Revel RW30 ride review
My first foray on the Revels was a
local trail system that’s very — how shall I put it — primitive and
unregulated. The trails are steep, fast, loose, and rough. Ideal testing
grounds for a carbon enduro wheel.To get more news about mtb bike rims, you can visit zpebicycle official website.
The
first run down the hill left me feeling a bit stunned, and not in a
particularly positive way. The RW30 offered super-precise steering but
that came at the expense of ride quality. I thought they seemed a bit
harsh. But there are two good explanations for that. First, I was coming
off of Zipp’s 3ZeroMoto rims, which are structurally designed to be far
more compliant than any other mountain bike rim. They have a
single-wall construction, like a motorcycle rim, and it works as
advertised. But this isn’t a Zipp review — all I’m saying was I’d gotten
used to listening to Kenny G., so a little Guns ‘n Roses caught me by
surprise. Second, my tire pressure was a little too high on that first
ride.
My fellow tester, Bruce, also got a pair of RW30 wheels to
ride, and he rode them with CushCore XC tire inserts. He too thought the
initial ride feel was a bit harsh, but not to the point of turning him
off. He bottoms out his tires regularly, and pointed out that the noise
the Revels made during rim strikes was substantially more muted than any
of his other carbon wheels. Perhaps an effect of the Fusion Fiber, the
wheels seemed to dissipate the energy from violent impacts very
effectively. Eventually, he came to appreciate how they seemed a bit
more stout than the ENVE AM30 wheels he tested previously.
Once
my first ride was behind me, I grew entirely accustomed to the Revel
RW30 wheels. I got my tire pressure dialed, and I began to really
benefit from their stiffness. While there are a lot of factors at play
on a bike, I could tell that these wheels helped me pick precise lines,
and they rarely deflected or strayed from where I put them.
I
rimmed out pretty frequently on sharp rocks. Despite running tubeless
tires without any sort of insert like a CushCore, I never had any issues
with rim damage or flat tires. And as I mentioned in the “pros”
section, I put these wheels through the wringer in Moab, riding all of
the Amasa Back singletrack, the Mag7 to Portal shuttle route, and even a
bonus desert day at the Tabeguache trails in Grand Junction,
Colorado.These days, there are certainly less-expensive carbon wheel
options for mountain bikes. Revel is also one of many brands to offer a
no-questions-asked crash replacement policy, which is likely one of the
biggest reasons why carbon rims are finally being adopted by a lot of
mountain bikers. Performance-wise, the RW30 isn’t lightyears ahead of
the competition, but it’s a great rim that’s worth the money and won’t
let you down.
The Wall