We buried this one a few posts back, but the AForce Al33 disc rims are finally in stock and ready to build, and not a moment too soon. You all seem to have gone heavy in for disc wheels, and these add a fantastic option for road and fast gravel riders (DK200 anyone?). With the same excellent aerodynamics as their rim brake counterparts, outstanding tubeless setup, meaty 19.6mm internal/26mm external width, and devilishly handsome looks, they sure are easy to love.
As we tell so many customers, the differences between the rims we work with these days are subtle. If the rim product lineup is a clock, the differences between most rims exist on the second hand, sometimes on the minute hand. Unless you're talking about the difference between 650b GX24s and 700c GOATs or 29" Hot Foots (Feet?), we're not talking about differences on the hour hand. So with so many great rims in the arsenal these days, what place do these have? What's their unique use profile?
As we've learned in two years of working with Al33s, they're a phenomenal choice for the privateer racer or group ride junkie. Set these up on a CAAD12 Disc or Allez Sprint Disc and you're cooking with the seriously high octane. Past that, they're sure not wrong with wider tires up to around 42mm, so if you're looking into dipping a toe into the exploding realm of sometimes paved and sometimes quite not fondos and races, here you go. Stiff and stable, speedy not spendy - that's their game.
We've got builds set up with Aivee MP2 (finally back in quite thick stock), White Industries CLDs, and I9 Torch hubs. As with all of our builds, these are 100% assembled by hand, in-house, to our high standard. All include tubeless rim tape installed, as well.
Pricing on these suckers is all set for 2019, but as we've mentioned before there will be price increases on most (and by most we mean all) other alloy-rimmed builds imminently. Since I'm getting ready to start MBA classes (which definitely presses the concept of "it's never too late to learn" - I'm as old as dirt) in a week, and we're looking at a gigantic snowstorm in VT which would be just plain irresponsible not to go get a piece of, plus the big stack of orders that we're overjoyed to have at this point in the slow season, the original change date of 1/21 will be delayed for a hot minute, but it won't be more than a day or two. We'll still be the best builder of all these options, and at or near the lowest price for the level of build we do, but if you want the lowest price you're going to see, then git.
4 comments
David – The orange hubs you saw are a set of Edition One hubs. Those are finally being released in center lock and road-appropriate drillings soon. There is also a new hub nearing release that will have some improvements over the MP2 but not be nearly as expensive as an Edition One (which are basically similar cost to I9 and WI hubs). Both the Edition One and new hub will be available in orange, black, blue, and red. The MP2 hubs have been and will be available in black only.
Will the aivee hubs be available in other colors? I remember seeing an orange-anodized version of the hub at some point.
Hi Jon -
I9 and WI’s XD cassette bodies have actually been XDR-ready (well, I9’s road/cross hubs have been), and DT is getting there. The part #s are in all the right places but they aren’t shipping quite yet. King will have XDR mid-March. Aivee will start having XDR on some hubs soon. And we will have cassette bodies for every hub we sell for which there is one to have.
Are these wheels/hubs now XDR compatible? Inquiring minds want to know. I am guessing I9, White, DT Swiss, Chris King are all compatible hubsets. Also, will you start to carry XDR frehubs?