AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain Tubeless 29″er wheels – Tubeless Characteristics and Ride Impressions and Mid-Term: by c_g
Here we are – just before the fun of Eurobike begins…. the AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain 29″er wheels are the last in the trio of new wheels we have on test here at TNI Europe.
For those in need to fresh up on the wheel´s specs and technical features see (here). Like I have said before, the All Mountain tubeless wheels are basically the AMERICAN CLASSIC XC Tubeless wheels … with burlier rims. When asked why Bill Shook, the brain and head behind AMERICAN CLASSIC, spec’ed the same ultralight hubs for all AMERICAN CLASSSIC wheels, regardless of application – he replied that his “own in house testing has proven the AC hub design to be at least as durable as any other design out there”. Be sure that you will hear it if I should come across any peculiarities, but by my past experience with these hubs, I wouldn’t hold my breath 
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The AC XC wheels, which I had on test last year (see verdict here) have been one of my favorite 29″er XC wheels in that price range – they were light, had very good tubeless qualities (for all but the tightest tires) and held up fine for my riding. They are still being used by a friend, who is a strong and aggressive rider and they still hold up perfectly fine.
But now we have the All Mountains for review, so let´s see how they do so far?
Most component testing start with some shop work before we hit the trails. … let´s start with the TUBELESS CHARACTERISTICS:
Know that in my tubeless testing I mount and convert a full range of different tires on the test rims. The AMERICAN CLASSIC XC Tubeless wheels had been (just like NoTubes rims) designed to work best with standard folding or tubeless ready rims. The real UST and UST complying tires simply wouldn’t mount without lever assistance and of course were a pain to remove. NOT so my set of ALL Mountain rims. To my surprise, the tightest tires known to me, the GEAX UST and TNTs would mount by hand. Inflation here could be done with a hand pump (absolutely excellent!!). This makes the AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain 29″er Tubeless wheels the second standard built tubeless ready set I know of that can do this (the XC oriented WTB Stryker were the first ones – see here). Consequently other less tight fitting tires mount even easier but inflate harder. On most tubeless ready tires (SYNCROS Flavor, SPECIALIZED 2Bliss, SCHWALBE TLR, …) it either required a good burst from the compressor or the “string method” (see footnote) to get inflated.
Bill Shook let me in why this is: “The tire well on the AM rim is deeper than the XC. The rim outside diameter and the bead seat diameter and the barb shape are exactly the same on AM and XC. Because the tire well is deeper on the AM, you can install and remove the tire by hand. Because the tire well is deeper, the tire beads do not always catch air immediately when you inflate the tire.”
To check for positive bead locking those tires having a very tight bead (like GEAX TNTs) some soapy water was needed to get the bead fully seated, all others did with air pressure alone. Once I got any tire to catch air, ALL did create a very good bead lock and secure fit on the rim.
So basically the AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain wheels are superbly universal by mounting characteristics as one can mount every tire on the rims (very good) but inflation has become harder. Once inflated and seated every single tire worked just fine on the rims.
BUILD: Little surprise – the build is still top notch. The spoke tension is good and even throughout, the wheels are very true and all those little technical details that Bill designed into these wheels and make AMERICAN CLASSIC wheels special are all here (see tech intro here). One thing I always appreciate and never grow tired of emphasizing is that these complete wheels consist of individual parts that are all easy replaced if needed and don´t necessarily require AC specific parts and tools.
RIDE IMPRESSIONS – STIFFNESS & POWER TRANSFER: The AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain 29″er wheels are about 120 g heavier than its XC brother, with all of it coming from the rims. Those 60 g added rotational weight on every rim are hardly detectable in anything but XC racing but what sure is detectable is the great overall stiffness.
Gone is any lateral flex on the All Mountains, which I had seen in the XC version: These wheels ride razor sharp and very direct (… and a bit less comfortable on the hard tail, but that is compensated for by the larger tire’s air volume). Besides, when ridden in the intended application range most will either run them on a full suspension bike and/or with beefy tires anyway.
