FSW3 - A classic, reborn

There aren't that many venues where something born 6 years ago could be reborn as a classic, but bike wheels sure is one of them. Then, the carbon craze had barely yet begun, 23mm tires were "wide," HED was about the only company effectively talking about using wider internal rim widths (and "only" 18mm at that), a handful of races had small gravel sections, there simply was no tubeless road, 120psi was a thing, and disc brakes were solely for mountain bikes. Heck, we didn't even have Garmins yet. And November had just launched with the FSW as a centerpiece product. With a 27mm deep and 19mm (external) wide rim, and your choice of the latest in 10 speed hubs (11 if you were on Shimano), the original FSW was a perfect fit for racers and general performance/enthusiast riders. 

 

Screeching into the present tense, rims are wider than ever, disc wheels no longer mean "time trial bike wheels" but "disc brake wheels," everyone's on 11 speed, front derailleurs are on the endangered list, 23mm tires are so 6 years ago, electronic shifting is all the rage... and still no Jetsons flying cars. Dissapointment. 

A few updates, another gear...

BUT, the FSW is back! Still the best value in everything you really want for your paved to "not-quite-singletrack-yet, really" riding, they're strong, stiff, wide, light, fast, pretty, and tubeless ready. Based, as the original FSW was, on Kinlin rims, Sapim spokes, and Novatec hubs, they're the same handbuilt value they were then, only we're six years better at doing this. 1515g for 20/24 in rim brake, and 1675g for 24/28 in disc brake. 

Centerlockerific

The rim specs are similar for both rim and disc builds. 31mm deep, 24mm wide (19 inside), and tubeless ready (though of course easy to use with tubes if that's your thing). The disc rims are offset in order to equalize spoke tension between one side of the wheel and the other. And they're finished in a lust inducing satin sandblast finish.

The hubs use the very effective Anti-Bite Guard to keep cassette body chewing to a minimum, use upgraded Japanese made (EZO) bearings, and the disc hubs are available in all appropriate axle formats.For those of you wishing to upgrade to the ever lovely and popular White Industries T11 or CLD hubs, that's also an option. All hubs are 11 speed compatible, and Shimano/SRAM drive hubs include spacers for use with 8/9/10 speed.

The spokes are black (always a primary concern for a lot of people) Sapim CX Rays, with the very slightly heavier gauge CX Sprint on the disc side of the disc front, and the drive side of both rears. Nipples are black Wheelsmith brass, the best nipples we've ever found. Lacing is 24/28 2x everywhere for disc, and your choice of 20/24 or 24/8 radial front and 2x/2x rear. Appropriate rider weight max for disc is 215. For 20/24 it's 185, and for 24/28 it's 220 (as always, those are just guidelines based on one important factor). 

Tubeless tape is included and installed, and skewers are included in rim brake builds. 

 

Who you callin' offset?FSW3 and FSW3 Disc wheelsets are now available and shipping. Pricing starts at $575 for November by Novatec rim brake builds, $735 for WI rim brake builds. Disc builds start at $595 with November by Novatec hubs, $780 for WI CLD builds. 

And yes, the whole wide wide world of everything else is still available as custom builds, at our always customer-friendly pricing.

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21 comments

Oh and the 24/28 either offset rear or not is a great build for you at 205.

Dave

Hi Big Ed -We can do a normal XR31T in their normal shiny finish with offset rear as a custom build (with these graphics), but we didn't get any offset rears for rim brakes with the special finish. We need to have the 24h rims do double duty as fronts and rears or else inventory gets hairy. Offset is nice, and in the case of the disc build where there's just one lacing option (and both are offset anyway) it's easy to deal with, but it's far from a necessity. We've never had problems with too-loose non-drive side spokes on symmetrical rears.Dave

Dave Kirkpatrick

Dave,Are you building with the offset rear wheel for a rim brake? And would that be a good idea for a rider who goes about 205? Nice look on the graphics too.

BigEd

Child, please. I was racing road tubeless in 2008. (I'll be in touch about some disc wheels.)

Bryan Redemske

Good question. No, because there's an entity of the brand here in the case of the hubs, and because both the hubs and rims are established products generally sold here and are not our proprietary products. So many fine tooth comb questions we've gone through with insurance people. The branding (layering your logo on something) is meaningless in terms of making it proprietary (although don't tell that to about 47 bike wheel companies that claim otherwise!)

dave

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