wait for your feedback
$2,399 is nutz!.
If you want scylence, you'll have to buy Shimano hubs. Their rims work with shimnao hubs now.
Having said that since these CB wheels use p321 hubs and the freehubs are easily interchangeable, future compatibilty shouldn't be a problem
US distributors have Micro Spline DT Swiss 240 hubs in stock and ready to shop right now.
Mainly socal riding helps im sure.
Hey, what do you know? www.bicycleretailer.com/product-tech/2018/10/15/industry-nine-receives-micro-spline-license-shimano#.W8VCaBZMGEc
This is gotta be it though, right? No one else will be able to use it...
I don't quite understand why this Kool-Aid tastes so good to folks...,
"if you want to destroy my sweater, pull this thread, and I'll walk away"
Granted I'm not a pro and don't care about having to nurse a bent or cracked rim to salvage points etc.
I bet given the opportunity most pros would rock carbon bling when not racing or paid to ride something else.
Anyway. Are you 100% sure where your old aluminum is going? Ever looked into what it takes to mine the stuff? Take a step off that eco soapbox my friend. We all have a pretty large carbon footprint in the first world. Especially as grown ass men riding specialty push bikes for fun.
But your alloy rims can't be recycled either.
And ppl have said it before, and say it again. The ride is totally different, regardless the weight.
Yes, I take drugs daily.
www.pinkbike.com/news/aluminum-vs-carbon-separating-environmental-fact-from-fiction-in-the-frame-materials-debate.html
for sure nag77, and the carbon-curious who don't want to go full kool-aid can get carbon rims for ~$200 each (LB, Nextie, Tandell) which hold up pretty damn well and you can choose: 1) internal width & depth, 2) spoke count, 3) offset/standard, 4) rim weight (lightweight/"enduro"/dh layups, not to mention rim aesthetics. Consumers have awesome options these days if they want to dabble with the feel/benefits of carbonium but don't want to go too broke doing it. And lots of wheelbuilders use these brands already.
that's gnarly... i wonder if the proliferation of hookless rims could be a factor?
yeah i think everyone just needs to calm the fk down every time a new wheelset is released. We do love to b*tch though, especially at another expensive non-option. the margins must be lovely for the companies that can actually sell this stuff.
not sold on carbon in perpetuem and when i get around to my next build (not soon) it'd be cool to go back to a nice alu build and see how it feels. if i were on 27.5 i doubt i'd go for carbon, but on 29 it takes some burly wheels to offset the additional flex you get in the larger rim, and then you start to feel like you're slogging around a heavy wheelset, because you are.
anyway i'd give my money to We Are One decades before i'd give it to Crank Bros.
Seems obvious now that they say it... that the front wheel should be compliant while the back wheel should be stiff. Makes you wonder why no one else has marketed wheels this way before.
Anyway, at the bike park, what I found was that the softer front wheel made it so my hands were hurting way less after a few laps. Even with all the brake bumps, the rocks, etc... I wasn't feeling the burning pain that I usually do in my hands. Definitely got a few more laps in than I normally would.
The front/back wheel difference is noticeable on my local trails where there are flatter sections that you are powering through. The front wheel gives you a softer, damped feel as you go through the rocks/roots but you still feel like you can put the power down and hold the line. You just feel.... fast and in control.
Price is definitely up there but I like how they are bringing something different to the market that seems to make sense. Nice idea crank brothers!
Who is buying these?! EWS pros don't use carbon...downhill guys don't use carbon often...normal guys are destroying carbon rims at a much higher frequency (AFAIK) than alu rims. I really am getting the feeling that carbon rims are for XC guys, and light trail riding, and that's about it. Can't believe that company after company keeps coming out with the "latest and greatest" in carbon rim offerings.
There must just be a huge profit margin in carbon rims. I can't think of any other reason so many companies are pumping out so many carbon rims these days.
I ride my bike hard and use it for everything. If I'm racing a sharp-edged DH track or messing about in the street with curbs and large drops, I run 25+ psi. If I'm racing an XC course I run 25ish psi because they still have rocks and things. If I'm not racing and riding mellower trails, I like to run about 21psi. One time I ran 18 psi and was a little late bunny hopping over a square-edged rock. I chipped my front rim and put 3 holes in the tubeless tire. One of them had to be patched with a piece of a tube later (haha). Anyhow, I flatted at the top of a small ski slope so I just rode down the ski trail on the flat. Not a big deal. Didn't go out of true.
