New 1501 Spline One Wheels from DT

DT have released details of their next generation of SPLINE ONE wheels, which will be available in the early summer, and will be available in a variety of flavours and wheel sizes. The idea is essentially to provide a wheel for everyone, no matter what discipline, gear set up or drop-out width you ride, and the focus in the press release is very much on the rims. Hubwise, DT Swiss claim that the hub-bodies are the lightest they’ve ever produced, but they still contain all the DT Swiss goodness such as the ratchet freehub. But let’s take a look:

XR 1501 SPLINE® ONE

XR is the key’word’ here. These are 22.5mm wide XC specific rims – so 2.5mm wider than the previous iteration, to give a little more air volume for the same tyre size and weight. There’s an asymmetric rim for easier builds, better stiffness and (it says here) more precise and responsive handling. 29er and 27.5, XD and standard, boost and normal, thruaxle and QR; you know the score.

XM 1501 SPLINE® ONE

The XM wheels are available in lots of different widths – 22.5mm internal, 25mm, 30mm, 35mm and 40mm too. They’ll work with normal or, in the wider sizes, chubby tyres too.

And then there’s the EX 1501 SPLINE® ONE, which you can get in 25mm or 30mm internal widths, specifically for Enduro racing. Apparently they “ombine all the tech features of the current model with the newest technologies to create the perfect set of wheels for Enduro riding and racing”.

They’ve even done a video to celebrate:

Can’t see the video? Click here

For more details, click here.

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.

Comments (4)

oceandwelleroceandweller April 4, 2016 at 4:28 pm

“The idea is essentially to provide a wheel for everyone”. Or to be a bit more precise, a wheel for fewer than half of everyone, the ones who aren’t on 26″-wheel-size bikes. Or out & out fat bikes. Or very short adults. (A friend of mine who’s 5′ has to use a kid’s bike with 24″ wheels coz adult bikes are too big for him.) So, another case of #theusualmarketingcobblers then.

sillyoldmansillyoldman April 4, 2016 at 6:09 pm

You really expect them to tool up to make a range of new products for a genuinely shrinking market (especially at these price points)?

sillyoldmansillyoldman April 4, 2016 at 7:43 pm

£750 for most options.

HatterHatter April 5, 2016 at 9:18 am

Anyone launching a new 26″ wheel now will have to compete against all the people selling second hand or clearance 26″ wheels for peanuts. I Ebay’ed a gorgious carbon 26″ wheelset last year after Zero interest on here, got sweet FA for it.

Any product manager looking at the wheel market when deciding what to produce will take one look at what people are actually paying for 26″ wheels now, do the sums and run a mile.

The market (i.e. that’s us BTW) has spoken.

Comments Closed