Building a Transition Blindside
Wheels and Tires:
Wheelset - Industry Nine / Mavic 823
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The decision to go tubeless with Industry Nine wheels
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 (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.
For the Blindside we went for a UST option with Mavic 823’s and used Industry 9 Hub and spoke combo to finish it off. I9 can lace up to any rim of your choosing, so you’re not held to any specific rim choice. You can get a plethora of custom colors as well to make your ride a bit more special. This wheelset is absolutely stunning and performs just as well as it looks. 120pt engagement is essentially instantaneous (3 degree) and is very easy to service. If Mavic 823’s are your choice Industry Nine can lace up their hubs to any rim out there!
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The Industry 9 wheels are 32 hole and use the Industry 9 DH spokes. They weigh in at 2311g (1059g front / 1252g rear) which sounds like a lot of weight when you’re used to hearing weights like 1750g but read on…
Using a Mavic 823 rim is one of the most solid options available in a downhill wheelset. They’ve proven themselves year after year and are essentially defacto when it comes to UST+Tubeless+DH. The wheelset weighs in at just over 2300g, but you don’t have to run a DH, or even XC tube in this wheelset. This saves a good bit of weight where it matters.
Typical XC tubes weigh 200g each and DH tubes can be anywhere from 300g to 700g each! Wheelset claimed weights are often off so your lightweight off the shelf wheelset (DT Swiss 1750 in 150mm/20mm weighs in at 1860g) is most likely heavier than you think. Adding 400g to a lightweight tubed wheelset (or home-made tubeless which still uses the same tubes) means your lightweight 1900g wheelset is the same weight (or heavier) as this wheelset once you add the weight of tubes or a home-made tubeless setup.
Examples:
- DT Swiss 1750 (150mm/20mm) wheelset
- DT Aerolite spokes
- rim tape (30g for velox)
- Real weight = 1890g + tubes (at least 400g) = 2290g
- DT Swiss 5.1 wheelset
- DT Supercomp spokes
- Brass nipples
- 150mm Hope Pro II Hubset
- rim tape (30g for velox)
- Real weight = 1926g + tubes (at least 400g) = 2326g
- Mavic 721 wheelset
- DT Supercomp spokes
- Brass nipples
- 150mm Hope Pro II hubset
- rim tape (30g for velox)
- Real weight = 2066g + tubes (at least 400g) = 2466g
- Industry 9 wheelset
- I9 Downhill Spokes
- Mavic 823 UST rims
- No rim tape needed or tubes
- Real weight = 2311g
Using a homemade tubeless setup, you still will have the weight of most of the tube (~200g for a normal XC tube) and Stan’s sealant (55g per scoop). If you purchase a Stan’s no-tubes setup it will still add 120g per wheel at least (1 scoop of sealant + notubes setup).
The option to go with the Inudstry 9 / 823 / UST setup wasn’t very hard once the numbers are looked at. The benefits of a tubeless system are great and tire selection is easy in the downhill segment as you can run just about any DH tire out there by adding a touch of Stan’s tubeless solution. Lower rotational weight, strong, and solid engagement make this setup a smart choice.
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 NoTubes. 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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