New Reserve 28/XC Wheels: No Weight Limit And No More Santa Cruz

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If the ‘Reserve Wheels’ name sounds familiar, it’s because until recently, it’s been associated as Santa Cruz Bikes’ in-house wheel brand. Now, however, with the launch of the new 28/XC cross country wheels, the Reserve Wheels brand is going it alone (in much the same way as Roval is now a separate identity to Roval’s parent company, Specialized) so it’s just ‘Reserve Wheels’ now – which should hopefully free the wheels up to be specced on other brands, or to be sold in non-Santa Cruz dealers.

The other big news with the 28/XC wheels is that, despite the racy image and the 24 spoke build (the 28/XC name refers to the 28mm internal width) the 1367g wheels will come without a rider weight limit – so that if you’re a tall, heavily built racer, or you’re just looking to save every gram off your fast trail bike, then these Reserve wheels could be the ones for you.

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Reserve says “It’s also important to note that there is no rider weight limit on the 28/XC and the same lifetime warranty and support that Reserve is known and noted for is offered here. Additionally, 28/XC was raced this past weekend at the XCO in Albstadt”

Testing the new Reserve wheels in the Albstadt World Cup last weekend.

28/XC Specifications:

  • Designed For: XC riding and racing
  • Inner Width: 28mm
  • Sizes Available: 29in only
  • Recommended Tyre Dimensions: 2.2 to 2.5in
  • Spoke Count: 24
  • Wheelset Weight: 1367 grams with DT 180 hubs with valves and tape
  • Price: Starts at £1599 USD
  • Options: DT Swiss 180, 240 or 350 CL hubs, Microspline or XD
  • Available: July 2021

Features:

  • Step in internal rim bed to ease tubeless installation
  • Lower profile for added lateral stiffness with increased vertical compliance
  • Asymmetrical design (flipped front to rear)
  • 385 gram rim weight
  • DT Comp Race spokes

With the crazy world (and bicycle world) situation at the moment, stock might be on a ‘you’ll see it when you see it’ basis, but hopefully we’ll see the 28/XC wheels soon. And the efforts behind establishing the Reserve brand as a stand-alone entity suggests that there’ll be more products in the pipeline, so stay tuned for Reserve news!

Details will be on reservewheels.com

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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