Regardless, carbon rims offer a serious performance boost. Acceleration is improved with a lighter wheel especially on a bike with larger wheels. That is valuable to me because it makes my 29er quicker and livelier. Carbon rims for me have been much more durable than my aluminum ones ever were. The chip in my front rim has not affected the performance at all. Do I run high pressures and not use the "POINT AND PLOW" technique that requires less thought? Yes. I'm okay with that because at the end of the day I can ride my bike really fast on mellow non-DH trails, my wheels are always true, and I don't have dents in my rims. I bought my wheels used for cheap, and they are my bike's greatest asset.
It’s more rare to see the team run alloy. Like Canyon team specifically chose aluminum Mavics because they had the same logic as most of these commentors.
I have carbon rims. SC reserve. Haven’t broken them. And that’s because I use it at its strength. A bike park. Alloy is definitely better at the rock gardens. You need the give. But carbon you just rail berms and hit jumps so much faster. But they also reminded me of Mavic Deemax when I had them.
And the people complaining about the $2399 for the DH set. Remember ENVE are $2799 across the board (unless you get Chris king hubs, then it’s more). And you see those RIMs every where. So I have a feeling these RIMs are manufactured in USA but not only that, the material is domestic. Yes that can drive cost.
With frames, I would wager to say moulding a carbon frame is probably similar labour intensity as welding/aligning/heat treating an alloy frame.
Sounds like they un-reinvented the wheel and went back to tried and true basics, plus worked on a rim that doesn't explode... there is hope.
Still ain't shelling out, but I would be happy to ride this, while I wouldn't be caught on a test ride with iodines
As far as I know strength and stiffness are typically linked pretty closely. To have compliance you sacrifice strength.
I should also add that a "compliant" wheel is not a flexy wheel per se. I think that should be highlighted.
I wonder if CB will offer these as a demo product at local shops. I think that's the best way for riders to experience the design philosophy.
I think when it comes to carbon, it's profile, thickness, and carbon orientation that control both strength and compliance. The thicker bead walls definitely give greater strength and stiffness against rock strikes. Thin them out for compliance but they won't be as strong.
Dustin Adams did a good podcast with Downtime, and he actually discusses these exactly. Have you listened to it? If not, I'd say it's definitely worth tuning in for.
Absolutely no concerns with durability so far, I've not been light on these wheels. 'Knowing' how tough the wheels are has helped my riding, its certainly opened up more of the trail for me.
Mind you i'll take strength and durability first if I have to chose.
The benefit most useful benefit I think is not flatting from a dented aluminum rim, which I've done countless times and can be the most annoying thing out on the trail..I've cracked two rear carbon "trail" rims...I'm eager to try a a much burlier carbon rim.
Lastly, what's with the smart ass Swiss Cheese response?
Cheers Warren!
Like, they seem like nice enough guys with a vision of what they want to accomplish but how can i as a customer be sure they rooted out all of the previous structures responsible for the crappy products?
Just a new CEO or lead designer/engineer won't cut it if the shareholder still ask for unnecessary "innovation".
At this point, with quite some water down the river, i slowly believe to be able to notice a change in their products, but i'm still hesitant to buy.
If they had released those things under a different brand name i don't think the negative associations would have prevailed as long.
Pretty stoked to see US made hubs in the mix here too. the P321 hubs are pretty spot on.
I know it's almost become accepted lore in the past few years, with manufacturers even apparently getting on board now, but I'm not convinced it's anything more than myth.
I totally get it, I even believed it myself at first. It seems logical that tighter spokes should create a stiffer wheel, but the more I think about it, the more I start to doubt my initial gut feeling. There are so many variables involved that it's incredibly hard to work out in my head what goes on in a wheel when it is impacted, but I find it very hard to ignore the fact that according to very well accepted and understood physics, the amount of tension on a spoke should not affect spoke stretch during an impact at all. This implies that spoke tension should have absolutely no effect on wheel stiffness, however a full wheel is a much more complicated system than a single spoke, and as I say there are too many variables for me to confidently get my head round.