Initially they have been on my OS Blackbuck but are being ridden on a full suspension rig to really get pushed … part of it included a long vacation with serious alpine riding.
One more thing – the rim width of 28 mm (outer width) does give very good tire support for low pressure tubeless riding and in the case of the currently ridden SYNCROS Flavors 2.2 does benefit the tire´s performance considerably.
HUBS: I have said it over and over that I find the AC hubs to be one of the best: They are very light (115 g front and 225 g rear), spinning nicely and are easily convertible to 15 mm front and (new for 2012) 142/12 mm in the rear. AC was kind enough to provide us with both kits to adapt to upcoming forks/frames we may receive. The only thing requiring a separate hub is a 20 mm front axle – but that one is available as well.
The six pawl simultaneous engagement system, steel reinforced alloy cassette body are further features I like much. But then again, these hubs are (near) identical to the ones on the XC wheels and I am really not expecting much negative to report on here.
MID TERM EVALUATION: So far the AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain tubeless 29″er wheels have been a positive surprise to me in that they would fit those super tight UST complying tires with the slight disadvantage of making inflation for looser fitting tires a bit harder.
By ride impressions it is evident that those wider and beefier rims (2 mm wider and 60 g/each heavier) have added a whole lot of stiffness and directness, while compromising acceleration and agility only by small amounts. I appreciate light weight with my riding gear but when it comes to reliability I don´t mind adding a few grams and with those AMERCAN CLASSIC All Mountain wheels I feel like I could tackle everything without wasting a second thought on durability … to me these are grams well invested.
Since I won´t be racing these wheels but use them on my technical rides and on epic touring trips this matters fairly little.
Aside: While the AMERICAN CLASSIC All Mountain 29″er wheels tested here represent the direction into more aggressive trail riding, we hear AC will be introducing a new design aimed at racing with both exceptional rigidity and lightweight. Be sure to hear from me in the course of my Eurobike coverage in the coming days.
RIDE ON,
c_g
Note – the tubeless conversion string method (as described by Bill Shook of AMERICAN CLASSIC): (After mounting the tire ..) “… take a strong piece of string, like nylon, and wrap it around the center of the tread of the tire. Tie the string, it does not need to be very tight around the tire. Now, take a stick or similar shaped object and insert it under the string and begin twisting the string to make it tight around the tire. This will cause the tire beads to spread open and contact the rim. Now the tire will catch air and begin to take pressure. You can let the string come off and finish pumping the tire to pressure. My personal favorite thing to use as a stick is a 5mm hex key (Allen key), because I can use the end to hook between the tire and string to hold it in position while I pump.”
c_g Nice report. One thing that confuses me is at one point you quote Bill Shook, “The tire well on the AM rim is deeper than the XC. The rim outside diameter and the bead seat diameter and the barb shape are exactly the same on AM and XC”
Then later you say, “it is evident that those wider and beefier rims (2 mm wider and 60 g/each heavier) “. How can the outside diameter (I assume by barb shape you mean bead hook shape) and the flange be the same but they are 2mm wider?
For your regular everyday hardtail or rigid riding, would you choice the AM or XC version(also assume that you are 92 kg.) Thanks!
Looking good! Do you know the inner width of the rim?
@yogi: That’s easy, really. Take a rim, cut in half. Add two millimeters in the middle, and magically fuse this together with the outer halves of the rim. (Admittedly, the last step is perhaps a bit difficult to pull off.
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You see, you have not altered the place where the tire bead would reside. (Hook, barb, outside diameter, bead seat diameter, etc), but you could deepen, make wider, or otherwise modify the space between the business ends of a rim. make sense now?
GT: Thanks for explaining.
Tough question on what I´d choose as that realy depends on your riding style, terrain and preference – my current answer would be something like this: If you intend to use the wheels for some racing action – go with the XCs; if you lean more towards agressive riding and primarily trail use – go for the AMs. … ask me that question again when the test is over
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Lars: The outer width is 28 as you know, the inner width is 23 mm.
@yogi, rigid? As far as I am concerned, deeper and/or wider is -always- better (especially on a rigid) so long as you can come to terms with the weight tradeoff.