Editor’s Note: “c_g”, our European correspondent, has updated us on the FRM 29er rims – XMD 388 29er model, and has filed this report:

After some 2 months of riding and a lot of great trails – my experiences with the FRM XMD 388 29er rims
First of all the first bummer for all you US folks – as I was informed by FRM: The rims will not be sold on the US market!
Once more my recommendation: Make friends with some Euro rider!! We might be slow in catching on to the 29er movement, but indications are that we are getting the taste for it, developing and showcasing European products. And why should we always be the ones ordering stuff from overseas?
Why do I still bother to publish the test here after all? Well, there are many readers from Europe interested in news about 29ers also.

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But now to the test report and some more info on the FRM rims – here we go with the build of the wheels – it consisted of:
• DT-Swiss 240s front hub, a XTR rear hub,
• the known FRM XMD 388 29er rims and
• Sapim´s top of the line CX-ray spokes plus alloy nipples.

All in 32 holes and 3-cross laced – nothing else will do for my weight and riding style, well maybe it would but I just like them this way.
Personally I find the building of a wheel something I want to get over with as quickly as possible – I want to ride the stuff! But anytime you get sloppy with building you pay double with wobbling or weak wheels. So I spent some time to get them laced, trued and equally tensioned the right way.

Building a wheel set tells you a something about the components used and so it was here with these wheels. The hubs, spokes and nipples were known to me from builds in the past so my attention was set to the rims. They held what I had anticipated, build easily, set up straight from the beginning and … it was amazing how well the asymmetric shape of the rims helped to achieve higher spoke tension on both the brake side (front) and drive side (rear) which leads to a more even spoke tension on the wheels and ultimately a stronger wheel (in theory) – a good thing!! (This became especially apparent when building up a wheel set with symmetric rims directly after).

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Once again I was pleased by the ease the CX-ray spokes (with the bladed centre sections) were installed and crossed – a pleasure to build and were there not the benefits of equal strength to lower weight compared to butted spokes – I would still get them for the easy set up and sleek look … but they are pricey.
Other than that the build was straight forward and without anything worth mentioning. In the end I had some stealthy looking (almost) all black wheels that weighed exactly 1720 g (incl. skewers) – not bad, hmmm?.

The tubeless conversion was done with the FRM white tape and the FRM valve stems.
1, Some inches of tape over the valve hole
2, Tape the full rim overlapping double at the valves.
3, Punch the valves through and tighten the lock ring …. Done

(Ok, in reality you have to take care to have the rims clean & grease free, to pull the tape with some force along the rims, get it to settle without bubbles, … but I guess many know the deal … and it gets easier every time you do it)
Being an aficionado of tubeless ready tires I decided to go differently with this wheel set and tried the Continental Race King folding tires on the FRM rims and voila … they mounted by hand, sealed effortlessly the first time with a floor pump and had a nice tight fit on the rims once seated. (I must admit: Later on the tires did not seal so easily anymore – a thing I attribute to the bit of stretch on the beads. It is not build to be used tubeless after all!!. But to the tires defense, they never burped or failed on me when running on the FRM 388s).
Later on I tried my beloved GEAX TNT tires and they were by far harder to mount (2 strong levers and some experience are recommended) and – surprise, surprise … sealed and seated perfectly fine.

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Riding the wheels: The first few hundred kilometers I was running the wheels switching back and forth from SS to geared set up. Coming from comparable wheels with the ZTR 355 I felt at home right away – the dimensions and weight are almost identical – but the wheels definitely felt stiffer under side loads or hard cornering. I am convinced this increase in lateral stiffness came from the rims´ asymmetric cross section, leading to slightly different spoke/rim angles and overall higher spoke tension. It didn’t achieve the steering precision of a wide rim All Mountain wheel set but it was noticeable to me.

Earlier I was commenting on the eloxal finish of the rims that I suspected to be prone for scratching – but time showed it is no more than any other such surface of other components. The matte surface is prone to attracting dust and dirt, though and does not easily get freed of it. With no clear coating or finishing surface atop the eloxal it is not so easy to get them spanking clean – nothing bad as it is a common trait of any such surface but for those of you loving the “new bike look”, it takes just a bit more effort.

Over the last weeks I have used and sometimes abused the wheels, had quite a few times hitting rocks and roots when pushing too hard or riding too low pressures but so far the wheels have stayed true. They were a pleasure to use – almost a “ride and forget” item – the ones I like the most.

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Verdict: After now almost 2 months on the wheels I can only give positive feedback on the rims. They are nothing breakthrough or extraordinary … more like a positive evolution from the known products. If some of you are still holding the FRM design as a rip off from the “original” Stan´s beware: Though equal in dimensions, weight and tubeless performance to its NoTubes competitor, I felt a real benefit in the FRM XMD 388 29er in terms of wheel strength and stiffness from the asymmetrical rim shape.

Talking about performance: They are easily converted to tubeless by most any tape (+ valve) system for many different tires. Like other tubeless ready rims, the FRM XMD 388 39er rims are designed with converting folding bead tires in mind, rather than tubeless ready tires. The resulting somewhat higher central groove does help the initial seal of the folding bead tires but when mounting tubeless / tubeless ready tires some riders are faced with a challenging task.
Why that is? Hmm, I think it has almost historical reasons: many tire manufacturers are referring their tubeless tires to Mavic´s infamous open source UST standard while the beginning of tubeless ready rims was always co-driven by weight savings, making the lighter folding bead tires their preferred targets. Ohh. how I wish for the day when tire and rim manufacturers would sit together and decide upon one standard dimension for each size …. OK – I know sometimes I get carried away by optimism….

Though I still consider the US world leading in 29er stuff, it sure feels good to start having a Euro based alternative in some componentry. For us here the retail price of € 78.- for the 29er (26er: € 69.-) makes these rims more affordable than the Notubes alternative (mostly due to duty and taxation). For the US rider willing to order from Europe it will be just the other way around. Long live the free trade!!! So in the end it looks like each rim will be serving a its own market.

Only the derailleur gearing was constantly bugging me (that´s why I have turned to SS on occasions) – and so I have taken a big breath and done something stupid:
After my testing period is done (and the next exiting rims waiting to be tested – don´t ask) I rebuilt the rear wheel with a Rohloff internal geared 14 speed hub (the one that keep on running without any service for years and years – better even than the Energizer bunnies) – but more on that build in some later report ….

Editor’s Note: It has come to my attention that the reason FRM rims of this sort are not available in the U.S. is because the inner rim well design of the XMD 388 infringes upon the patents for Stan’s NoTubes rims. In other words, it is a direct copy and not legal for sale in the U.S. Please be aware that any company trying to sell these to U.S. citizens would be in violation of this patent and subject to any laws that apply.