Santa Cruz Bicycles Reserve 30 27.5in i9 Boost Wheelset

Whether you're sending after work laps with your crew, or halfway down your first run on race day, a broken wheel is a sure fire way to ruin a ride. Athletes at Santa Cruz, and casual riders alike, were ready for a wheel that could stand up to hard riding, and laugh in the face of square-edge bumps. When faced with the task of designing a carbon fiber rim, designers at Santa Cruz did not take things lightly. Impact resistance being a top priority, they spent years researching, developing, and abusing wheels before finally landing on a wheel that's as close to perfection as we've seen, the Santa Cruz Reserve 30 27.5in i9 Boost Wheelset. Built because other carbon fiber wheels on the market just couldn't hold up to their professional riders' needs, the Reserve 30's are nearly bombproof, thanks to meticulous carbon layups with precise and strategic engineering, top tier materials, and vicious product testing that goes beyond normal standards for strength.

To learn how to make a stronger wheel, Santa Cruz studied the breaking point of other wheels on the market. Through testing with their pro riders, their engineers determined that rims were breaking most frequently from spokes pulling through when rapidly tensioned under the flex of the wheel on serious impact, so focus was placed on increasing spoke-hole strength. Carbon was strategically added in square-shaped reinforcements around the spoke holes, which allows them to minimize the addition of extra material where it isn't needed so that it can be added in other areas where it is.

When rims weren't breaking from spokes pulling through, they were breaking from harsh square edge impacts. Santa Cruz tackled this weakness by strengthening both beads on the Reserve rim using the excess carbon saved by the optimized spoke hole reinforcement. The extra carbon fiber was added to both beads to extend their width massively on each side— nearly a full millimeter wider on each side than some of the competition, so that they can stand up to rough riding and seriously abusive conditions.

Lacing resilient rims up to a burly hub is the next logical step, so the Reserve's are paired with Industry 9's Torch hubs, which feature a nearly instantaneous 3-degree engagement for powering up and over trail obstacles with ease. Teflon shields and O-rings snap solidly onto the endcaps of the hubs, preventing trail debris and dust from compromising the wheel's characteristics over time.