Had to do it, sorry. We've fortunately got the opposite of a Panic! situation with discs. We've always sought to under-promise and over-deliver, which at times has caused us to have to do some very fancy dancing (see what I did there?) behind the scenes. This time, we've been guiding to a nebulous, milquetoast "this summer" or "sometime in July" availability date for Nimbus Ti Disc, hoping that we wouldn't wind up with egg on our faces at that. Well, no egg - Nimbus Ti Disc builds ship in June.
This is what's known as a teaser spot, so we won't be revealing all the details here. Here are the things we will say right now:
- Hubs are center lock. After using center locks for the past year, I'm never going back to 6 bolts. If you plan to use Shimano brakes, you have to use center lock hubs if you want to maintain your brake warranty, as IceTech(tm) rotors only come in center lock.
- Ti cassette body (duh, we couldn't call it Nimbus Ti Disc otherwise), steel rear axle.
- Pacenti SL25s will be the standard rim, with the same ultra sexy bead blast finish as the updated SL23 road rim that's been such a huge hit in the Nimbus Ti builds.
- Black Lasers will again be the stock spoke.
- Hub color and graphics will be the same as Nimbus Ti.
- Builds will ship with our new tubeless tape installed.
- Lacing choices will be 24/24, 24/28, and 28/28. 2x lacing on everything.
- Set weights will start at 1580g for 24/24 and go up to 1640g for 28/28. That's pretty light.
- Pricing will be great, though slightly higher than Nimbus Ti (which it should be since costs are higher - if the price wasn't higher it would mean we hadn't priced Nimbus Ti as low as possible. But we have.)
- There will be 15mm TA and 142x12 fitment options.
Here is what's going on in the background now, not ready for release:
- Tubeless CX tire testing has begun. We'll give you way better info than any other brand does on what to use and how to set it up.
- Tubulars will be available. The "disc specific aluminum tubular" market is fairly limited, but there are some very good options.
- Carbon tubulars will also be available. We're in the tortured throes of deciding between two great options, both produced by the company that does Rail rims for us.
- XD driver is unlikely.
There's been a ton of interest already, so we're going to open up for pre-sales in about 10 days. This is more like giving out numbers at the deli counter, not like a pre-sale.
12 comments
Are the various axle options hot-swappable, or is what you choose at build time what you've chosen for all eternity?
No, you will have to pull over, and take the wheels out, so they will not be truly hot-swappable. Kidding aside, yes, you will be able to switch between the various formats. There will be kids available to make the swap, which will require light surgery that a good home mechanic will be able to handle. The "just switch the end caps" solutions bake too many performance compromises into the hub. We don't prefer those very simplistic solutions.
Would it be fair to infer that a non-disc carbon tubular option might also be an option?
I wouldn't necessarily infer that, no.
What's with all the companies making disc brake wheels only going up to 28 spokes? It seems like some sort of trend. You sell 32 spoke rim brake wheels, and I've never found out any reason wheels would be more robust on a per-spoke basis for disc brake wheels than rim brakes.Is there something I'm missing here, either technically, logistically, or practically? Per your weight recommendations, we're now at a point where 52mm carbon fiber wheels are necessary for anyone >215 lbs. That seems a bit odd to me.