Santa Cruz Bicycles

Reserve 37 27.5 Dt Swiss Boost Wheelset

When Santa Cruz decided to enter the carbon wheel game, they set out to make the strongest carbon rim on the market using the years of cumulative carbon expertise under their belts. They then blew people's minds by offering a lifetime warranty on the rim for good measure. The newest addition to their burly Reserve lineup is the Reserve 37 27.5 Dt Swiss Boost Wheelset, offering a wider 37mm internal width to properly support the higher volume trail and plus-sized tires becoming increasingly popular due to the extra compliance and gobs of traction they provide on loose rocks and blown-out trails. Santa Cruz recommends running tires in the range of 2.5 to 3.0-inches in width, so you'll have optimal tire footprint without deforming a wider tire into an overly bulbous shape by squeezing it onto a narrower rim.

This particular wheelset enjoys the unrelenting stiffness and strength you've come to expect from Santa Cruz's Reserve line of carbon wheels. Santa Cruz designed them specifically to be some of the strongest carbon hoops on the market through extensive research of critical failure points, going so far as to completely overhaul the impact testing protocol used on traditional carbon rims. Instead of replicating the pothole-like impact test of traditional carbon wheels, Santa Cruz developed their very own testing procedure that simulates one-sided impacts that normally occur when a rider lands on a square, protruding rock after getting airborne or carrying momentum into a rock garden.

Once they redesigned the testing protocol to better simulate these square-edge hits, Santa Cruz began to find the leading carbon wheels from many manufacturers not only broke along the expected bead, but they also failed along the spoke nipple interface, due to the increase in spoke tension as the wheel flexed upon impact. To mitigate these breakage issues, Santa Cruz beefed up the rim bead, increasing its thickness by one millimeter along each side for improved resiliency when you're thrashing the living hell out of these wheels. The design engineers at Santa Cruz then fortified the spoke holes with square-shaped reinforcements you can visibly see, which protect the spoke nipples from suddenly pulling through due to harsh impact.

This set of Reserve 37's comes laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs. We're big fans of DT Swiss hubs for a number of reasons, the main one being their bomproof ratchet drive system that's more durable that a typical pawl-style hub and can be upgraded with higher tooth count ratchet rings for faster hub engagement. The ratchet system is easy to service, elegant in its simplicity, and you'll never have to worry about a broken pawl seizing your hub. Not only that, but DT Swiss uses high quality sealed bearings with outstanding longevity. The hubs are available with both Shimano and SRAM XD freehubs, as well as standard end caps or torque end caps (compatible only with Rockshox forks).