I'd love to see an article on it by PB. With real life timed runs vs. lab tests vs. theory etc. I think it would be really interesting to see this idea really explored properly, rather than just kinda passed down through rumours and fokelore.
However if I were shopping today I'd probably buy this product. I agree with and like CB's position specific tensioning, width, and thickness.
I would like to see them push the price down about $400 for the premium product for consumer direct purchases.
CF rims ,mostly break cause guys run too low of air pressure. And those that don't run low air pressures and break them would break anything and need a tire noodle. I'm not some super rad rider or very heavy but any less than 24/ 28 psi and something is breaking, and usually on the very next ride.
Every Crank bros product I've owned, every one I've ever even seen has failed in an utterly stupid manner. From pedals, wheels, headsets, dropper posts (come on, who can say "crank bros" and "dropper" in a sentence and not laugh?), even their freaking tools break. Easily, and for no apparent reason.
Lifetime warranty? Yeah, that's a start. But given the brand baggage, I'd need a second set of wheels so I have something to ride while they're warrantying them. Given their history, I'd expect to make use of that warranty at least once a year.
Having had the opportunity to spend some time with the CB crew, I know they are in good hands with the right direction from the CEO down. They were able to give me good answers to my tough questions and every one on the team are well aligned
I will disclose that CB did wine and dine me during the press launch event for these wheels, and they did provide me with a set of the wheels to test at home. I'm not so easily bought though, and I don't ever anticipate I'll be in the market for a $1000usd wheelset let alone a $2400usd wheelset. So I believe I can be quite objective
They're saying a lot of the right things with this wheelset, but they'd have to lower the price - by at least half, before it would be worth it (to me) to take that risk with a company with that track record.
Now that compliance and recycling is so important. Also, no issues nowadays with rim brakes on shiny chrome rims
However, what's up with this?
secure.utah.gov/bes/details.html?entity=10481188-0142
F*cking punctuation, people!
m.pinkbike.com/news/greg-williamsons-totally-carbon-unno-ever-bike-check.html
Been running protos and testing these wheels the whole season
This only works out to a bit over $3000CAN.
So I could get one (1) set of these wheels or around four (4) (?) of alum rims?
Options. Options. What to do?
F: e13TRS+
R: e13TRSr carbon
I've loved the results and sense wondered why companies didn't sell this as a package for sub $1k. I feel like a lot of people would jump on the combo and the Dentists would scoop up all the remaining carbon front wheels.
If only they had a 26" version I would send them a cheque right now
For the record my only problems have been that they used too heavy of an oil in the freehub (i have the light action silent ones) so the pawls started skipping after a month or so. And having to manually adjust the preload cap every once in a while to keep the thing from shaking side to side feels dumb when none of my other hubs have needed me to do that.
I've been able to speak to someone knowledgable immediately both times i've called them, so I can't corroborate that one
Compliance: the property of a material of undergoing elastic deformation or (of a gas) change in volume when subjected to an applied force. It is equal to the reciprocal of stiffness.
And to think, we all wanted carbon wheels because they were stiffer and didn't flex as much as aluminum. A flexy front wheel seems unpredictable and sketchy, go loosen up your front spokes and tell me I'm wrong? Maybe I'm over thinking the marketing hype. And along with that, show us these failures that aren't catastrophic so to speak, when another wheel would have grenaded to oblivion.
com·pli·ant
kəmˈplīənt/Submit
adjective
adjective: compliant
1.
inclined to agree with others or obey rules, especially to an excessive degree; acquiescent.
"good-humored, eagerly compliant girls"
2.
PHYSICS•MEDICINE
having the property of compliance.
My Stans flow mk3's on hope pro 2's are still going fine, thanks.
if you are running cheap ass chinesium carbon, then yeah, you are f*cked. Buy better shit.
yeah, brah.....I can f*cking tell.
My personal opinion is that people need to stop thinking they have the same needs as EWS racers, unless you race of course. Regular riders need equipment that is cheap to replace, is durable and works in all conditions.