Sector has launched the new Sector 9i carbon wheelset today with low-weight, competitive pricing, and added Textreme.
Sector is a new wheel maker, but the people behind the name have been in the bike industry for years, and are better known for the Kinesis bike brand. Though the Sector 9i has only launched today, the Sector brand has had wheels on the market since earlier in the year, but they were for our CX brothers and sisters.
The 9i wheelset is aimed at us harder riding, trail and enduro riders, and with this in mind, Sector says that this lightweight wheelset is both strong and compliant.
We’ve seen many brands claim this over the past year, with varying levels of achievement, and using different methods, but Sector is using a different way to what we have seen before.
Sector has come across a material named TeXtreme. This wonder material is made up of a combination of both T700 carbon layers and a material called Innegra. Innegra is derived from polypropylene and it exhibits just the characteristics we want from lightweight carbon wheels.
Innegra has a very high strength-to-weight ratio, is resistant to damage, offers excellent vibration damping and energy dissipation.
The Sector 9i rims use this Innegra woven TeXtreme Spread Tow fabric for the outer layer of the rims, just where we want the most strength and compliance. It also adds the rather funky pattern to the rims too.
And speaking of compliance, this set of 1700g wheels, that’s for a pair of 29ers, are a claimed 50% more compliant than your bog-standard T700 carbon rim of the same profile.
This is important as a compliant rim means a comfortable one. It means better grip and better shock absorbing which should equal a better ability at shrugging off rock strikes.
Sector has put in some laboratory work with the testing of the 9i wheelset and discovered that the 9i rim was able to handle impacts almost double the standard required for MTB wheels by the UCI. If you’re one for numbers then the UCI stipulates that a rim just handle an 80J impact, the Sector 9i takes that to 160J and still doesn’t ride stiff. Impressive!
In addition to the strength, comfort, and grip, Innegra offers the 9i wheelset, it also helps to keep the weight of the wheels down too. This isn’t because less material is used though, and it’s actually because the 9i wheels require less resin.
This set of 29er wheels weighs just 1700g, while a rim on its own weighs 428g. In comparison a Santa Cruz Reverse 30 rim weight 470g, Raceface ARC 31 is 495g and an Enve M730 is 571g!
For all its light weight though, Sector is still 100% behind the 9i and gives it a full lifetime warranty and even offers a special crash replacement policy.
These high-tech hoops are laced to CNC machined straight pull hubs that run on super smooth Revo Cream Bearings. Hubs are available in Boost and SuperBoost and there are currently Freehubs for SRAM and Shimano HG though Microspline is also planned too.
Sector even specs fancy triple-butted spokes and brass nipples, AND each wheelset comes with valves and rim take fitted and two packets of Effetto Mariposa sealant come in every box!
Sector is offering the Sector 9i in 27.5 or 29in wheelsets. You can also buy them as a rim only in either 28 or 32 hole options. Complete wheelset pricing is £1099.99 while rims are £450 each.
For more details visit the Sector website, and don’t forget to check out our first ride review of the Sector 9i wheels here.
Comments (3)
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Ooh, they’re interesting, and the price doesn’t seem too out of this world for composite rims these days.
Who makes the hubs?
What’s fancy about pillar spokes? My experiences with their products hasn’t been great. More details about the hub would be great as stated by Shackleton.