Whether it\'s a sunset lap with friends or a race run against the clock, a broken wheel ruins any ride. Strength and impact resistance is the highest priority, but strength doesn\'t have to mean uncomfortably stiff. The Reserve Carbon Wheels are compliant enough to avoid that harsh wooden\" ride that gives some carbon rims a bad name offroad.Reserve WheelsA new line of premium carbon mountain bike rims and wheels, designed to be the strongest, most reliable on the market.Designed, tested and prototyped in California using a new in-house carbon lab and well-established carbon fibre expertise.Backed by the best product support program in the industry.Everything from the thickness of rim beads to external spoke hole reinforcements comes purely from the experience of knowing what riders need at every level - from international racing to your local trails.Material Where You Need ItWith this information in hand, the design team set about determining how they might design a rim to mitigate any past failures, and part of the result is the square-shaped reinforcements you can see around the spoke holes. Making plates of different carbon spoke hole designs in their carbon lab, they developed a test that mimics the sudden increase in pulling force associated with an impact. After spending a few months breaking bits, they got to the point where all that was being broken were spokes & nipples - no carbon.They\'re far from the first company to reinforce high-stress areas with more material. But, they\'re visible to ensure that the spoke hole drilling matches the reinforcement. Super-precise placement of these reinforcements allows for only the amount of material necessary to achieve the strength required, rather than reinforcing the entire rim. They then invest that extra material into the other common failure point of a rim - the bead.The rim beads on the Reserve Wheels are thick, relative to other rims on the market. As much as a millimetre thicker on either side, in some cases. The material saved by optimizing the placement of the spoke hole reinforcements went directly into the bead, making it extremely strong without adding weight to the overall construction. The beads are hookless: this makes for a better fit with modern tyres, but also simplifies manufacturing, which results in more consistent carbon compaction - the technical way to say stronger rim.Putting carbon reinforcements around the spoke holes enabled a stronger wheel while saving on overall weight.Because the reinforcements are positioned on the outside of the rim, the designers have ensured correct, centred drilling - previously an issue with internally reinforced rims.Those extra weight savings have been reinvested into the rim bead, where rock strikes are more likely.A Special wax bladder moulding technique ensures excellent compaction with no voids or air bubbles.This reduced level of manufacturing variability allows for a more consistent construction, making them more reliable.Mountain Bike Specific Design & TestingOne thing the design team knew for certain when going into the Reserve Wheel project three years ago was that the industry standard impact test for carbon wheels wasn\'t going to cut it. That test, approved by the UCI, impacts both sides of a rim equally with a flat rubber pad without a tyre mounted on the wheel. It\'s designed to replicate a pothole-type impact on the road.On a mountain bike, a rock is much more likely to only hit one side of the rim, so the rim beads have to be independently strong. They created a test in their lab that simulates one side of the rim landing directly on a square-edged rock from over 3 feet in the air with no suspension, and a lightweight tire inflated to 25psi.As they began to put some of the other rims on\"