We recently announced the arrival of a pair of Sun Ringle’ Charger Pro 29″er wheels for review. Here is the detailed report and some visuals for you on these new 2010 models. The Charger Pro slots into the Sun Ringle’ line up as their Trail/All Mountain 29″er wheel set. It comes complete with end caps for QR, (installed out of the box), 15QR through axle, and 20mm through axle set ups. You also get Stan’s sealant, valve stems, and yellow sealant tape, (sealant tape installed out of the box) for a tubeless set up if you so desire. Let’s take a closer look….
The overall appearance of the wheels is pretty flashy. White rims with black and red graphics, red anodized alloy nipples, black spokes, and red anodized hubs that look like hard candy. Pretty nice job of anodizing here! With that said, these certainly won’t appeal to those looking for the “stealth black” or “classy all silver” looks. Interestingly, I heard from a few component manufacturers that were breaking away from the traditional black and silver anodized colors because they were boring and didn’t allow for a differentiation amongst competing products. For whatever that is worth, we have here a wheel set that makes a bold statement visually and lets everyone at the trail head know you’ve got some “bling” on yer rig, that’s for certain!
As stated in the introduction post, these wheels utilize Stan’s NoTubes “BST” rim design. “BST” stands for “Bead Socket Technology”. It is a design that lowers the rim bead, and shortens and lowers the “hook” that a clincher rim would have in favor of a “bead socket”. The idea being that with the rim/tire contact area being moved from the chafer strip above the tire bead in a traditional clincher set up to a point where the tire bead and rim socket meet in a Stan’s design allows for better tubeless performance, and a more secure tire/rim interface. The tire can “open up” and act more like a tubular tire. That’s the theory in a nutshell, anyway.
The big difference between the Stan’s rims and this Sun Ringle’ offering is that the Charger Pro features single eyelets and a more angular, deeper profile than Stan’s rims do. This should allow for a stronger spoke/rim interface and the rim is designed for lateral stiffness and to be able to deal with the rigors of All Mountain type riding. As in many pre-builts, the Sun Ringle’ Charger Pros have a bit fewer spokes than standard wheel sets. These feature 28 Wheelsmith straight pull, double butted spokes in a cross three pattern. Interestingly the spokes do not “lace over” each other in this spoking pattern. Rather there is an inner set and outer set on each flange. I asked Sun Ringle’s Scott Boyd why the lacing pattern is the way it is and why straight pull spokes were used. He had the following to say about this:
“The direct pull designs allows for the hub to take the loads, not spokes. The direct pull spokes have proven to have greater lateral stiffness to the wheel than a traditional J-Bend spoke. If you do interlace the spokes with the direct pull design, the spokes will have an unwanted bend (more than a traditional hub). This will cause stress to spoke.”
The hubs, as I mentioned, are red- really red! The rear features an 6061 alloy cassette body with three pawls, a 24 tooth ratchet ring which yeilds 72 engagement points, and a 7075 aluminum axle that runs on four “EZO” bearings. The rear hub is convertible to 135 X 12mm and 142 X 12mm through axle standard by purchasing an aftermarket axle end cap kit for $20.00 USD a pair. The front hub also features the 7075 aluminum alloy axle with two “EZO” bearings.
Aftermarket Sun Ringle’ Charger Pro wheels come with everything you see here in the box, plus the rims have Stan’s yellow sealing tape pre-installed, all for MSRP $650.00.
The rest of the specs on these wheels are as follows…….
Wheel weight: Front 920gm Rear 1010gm
Rim width: Outer dimension: 28.00mm Inner Dimension: 22.80mm
Rim profile depth: 22.00mm
I’ll be setting up the Charger Pro wheels tubeless with some tires here shortly, mounting them to the Salsa Cycles Big Mama, and then riding them for a few rides before I come back with my First Impressions post. Stay tuned!
Note: The reviewed wheel set is being provided to Twenty Nine Inches at no charge for review. We are not being paid or bribed for this review. We will give our honest opinion or thoughts through out.
I’m really interested in these wheels and the XC version (Black Flag). I’m especially curious to know how they compare to a custom-built Hope Pro II/Stan’s Flow wheelset, given the similarity in price. I”m looking forward to the full review!
GTed,
do they offer aftermarket kit for 135 x 10 mm conversion of the rear hub too ?
Dt swiss RWS through-bolt would be great in the back.
Maybe you could give them a small hint…
I can’t find anyone selling these in my area. Online all I see are “Chargers” not the “Pro” version. Is there a difference?
just curious, the sun ringle website list the pro chargers wheelset weight as 1699? Just wanted to know if that is a typo or are you guys weighting them in a more real world fashion. These wheels really look like the cats meow for training and all around riding. BTW love your reviews and articles some of the best I have seen.
@Gilhooley: No, that isn’t offered, I am afraid. I have tried the DT Swiss RWS skewers and they are okay. Not sure they did much for the rear of the hardtail they were/are on, but an FS rig, now there is something interesting.
@WKilburg: Chargers are the 2009 and previous wheel sets. Charger Pro wheels are just getting out now. The difference is that the Pro wheels have the Stan’s No Tubes design for the rim, the Chargers do not. The hubs are really different too.
@Rcotrell: You probably got the 26″er wheel weight. The 29″ers weigh closer to 2000 grams, as I have listed here in the post.
They seem kind of narrow for an AM rim. Does the deeper rim offer greater volume?
@Willie: Well, the only other choices would be a Velocity P-35 and the Salsa Gordo @ 35mm wide, and Kris Holm rims. 28mm wide is a pretty standard width for AM rims. (Stan’s, Bontrager) and XC widths are usually 23-24mm wide. The “super wide” stuff like the Gordo and P-35 haven’t caught on with many companies yet. That may prove to be a better width at some point, but I have seen several negative comments relating to how some folks do not like what these super wide rims do to tires. The contention being they are too wide and 28mm is “just right”.
Oh yeah……………I should also add the Sun Ringle’ MTX33 rims to the wide rim list as well. 🙂
Wow, I thought everybody thought “wider is better”, at least with tire widths. With wide rims is there less tire sidewall to absorb cush. Sorry, I keep getting rim ID and OD confused. Any weight limit on the wheels? Also if 28 spokes are good, wouldn’t 32 be bomb proof?
@Willie: I lament the seemingly standard use of less spokes on most pre-built wheels. These companies will all tell you that their testing shows a wheel with “such and such” spoke count is “as stiff or stiffer” than a 32 spoked wheel of standard make.
The trouble with that statement, and others like it, is that you can get a pretty nominally built 32 spoke wheel with a noodly rim and then sure- any pre-built with a quality parts list will stand a chance against it. However; you have to wonder how any of these would fare against a wheel built by a reputable wheel builder using high and balanced spoke tensions. 😉
And there are those that will tell you that 36 hole rims and builds are the only way to achieve “bomber reliability”.
As for the Charger Pros, we’ll see how they hold up. I was not told that there was a weight limit on these, by the way.
Do you have experience with the Sun Ringle Black Flag Pro’s? I’m in a toss up between these two at the moment but can’t find enough rider info on the two to see if there is a justifiable expense between the Chargers or Black Flag. Great review BTW! Very helpful!
Oops! Meant to post this comment elsewhere!