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Rolf rolls out long awaited Mountain Bike wheels for 2012: Ralos6 and Ralos9

Ralos9_setRalos9 Pictured
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Ralos9_set
Ralos9 Pictured

Rolf Prima is know for making high quality road wheels for your two wheeler.  New for 2012 they are expanding their lineup to include a 26″ and a 29″ mountain bike wheel aptly named the Ralos6 and the Ralos9.  The intended use is XC, and the wheels will come tubeless reedy with rim tape and a valve installed.  The tubeless technology used is that of Stan’s NoTubes.   The hubs are a custom design worked up with partner White Industries, and the wheels will use Rolf’s signature paired spoke design.

Watch the release video.

For another image, as well as the full press release head on past the jump.

ralos9 - glamor
Ralos9 Pictured

EUGENE, Oregon, August 2, 2011

Rolf Prima releases Mountain bike wheels

Eugene, OR – Long known for their road wheels, Rolf Prima has released their long awaited Ralos9 and Ralos6 mountain bike wheels for 2012. The wheels, named in honor of Ralos, the ancient god of single track, are available in a 26” and 29”. The XC Ralos wheel sets feature tubeless ready rims and Rolf Prima’s hallmark lower spoke counts, using 24 spokes in both the front and rear wheel.  As with all Rolf Prima wheels, the Ralos6 and Ralos9 are hand built in Eugene, Oregon.

Continuing their focus on top flight US partners and their long partnership with White Industries, Rolf Prima worked with White to create custom hubs for the Ralos models. They also went to the industry leader in tubeless rim technology.  “Working with Stans NoTubes industry leading tubeless technology was a no-brainer, “ said Rolf Prima’s head engineer Joel Wilson. “Both the Ralos6 and Ralos9 are built using Stans’ tubeless system and come tubeless ready“.

“It’s been requested for years and it has been a long time in the making. The Ralos line is something we’ve been working on for a while” said Marketing head Brooke Bauer. “Anyone can put together a mountain bike wheel, but if it was going to carry our name we wanted to make sure we had it dialed”.

The Ralos6 and Ralos9 will retail for $899 a set and start shipping in late September. Both the Ralos6 and Ralos9 will come standard with steel QR’s or optional 15mm thru axle and will be shipped taped and with a valve to be tubeless ready.

 

 

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Will
Will
12 years ago

looks flexy!

Varaxis
Varaxis
12 years ago

Here comes the flood of speculative comments based on looks. Can’t criticize until you ride it, IMO.

2 year warranty on defects. http://www.rolfprima.com/techinfo-warranty.php

The don’t list any rider weight limit, since they believe their wheels should be ridden responsibly and that you should pick the right wheel for how hard you are on your wheels.

Info: http://www.rolfprima.com/faq.php

Weight: Ralos9: 1635gm set
Weight: Ralos6: 1540gm set
Spoke: Round Butted 24F/24R
Rim: 22mm alloy tubeless, 25mm width.
Stans NoTubes compatible
Hubset: Disc brake with steel freehub body
Freehub: Shimano/SRAM

The “release video” is a waste of time. Don’t bother clicking it.

Will
Will
12 years ago

Oh I’m just having fun.
.
Then again, for my weight and riding style, they probably ARE flexy.

But then so are most all XC race wheels.

NoName
NoName
12 years ago

Wait, so essentially they’ve laces Stans Flow Rims to White Industry hubs with aluminum nipples and a dumb lacing pattern? Rip.

craigsj
craigsj
12 years ago

“Here comes the flood of speculative comments based on looks. Can’t criticize until you ride it, IMO.”

That’s right, everything must be trial and error. No one ever has relevant experience.

Robin
Robin
12 years ago

Relevant experience would be experience on that model of wheels, because not all paired spoke wheels perform identically. Even within a brand, the different models do not necessarily perform necessarily identically or even similarly. There’s nothing in the picture that provides any information about that wheel’s performance.

Byron
Byron
12 years ago

Paired spokes looks really weird with a knobbly tyre. Have any other company’s done a paired spoke MTB wheel?

Gillis
12 years ago

@ Bryon
I believe Rolf has the patent on the paired spoke design. I could be wrong though because Velocity does a paired spoke road wheel (The Spartacus…no relation to Fabian).
It could be argued that the Crank Brothers wheel sets are something of a paired spoke design, but drastically different in almost every way.

Robin
Robin
12 years ago

I don’t know the patent status, but Rolf Dietrich didn’t “invent” paired spokes. They’ve been around a long time…and were are around a long time before Rolf was even born. See the pics for proof:

http://www.phsc.ca/bicycle2/041020-2028-56.jpg

http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/bhariellg.jpg

There’s no performance advantage to paired spokes, and Rolf wheels don’t lead their class in low weight or in aero drag. That’s not to say they perform poorly, but paired spokes certainly don’t solve any confounding technical issues.

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