Yes, they’re very wide in person.
American Classic’s new Smoking Gun wheelset is a massive 43mm/40mm wide- essentially twice as wide as the long-running Mavic 517 (remember those?) and a full third wider than last year’s Wide Lightning. Really intended for the coming flood of plus-sized bikes, the Smoking Gun may not be as immediately successful as the Lightning- but being one of the lightest wheelsets in the chubby bike class (1,733g 27.5+ / 1,790g 29+), they could make for a sprightly ground-up build or upgrade down the road.
Of course, everything’s gone all Boost now, with 148mm rear and 110mm front hubs appearing like mushrooms after the rain. American Classic’s no different- though rather than kick out their flanges as far as possible, Shook and company have opted to further balance their spoke tension- something that they feel makes for a stronger wheel. AC has made some remarkably solid wheels in their weight classes over the years, so we imagine that there’s something to it.
Comments (1)
Leave Reply
Post Comment
the flanges on those AC hubs don’t look very ‘boosted’ to me… (I might be wrong, but it looks like they’ve just made the stubs longer. If you’re not going to take advantage of the width on offer, why bother?)