Soon to be released, Velocity is producing a mid-fat rim for 29ers, or a ’29-plus’ rim…whatever this genre will be called from now on. I learned about it from Old Glory MTB:
http://oldglorymtb.com/2013-velocity-usa-new-dually-29-fat-rim/
I’m pretty excited for a double wall, tubeless-ready, lighter rim to use instead of the Surly Rabbit Hole rim. The Dually 29er rim is ‘only’ 45mm wide compared to the 50mm RH but that’s just fine with me. I love my Rabbit Hole rims, but with the cut-outs they are not ideal for tubeless application. They are also a semi-single wall rim and may not be as durable over time. I’ve had no issues yet with durability though and i’ve been riding the wheels pretty hard so that’s probably a non-issue unless you ride like a bull in a china shop.
The one thing that happened this week (now that my normal 29er is in pieces from an overhaul and rebuilding of the rear wheel) is that I punctured my front Knard on a rock. It really shouldn’t have been a big deal but I hit a rock and with the 8psi the impact cut a small hole in between the tire tread and left me trying to fill the hole with Stans. The Stans eventually sealed the hole but that’s when I realized that the Gorilla Tape and Surly rim strip had also been punctured – on the inside of the wheel! So the rock had gone all the way through the tire and punctured the INSIDE. The Stan’s had no way of sealing both at the same time so I had to put in a tube.
Really, this is not a RH issue, it’s a Knard issue. The tire casing is really thin and this rock hit should definitely not have punctured it, no matter what pressure I was running. I’m running the 120 tpi version of the Knard so maybe the 27 tpi would be better and more bomber. I’m thinking the ideal setup will be the Velocity Dually 29er rim set up tubeless with the 27 tpi Knard, but that’ll have to wait. For now, a regular tube will have to add extra durability to the 120tpi Knards. My rear wheel is still holding up tubeless with no leakage but I’m sure its time will come.
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