IBIS Announces New Carbon and Aluminium Wheelsets - with UK prices

Following on from its time at the vanguard of the wide-wheeled ‘thing’, Ibis has launched a brand-spanking new selection of wheels, some in carbon, and a couple of models in more affordable aluminium.

alu 738 wheelset

There are 6 new wheelsets in all; 4 in carbon, and yes, maths nerds, 2 in aluminium, bringing the total Ibis wheel range to nine. But let’s look at the new carbon ones first:

The 742, 942, 735 and 935 are the new carbon wheels – the first digit corresponds to the overall diameter (‘9’ for 29in wheels, and ‘7’ for – can you guess?). The last two digits are the width of the rims in mm (roughly), so you can see what you’re getting at a glance.

carbon 742 hoops

How are these different to the existing wheels? Well, in the case of the 742 and the 942, Ibis has kept the same inner and outer widths as the 741 and 941 so that’s 35mm internal, and 41mm external, but they’ve increased the impact strength, knocked a bit of the weight and kept the stiffness the same.

The 735 and 935s are (unsurprisingly) a bit narrower. Ibis paints them as for ‘lighter trail bikes that see more XC time’, but they’re still wide – 35mm outer and 29mm internal widths. They’ve got a new rim profile which Ibis claim increases impact strength and lateral stiffness for the same weight as Ibis’ 928 wheels.

i9 hubs for the carbon…

There are also some fancy claims for the strength of the new rims – we’ll leave it to Ibis’ release to elucidate: “The asymmetric rim design features 5mm of offset (2.5mm on 735/935), which allows higher spoke tensions that are nearly equal from one side of the wheel to the other. This, combined with a section height that is reduced to 19.5mm, makes the wheel stronger yet better able to distribute the loads of localized impacts from rock strikes or hard landings. Also, with the new carbon wheels we are introducing a new hybrid carbon fiber layup, strategically combining layers of a new, high-toughness carbon/epoxy prepreg with our original carbon composite, increasing both ultimate strength and impact durability. As a result of all this, the 742/942 nets a 30% increase in impact strength yet a 7.5% decrease in weight, compared to our previous rims.”

…Ibis hubs for the alloy

The carbon wheels now also come with industry Nine Torch hubs with 3º engagement, centrelock rotor attachments and Shimano or XD freehub body. Nice.

And what of the aluminium ones? Well, first up, they’ll be a lot cheaper – they’ll cost £549. They’ll have an inner width of 35mm, they also have the carbon rims’ 5mm asymmetric drilling and equal spoke tensions. The hubs have a 36t 4pawl freehub, and at present they’re Boost only, available May 15th aftermarket.

Here’s a breakdown of the UK prices

New carbon wheelsets 942/742/935/735 – £1,599 (rims £479)
Existing carbon wheelsets 741/941/928 – £999 (rims £355)
Aluminium wheelsets 938/738 – £549

For more info, check out the website here. We’ll have some upclose and personal pics from the Sea Otter later this week!

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.