Spank Oozy Wheels

Spank industries set out with a goal of creating a range of products that find the sweet spot between weight, performance, style and value. In today’s competitive market place that’s a pretty tall order, as engineer and bike designer Keith Bontrager famously said, “Light, cheap, strong; choose two.”

Our 29-inch Oozy Trail 295 Bead Bite wheel set weighed in at 1,845g (claimed weight is 1,800g). That’s certainly respectable for a $700 alloy 29er wheel set that’s aimed at the all-mountain/trail market. Sure, carbon all-mountain wheels may be 300g lighter, but you’ll pay a $10 premium for every gram saved! Some all-alloy offerings can be lighter but the Oozy is in the ballpark given the ‘beyond XC’ intentions of the wheels.

These wheels are designed to be tubeless ready. How ‘ready’ depends on your tyre choice and how well equipped your workshop is. Using the same tyre, tools and technique we converted the Oozys to tubeless in parallel with another tubeless ready wheel from one of the more popular and commonly available rim brands. Armed only with some soapy water and a modest floor pump, we struggled to get our first tyre choice to bead on the Oozy rim. The same approach on the competitor’s rim gave us no trouble at all.

Switching to another brand of tyre and using a bigger pump yielded a better result. While mightn’t be an issue if you’ve got a compressor or a big volume floor pump at home, many home workshops won’t be so well equipped.

OOHBAHS & GRIPPY NIPS

The Oozy rims certainly have some creative design features. The first of which is the patented ‘Oohbah’ profile with its inverted tube well. In layman’s terms this means the central portion of the inner rim wall – the bit where the tyre bead sits when it’s first mounted – is an ‘outie’ not an ‘innie’, so it’s convexed rather than concaved. Spank claims this profile significantly increases rim rigidity whilst at the same time saving weight.

This convexed inner rim profile also means that you can’t just run any old valve stems when setting them up as tubeless.

They need to seat securely against the reversed profile of the inner rim wall. Spank has their own compatible valve stems, and it’s worth using them to avoid air leakage hassles. Next up is the ‘Beadnip’; a series of raised edges on the inner rim designed to keep the bead seated and reduce the chance of ‘burping’ the tyre. This should be a good feature if you plan on running low tyre pressures on a tubeless set up—especially if you ride aggressively. Internally, the rims measure 24mm between the bead hooks. While that’s not amongst the widest rims on the market, it’s not super narrow either and this will also assist in keeping the tyre stable and reasonably squirm-free on the rim.

Both front and rear wheels are built with 28 straight-pull spokes. While straight-pull spokes aren’t the most commonly available at the local bike shop, Spank uses the same length throughout the wheelset. If you like to play it safe, you’d only need to keep one spare spoke in your toolbox for both wheels.

The front hub converts between 15QR and 20mm thru-axle ups while the rear swaps between quick release and 142x12mm thru-axle. The adaptors are supplied with the wheels, so you’re pretty well covered for most modern trail bike setups.

Overall the build quality was firstrate. The spokes were tight and evenly tensioned, and they stayed that way throughout the review; a good starting point for any wheelset that you want to last. Aesthetically the Oozy Trails won me over; the relatively wide profile and understated graphics gave the test bike a purposeful look.

With three pawls offering 27 engagement points per revolution, there’s less free-play in the cassette mechanism than many entry-level wheels but this figure still falls short of the 36-point engagement that you expect to find on high-end rear hubs. In the end there’s not a huge amount of movement at the cranks before you get the power down and I never found them a hindrance on technical trails.

As a 90kg rider who definitely prefers trails with gravity on their side, I was keen to put their ‘all-mountain’ abilities to the test. On trail the wheels feel stiff and responsive; they inspired confidence straight off the bat. Compared to the slightly more XC oriented wheels that they replaced, I was able to carry more speed through fast rocky descents and their stiffness provided more snap out of the corners.

During our test we experimented with low tyre pressures to put the Beadnip design to the test. While we certainly found plenty of traction, we never had any tyre burping issues. The sidewall support was good too, although even wider rims would always lend the tyre a more solid and squirm-free feel. Of course it’s also hard to find alloy rims that are wider without being excessively heavy or fragile.

The Oozy rims proved to be far from fragile. We shredded two tyre sidewalls whilst charging through rock gardens yet the bead hooks remained dent free and the rims stayed true. Wrap them in some sturdy rubber and you’ll be able to tackle your favourite descents with impunity.

For their comparatively modest asking price, the Spank wheels would be a good upgrade to your typical OEM wheelset. They are affordable, not bad weight wise (for their intended use) and strong. Sorry Keith, but I think Spank has done pretty well in achieving their goal of being light, cheap and strong.

Pushie Enterprises (02) 9560 7841 www.pushie.com.au