American Classic 29″er Wheels: Out Of The Box

Note: This is the first post from “c_g” with regards to this wheel set.

ON TEST – AMERICAN CLASSIC MTB 29er tubeless wheel set
Reviewed by c_g

The American Classic 2010 line has been something I always had been wanting to review – I first saw their new design at EUROBIKE´09 and was amazed about all the little details on this wheel set (more on that further down). Now is the chance to review these wheels in their 29er XC/Trail version. This complements nicely the testing of the new SCHWALBE 29er tires. After having been on the GEAX tubulars for most of the late spring and early summer it will be very interesting to be riding this combination now.
And for those, who might be wondering – since my last post on the SCHWALBE tires, the weather had changed and we got the warmer drier side of things. (I don´t usually believe nagging is a good thing but here it helped)

Visually alone the AMERICAN CLASSIC wheels are a huge departure from the understated, all black tubular wheels. All of a sudden the word “Understatement” seems to be miles away when attributing the Stambek Classic – these wheels do turn every bike into a looker. Whether they are your piece of cake or not is purely your decision.
The AC wheels do come in two designs: “Alphatype White”, which is a seriously labelled white rim (on test) and the black and white “Crest Black” – both being more on the “extroverted” side.

But American Classic´s president & founder Bill Shook, wouldn’t be what he is (engineer and techno geek) if the wheels were only special for their looks: So let´s have a short intro to what technical ideas and engineering features went into these new wheels:

Rims: The wheels feature high performance tubeless ready rims with a moderate 26mm width, which places them right in the middle between XC and AM/Trail rims. AC claims (and I believe this) that this larger cross section allowed the rim to be stiffer yet lighter. The tubeless ready rims come pre-taped with 25mm tape and valves in 32 holes only. Their specific dimensions and cross section with slightly higher than usual central groove (to assist inflation), the almost flat rim shoulders, a special bead hook design and the slightly raised inner section of the shoulders to positively lock the tire´s bead even when riding at low pressures, are what makes them tubeless ready. While being common to several newer generation tubeless ready beads these features need meticulous manufacturing and execution to really work in practice. More on this in the next post.

Spokes / Nipples: The wheels are built with black 14/15 gauge steel spokes in a 3 cross pattern. The easy to get standard dimensions of the spokes make replacement and trail repairs much more simple – a thing commonly criticized on pre-built wheel sets. A nice feature is that one spoke leading to the valve is white (see first picture), which actually makes valve identification a whole lot easier (Not that it usually is sooo hard to find but it might save you from scanning the rim for the valve stem – additionally the area around the valve is highlighted and even says “valve” on it).

One really trick component not even to be seen, are the American Classic nipples. These are different than normal nipples. They do not stop at the head but protrude some more on the distal side. This is the section where the bigger part of the thread is located – thus stressing the spoke not on tension but on compression. Great and simple solution to a common problem of alloy nipples!! The only drawback to this design is that it requires a deeper rim design, but that is met with the 23.5 mm depth of the American Classic rims, no problem.

HUBS: The hubs are American Classic´s own design again – the Disc 130 front hub and the Disc 225 rear hub; both numbers stating the hub´s actual weight – since they came built into a wheel I choose to simply believe them. The hubs are a brightly anodized in red in either version – a really nice match for a lot of bikes. The hubs use the 6 bolt IS interface which again received some minute design: The direct contact area is slightly raised to allow the rotor to mount flat, and prevent warping while tightening. The raised post keeps the pressure equal across the mounting area to eliminate rotor flex. Both hubs are machined excessively on the flanges wherever it wouldn’t compromise their strength.

The DISC 130 front hub comes in 9 mm QR or 15mm thru axle options – a 20 mm option is not available in the wheel set but as separate hubs. It features a 17mm alloy axle and easily replaceable industrial stainless steel bearings (a ceramic upgrade is also available). The shell is forged and machined out of one piece of aluminum. Both flanges are heavily machined for weight saving.
It is super easy to access the bearings and replace or change the axle configuration – without any prior instruction or knowing the hub, it took me 5 minutes to swap from 15 mm thru axle (optional) to 9 mm QR (standard) – all you need is two 19 mm flat wrenches.

The Disc 225 rear hub comes in one version only – a standard 135 mm width, 9 mm QR. It also runs on a 17 mm axle.
One of the many genuine features on the rear hub is the one piece forged 7075 aluminum cassette body with steel inserts / attachments to prevent galling and tearing of the cassette body. Bill Shook simply added a couple of narrow steel inserts running along the full length of three splines, so that the tougher steel can take the stress while maintaining a lightweight cassette body. Let´s see how this design will hold up over time but the idea simply makes sense, doesn´t it.
Somewhat unusual to me was to see that AC keeps the non drive side hub flange further inward than on other hubs I have used. I talked to Bill Shook about this and the reason behind it is to balance the spoke tension on drive and non-drive side out more, keep the lightweight rim from being overloaded and creating the most stable high performance wheel possible. In this case stable is referred to less in terms of the ultimate lateral stiffness but creating a high performance wheel set that does have reserves for running strong and true for long. (This is the “light version” of Bill´s explanations ….)
Of course American Classic´s Bill Shook also designed his own engagement system – the “Six Pawl Cam Actuated Engagement System”. All six steel pawls are oversized and supposed to engage simultaneously under pedalling into the 24 toothed ratchet on the cassette body. Each steel pawl is double tipped for 12 points of engagement. Out of the box engagement felt nice and precise. Our mid European weather has a tendency to be hard on seals and freewheel designs so it will be interesting to see how it stands the test of time.

For further info see under www.amclassic.com with lots of further details, manuals and instructions.

So much for the introduction to this new wheel set on test – expect some first riding impressions soon.