Intense Socom FRO
Wheels and Tires:
Wheelset - Sapim CX Ray / Sapim Polyax Brass Nipples / Mavic 721 / King ISO
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The wheel choice
Wheels are an area where you don’t want to skimp on a downhill bike if you want them to last. You can opt for a cheaper setup (like Sun SingleTrack’s to Hope Pro II’s) if you’re looking for a setup that will last pretty good but is easy to replace should you mess them up.
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For the Socom we decided to go with a converted Mavic 721 rim to tubeless setup with Stan’s No Tubes. What Stan’s does is provide you with a kit to convert your non-tubeless rims to tubeless. There are other ways of converting standard rims to tubeless, but the Stans option is a pretty solid one in my experiences and offers benefits and less trial/error that most people often get overwhelmed with. With the conversion our wheelset is slightly lighter than a UST setup, inherently has some puncture resistance with the Stan’s solution, and still retains a lot of the benefits of a non-conversion based tubeless setup.
Stan’s No Tubes (click to enlarge)
Stans rim strip detail installed (click to enlarge)
The spokes we chose are the Sapim CX-Ray spokes. These spokes aren’t cheap by any means, but I’ve had great experiences with these spokes. These are the lightest spokes that I feel confident using and it doesn’t get much lighter than these. Sapim spokes are also used by many top DH teams (Honda, etc) and they are some solid spokes in my experience with a good build. They’re easy to visually see spoke windup during buildup due to their aero design and the Sapim Polyax brass nipples hold the tension very well. Sapim’s also build up with higher spoke tension making the wheel build stronger. That being said, they’re not as easy to buildup, so it’s important to have a good experienced wheel builder assemble them for you like Chad @ Red Barn Bicycles.
the aero cross section of the spokes (click to enlarge)
The 721 / Sapim CX-Ray / Sapim Polyax brass nipples wheel setup we’ve got laced to Chris King ISO hubs. The Chris King hubs don’t need much explanation as to why we chose them. They’re beautifully built with the level of detail you’d expect from Chris King. With 72 points of engagement via their RingDrive putting power down is easy in technical sections as well as in the flat. Chris King’s service and 5 year warranty are some of the best in business which is nice to know when being rough on parts.
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The wheels weigh in at 2044g (961g front / 1083g rear). The Stan’s kit adds a small bit on top of this (each wheel: 54g Stan’s solution, 69g rim strip, 17g Velox tape, 3g strapping tape) but the benefit is that you no longer have to run a tube which saves weight and no pinch flatting. We won’t lament more on tubeless and how it saves weight, but feel free run the numbers yourself and you’ll see.
Tires - Maxxis Minion 2.5 DHF UST
Tires are somewhat preferential and it’s hard to suggest one tire for everyone. We opted to go with the Maxxis DHF UST tubeless tire. Michelin makes great UST tires as well that seal up really nicely. If you’re going with a tubed version, you can still run these tubeless but you’ll need to add some sealant like Stan’s No Tubes. I would also only recommend 2ply tires, as everything else so far has been sub par that isn’t. When it comes down to a true DH tire that I trust, 2ply or UST DH tires are the only way to go.
The Maxxis 2.5 DHF UST tires weighed in at ~1250g per tire. Running tubeless UST tires has its benefits. There is less weight on the outermost point of the rim which helps them accelerate fast as well as offering increased traction, pinch flat protection, and lower rolling resistance.
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