American Classic Wide Lightning Wheelset

The name offers a clear indication of what to expect from these new American Classic wheels; they’re designed to be light enough for cross-country use, but with a rim width of 29mm inside the bead hooks they offer all the advantages of ultra wide rims (click here for more on this topic).

Our 650b wheels weighed in at 1,555g (F 718g/R 837g) including the supplied valves and tubeless tape. That’s light for any aluminium wheelset, let alone one with girth of the Wide Lightnings. The weight is all the more impressive given that they use 32 double-butted J-bend spokes laced in a three-cross pattern; no fancy proprietary parts or low spoke counts here, just a tried, tested and relatively bombproof traditional setup that makes sourcing spares both easy and affordable. Speaking of price, the Wide Lightnings suggested retail of $899 is not pocket change by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s substantially less than the $1,200-1,500 asked for most premium alloy wheels.

The front hub is convertible between quick release and 15mm and the rear between QR, 12x135mm or 12x142mm, however conversion kits are sold separately, and it’s not simply a matter of swapping end caps; some basic mechanical skills and cone spanners are required.

The rear hub uses American Classic’s unique and patented ‘Six Pawl’ technology, whereby a small cam plate actuates all six double-pointed pawls at exactly the same time to ensure super solid engagement with the freehub. When coasting the pawls don’t contact the ratchet at all so there’s very little drag or noise; great if you like a fast and quiet bike for sneaking up on others and scaring the bejesus out of them.

There is a bit of lag as the cam plate turns to actuate the pawls, so the 24-point ratchet is slower to engage than you’d expect—it feels more like a traditional eighteen point pickup. This makes it harder to get power down when you’re trying to ratchet the pedals through rocky climbs, but it’s not an issue when you’re spinning a steady cadence on smoother trails. We’d love to see the same technology with a 30 or 36-point pickup for more technical riding, which is after all where the Wide Lightnings are pitched.

Although the freehub body is aluminium alloy to save weight, it cleverly uses a series of steel inserts on the splines to dramatically reduce, but not totally eliminate, the tendency of the cassette to dig into the freehub.

Stiff-Wide-Light

With tall hub flanges and a relatively high number of mid-weight spokes, you’d expect the Wide Lightnings to be stiff, and they certainly are. The build quality is also excellent, with high and very even spoke tension more usually associated with a set of quality hand built wheels. In use this translates to a very predictable and dynamic ride quality which makes any bike more enjoyable to ride, especially when pushing hard through corners where the lack of lateral flex makes it much easier to hold your chosen line.

J-bend spokes might not be fashionable, but they’ve been proven over a century of bicycle wheel design and replacements can be found at any bike shop for just a few dollars. The lack of overall weight in the Wide Lightnings makes both acceleration and deceleration much easier, and will definitely add a more sprightly feel to your bike.

The Wide Lightning’s rims use a tubeless ready profile, although you can run them with tubes if you need. Every rim and tyre combination is different, but we found them to provide a slightly little looser fit than some other tubeless wheels. We wound up adding an extra layer of tape to raise the rim bed and provide a better seal for that initial inflation. Once seated and sealed, they held the tyres firmly in place and never burped, even at really low tyre pressures.

They’re light, stiff, relatively affordable and very wide, but is there a catch? Well in order to be so light without the use of exotic materials such as carbon fibre, the rim extrusion has to be relatively fine. The bead retaining sidewalls are kept nice and low to minimise the chance of rock strikes but they are still very thin (each lip measures only 1.5mm). The large but thin walled rim structure is great for general stiffness and strength but it’s not the best when it comes to impact damage. Smooth flowy trails and general XC-style riding isn’t an issue, but we did collect a number of dents when they were put to use on properly rough tracks — in the end one rim failed completely and wouldn't hold air after collecting a good sized rock at speed.

American Classic suggests a rider weight limit of 107kg but this is obviously ‘use dependant’ and despite their width, we’d suggest that these are more for XC riding than harder all-mountain use. They do mention the ‘E’ word in their website description (enduro that is) but the marketing department is probably to blame, as designer Bill Shook suggests that their ‘All Mountain’ wheels are a more robust option for harder riding.

Overall, we think American Classic have done a great job with the Wide Lightning; the width, weight and price is perfect for adding some performance-enhancing bling to a 100-130mm travel XC bike. They offer the benefits of super wide rims without paying a significant weight or price premium.

Cassons (02) 8882 1900 / www.cassons.com.au