Wider and lighter is better. And we invented it.
Wider rims provide more tire volume and better sidewall bracing, which give you more sure-footed traction, a cushier ride and fewer pinch flats; and our profiles are hyper-refined, for more width without the weight. So you’ll have a better ride, wherever you ride--the ProTour, World Cup downhills, XC racecourses or anyplace you put the rubber to the ground.
Kirk Pacenti is a designer and entrepreneur with two decades of experience in the bicycle industry. He has been obsessed with bicycles since childhood, and has pursued his passion professionally for nearly as long. Following an aerospace machining apprenticeship and a frame building course at United Bicycle Institute, Pacenti went to work for Keith Bontrager in 1994, where he honed his expertise in frame design and fabrication.
I got started in the rim business in 2009. I figured if I had Pacenti tires I should make rims—it seemed logical. Salsa had a 35-mm rim, and it was 700 grams but it was getting rave reviews because of what it did for the tire. I thought, Why does it have to be a 700-gram rim? I think the industry had fallen into this mentality that a 25-mm rim is a cross-country rim, 28-mm is trail, and 35-mm is downhill. But if, as a trail rider, you wanted that wider footprint and volume, you’d have a wheelset that was a pound heavier. Anyone can benefit from a wider rim, but almost nobody needs a rim that heavy, because they don’t need strength like a DH rider. That was the beginning of MTB rims I call “Trail wide, XC light.â€
In 2011 the guys at Fair Wheel Bikes came to me saying, “We need a road rim that’s 23-mm wide and 27-mm tall and 450 grams.†And the rims were really, really nice. With that extra width, you put a 23- or 25-mm tire on there, the sides of the tire become tangent to the braking surface. You don’t get this light bulb profile with a 19-mm rim, it increases the volume, you can lower the pressure, corner harder, it hits all the right boxes.
I feel like a pretty lucky guy—all my life I’ve gotten to ride bikes, design a lot great stuff that makes riding better. And to me, that’s what it’s all about—making bikes better.
