Editors Note: In our “Top Ten 29″er Products of ’08” series, these Edge Composites rims laced to American Classic hubs came in number 8. Then we sent them out to Grannygear in SoCal for some further testing. Here is his first report on them

First Impressions: Edge Composite 29er wheels – Increasing your carbon footprint.

Edge Carbon rims/American Classic hubs

Since Guitar Ted, being a citizen of the great state of Iowa, is in the middle of the 2008/2009 ice age, he was kind enough to send the Edge/American Classic wheels combo out west. Here we only allow 6 days of winter and they are scheduled to not interfere with runs to the Starbucks located on every other block. Priorities, ya’ know.

When I unpacked the box of wheels, they were wrapped in plastic. I picked up one of the wheels and thought, “that is a light front wheel”. It was the rear wheel. Oh…wow! I have to say that they are pretty cool looking. After years of the same shape rims either in polished or black anodized aluminum, the flat black, deep V rim is pretty stealth looking, although the Edge decals will let the world know what you are rolling on.

I was not too concerned about raw weights, etc, since GT had already covered all that. I wanted to see how they compared to the wheels I am using now with tires, tubes, etc, all ready to go. I am presently running a Stan’s Flow rim on Hope hubs, standard QR, with a butted spoke of some sort (used wheels). They are tubeless with the yellow strips and separate valve stems.

I had talked to GT about the possibilities of running the Edge rims tubeless. It seemed like it would need to be a ghetto conversion and I did not want to mess with that. Instead, I would run them the way the manufacturer intended. I mounted them with 26” tubes (I always use 26” tubes in any wheel that is not tubeless) and a spare set of Captain Controls/Eskars from the Specialized tire testing. I used the same QRs and the same cassette, basically stealing that stuff from the old wheels on the Lev. Disc rotors were comparable, all four being 160mm in size and pretty much the same in any other way. The difference in weight with no QRs and no Cassette was just less than 100g per wheel, with the feathery Edge rims and hubs overcoming the burlier looking Flow/Hope combo.

As a side note, the American Classic hubs have a nice, smooth feel to them and the pawl action is light, but crisp, more positive than a Shimano hub, but a Swiss watch compared to the draggy Hope hubs. I did notice that the flanges, although tall, are spaced slightly narrower than the Hope hubs. Typically, as far as hub flanges go, wider is better for a stiffer wheel build.

Mounting the tubes and tires was a bit like wrestling a snake, since putting a 26” tube into a 29er rim/tire combo is kind of a dance. I noticed right away that the presta valve was barely visible out of the rim, but Edge supplies little tube-like extenders that provide the needed length for airing up. They screw onto the presta valve and stay in place. Is this good or? Well, frankly it was kind of a pain in that there is some fiddling involved in getting the tube-y thingy into the hole and over the valve, threading it on without also closing the presta valve, etc. But the biggest thing in my mind is what if you lose the extender? Bummer. Are there long stem 26” tubes out there? Maybe…never needed one before…but if so, you would be about the only guy in a given group ride to be needing one, I would bet. Better carry the extenders as well as the special long stem tube.

Editor’s Note: The valve extender idea will not be a foreign concept to triathletes, or roadies, but that said, it is rare in mountain biking. Cane Creek used to sell some wheels that required the valve extenders that I used in my 26″er days. In my experience, I did not find them to be any trouble, but Granny is right, if you lose one, you are stranded.

The tires are a loose fit, better than the DT Swiss 7.1TK rims on the SS Monkey, but nowhere near the secure bead fit on the Stan’s Flows. Also, they are kinda’ narrow. I lost over a ¼ inch in casing width on the front Captain Control compared to the tubeless Flow combo. In fact, I still have not gotten the tires to seat evenly on the rim and both tires are dipping and diving as I look down while riding. I need to deflate and fiddle with that some more.

Now, all that done, how are they on the trail? Well, that will be the task over the next bit of time. Are they all that and more? So far, one ride is not enough to know too much, but they do feel very zippy. What does zippy mean exactly? Exactly, I am not sure. But I felt like momentum was easy to initiate and maintain. Entering and exiting sharp corners and transitions was very snappy. I could not feel the wheels giving me anything but what I asked for. I did feel the tire/wheel combo deflect a couple of times over obstacles, but I bet that was the narrower rim allowing the tire to roll a bit on the rocks. That was one thing I noticed right away when I went to the wider Flow rims. The straighter sidewall a wider rim allows is nice for a bigger rider running lower tire pressures.

I will run them for a while and then switch back and forth to the other wheels and see if I can tell the difference. Since I am coming from a pretty good set of wheels, I may not see the difference as much as a rider who swaps to the Edge rims from a lesser wheelset. But at the cost of this wheelbuild, I can only imagine that the target market will already be on some pretty nice rolling stock and will be considering these as an ultimate race day wheel that can feel very fast and yet take the abuse of a heavier rim.

For now, I am rolling fast and happy. Will I stay that way? Time will tell. Stay tuned.