#Stans iron cross weight upgrade
The hubs can be adapted for different axle standards, as is the case with most modern disc brake wheelsets, so no problems if you upgrade your bike in a couple of years' time. You can buy the rims separately if you want to build them up on more exotic, or existing, hubs. The hubs have regular 6-bolt rotor mounts so no special tools required to fit the discs like with Shimano's CenterLock standard. These are the Team wheels, which save about 150g over the cheaper Comp wheels with their different spokes and hub bearings, making them slightly heavier and a bit less pricey. The name of the hubs is based on the 30-point ratchet and three pawl internals in the freehub, providing 12 degrees of engagement. I've had zero punctures on this wheel and tyre combination, and I've tried – riding deliberately into potholes, riding off-road through rocky trails – but they stubbornly refuse to be beaten.Īt the heart of the wheels are Stan's own 3.30 Disc front and 3.30 RD Disc rear hubs, with 24/28 Sapim Laser spokes lacing everything together. When tubeless is this easy, you really won't go back to inner tubes. Getting a Schwalbe One tubeless tyre to inflate was ridiculously easy – a slosh of sealant inside and a track pump to inflate the tyre. The BST rim profile features a shallow seating area so the tyre bead locates right up against the side of the rim.
They're constructed from aluminium and weigh a claimed 460g apiece. The rims are also quite deep, 24.5mm, making them the company's deepest – and therefore more aero – rim to date. The Grail rims are wide: 24mm on the outside, 21mm on the inside. As more cyclo-cross bikes have been converted to predominantly road use, there was a need for a wheelset that was rated to a higher pressure, and the Grail is that wheelset. They're loosely based on Stan's NoTubes cyclo-cross-specific Iron Cross wheelset, but rated to 116psi rather than 45psi (when used with a 23mm tyre, reducing to 100psi max with a 28mm tyre). They're a decent weight, the hubs are easily interchangeable to different axle standards, and the company's Bead Socket Technology (BST) means getting a tubeless tyre inflated is a cinch. With 25mm slicks at high pressures they're fast on the road, and bombproof when riding with knobbly tyres at low pressures off-road. I've also ridden them on a number of different bikes, from a steel Genesis Croix de Fer to an aluminium Bowman Pilgrims, and a couple of carbon road bikes along the way. So I've been riding these wheels a lot over the last six months, putting them through their paces in a wide range of situations. I was impressed, and immediately got on the phone to UK importer Paligap to ask for a test set. I was at that launch and got to ride the new wheels. Find your nearest dealer Buy these online here
In fact, the wheels were actually developed after GT approached Stan's NoTubes with a brief to develop a tubeless wheelset for its new Grade gravel bike. It's an ideal wheelset for any of the latest disc brake-equipped road bikes, or the growing number of gravel and adventure bikes, designed to straddle the traditional barrier between road and dirt. Stan's NoTubes ZTR Grail Team wheelset is one of a new generation of disc brake-specific offerings with a wide (in this case 21mm internal width) rim, ensuring that it appeals to the growing number of disc brake-equipped road/gravel/adventure bikes designed for wider tyres than is the norm on race bikes.