Solving for X

Although we're struggling with how best to make them easy to order on our current site, we've been selling a lot of tires to go along with wheels lately. We think this is a great thing for several reasons.

First, with all of the stuff we've learned about wheels - widths, depths, aerodynamics, tension drop, stiffness, spoking, and all of the etcetera - it's hard not to come to the conclusion that being wheel builders and wheel sellers is as much about selling "tire holders" as it is selling wheels. 

Wheels can certainly augment the appropriateness of a tire to a certain use case, while similarly a wheel can really be the wrong match for any given tire. "What tires do you plan to use" has steadily crept up the pecking order of questions we ask when discussing a wheel purchase with a client. And similarly, there is always the "oh man, yuck, why would you buy wheels that great and use those tires on them?" (looking at you, Gatorskins) 

After we get through the consult that lets us come up with a wheel recommendation, if you hadn't come in with a tire in mind, we've almost certainly got a strong candidate in mind for you. Which is the foundation of our "Solving for X" mindset. 

A small subset of the solutions for "x"

Solving for "x" is simply an approach where we apply what we've learned in seven years of unhealthy obsessing about wheels and everything related to them plus just plain too much awareness of what's on the market, which tires have the best rolling resistance/had the best puncture resistance/have good durability/corner the best/blah blah blah to the question of getting you on the ideal combo. 

Not everyone has the same mission. Maximizing performance in crits is different than maximizing road race or gran fondo or certainly gravel grinder performance. It's overall "performance" rather than any single compenent of performance that counts, and that's where we think we can be the most help. 

We're happy to share our recommendations with you, but having us supply the tires works even better. For one thing, when we supply the tires, your wheels will get a final adjustment with your tires installed on them. Not that there are enormous differences o be made there, but there are small ones. The tires that you put on a wheel affect the wheel, as well as the reverse being true. 

perfectly adjusted and ready to go (except apparently sideways)

For another thing, it's pretty nice to just pull your wheels out of the box and be able to inflate them to final pressure (we ship them with minimal pressure) and go. Tubeless tires bought with wheels include valve, tire and sealant installation, while tubed tires go set up for tubed use. We can of course also supply cassettes and rotors installed to make things really really ready to go.

The more we learn, the more we learn just how freaking important tires are and how much benefit there is to be had from them, and we're excited to keep pursuing a total solution approach.