Industry Nine, which has been running carbon rims on their own premium level mountain bike wheels is no stranger to partnering with Reynolds. Their first carbon rim wheels were using Reynold’s XC rims, and I9’s current carbon MTB rims are made for them in Reynold’s U.S. factory.
Now, the relationship is going the other way, too, as Reynolds announces that all of their BLACKLABEL mountain bike wheels will be built using Industry Nine’s U.S. made hubs. That’s a big departure from the DT Swiss 240s used when the BLACKLABEL series debuted in early 2014. The new I9 hubs are a custom design just for Reynolds with a Centerlock rotor mount, but will use the Asheville, NC, brand’s well known Torch 6-pawl internals.
The original XC, TR and AM wheels all carried a $2,400 price tag. With the new “Reynolds Straight Pull Hubs by I9”, the price changes to $2,500, but there’s much more to them than just new hubs…
The I9 internals provide 3° of rotation for ultra quick engagement. Those parts, the shell, and everything else to do with the hubs is made in Asheville.
The wheels will ship with QR endcaps and 15mm front/12×142 rear end caps, plus a CenterLock to 6-bolt adapter.
All but the 27.5+ rims are asymmetric, and all of them are now hookless. That’s done to reduce the chance of impact damage and ease tire installation. They’re manufactured to the ETRTO standard, which they say will also improve tire compatibility across the board. The asymmetry keeps spoke tension more even for a stronger wheel. They use bladed spokes, which they say provides better wheel compliance.
Models, weights and specs are:
- Trail 29er: 1,545g – 25mm internal width – 28/28 spokes
- Trail 27.5: 1,525g – 25mm internal width – 28/28 spokes
- Enduro 29er: 1,585g – 28mm internal width – 28/28 spokes
- Enduro 27.5: 1,565g – 28mm internal width – 28/28 spokes
- 27.5 Plus: 1,625g – 40mm internal width – 28/28 spokes
All wheels are $2,500 except the Plus wheelset, which is $2,600 (Euro pricing is €2,273 and €2,364, respectively). The 27.5+ wheel set will only come with Boost hub spacing for aftermaket. All wheels start shipping in December in limited numbers, more coming early next spring.
The wheels will all get bright colors out of the box, but you’ll be able to order sticker kits aftermarket to match it to your bike. Prices and colors are TBD, but there’ll be four for each wheelset.
They’re also developing an 80mm wide carbon rim for Borealis that’ll be shown in September and will be built with the new I9 hubs.
Across both road and mountain, the Stratus Pro wheels are the only aftermarket alloy wheels that will stay in the line. There are no more alloy mountain bikes wheels, and the Stratus are on the high end of the scale. Why? They’re focused on the high end of the aftermarket only now.
The 46 Aero carbon wheels get a new disc brake version that stretches rim width to 19mm internal, sitting at 26.2mm external. In making the change, they removed the outside Step Hook, an aerodynamics enhancing feature that becomes less valuable when running wider tires, which they say a lot of riders are using on this wheel. It also had the side benefit of shaving a bit of weight, too. wheelset weight is 1,625g.
