Velocity Wheelset: P-35 Rims- Out Of The Box

Over the weekend, a nice little out of the box thoughts on the P35 was posted over at Twenty Nine Inches.com by Guitar Ted. We're sold on them and we're sure he'll be once he gets some ride time on them! Enjoy:

Velocity Wheelset: P-35 Rims- Out Of The Box
January 10th, 2010 by Guitar Ted

I remember waaay back as a kid the old Pontiac ads that touted the “Widetrack” stance of their cars at the time. Better stability on the road, they said. Well, that reminds me a whole bunch of the new P-35 rims from Velocity. Wide stance rims give the tires a wider foot print and better grip and stability out on the trail. So the theory goes. That is what I aim to test out on these wheels over the next weeks and months.

But first, let’s take a closer look at what we have here. The Velocity products in this wheel not only include the rims, but also Velocity’s newest version of their hubs. When choosing a hub set for this test, I decided upon a 20mm through axle front and a single speed specific rear hub. The rear hub has a threaded drive side to accept a free wheel. The threaded hub is more a preference in my mind than an advantage or disadvantage. Either threaded or cassette works nicely for me. Moving on from that we have sealed cartridge bearings and the rear hub features a Hi/Lo flange arrangement. The bearings feel very smooth to the hand. The finish looks top notch. The rear hub goes at about 288 grams per Velocity’s site and the front 20mm through axle hub weighs in at approximately 250 grams. The hubs are laced to the P-35’s with DT Swiss Champion spokes using red alloy nipples. Hubs are available separately through any local bike shop. MSRP’s may vary according to the shop you use, but expect to pay about $90.00 for the front hub and about $100.00 for the single speed disc hub.

The hubs are laced by Velocity in house by their own wheel builders. Each wheel build is signed off on by the person who built it. A nice touch. By the way, Velocity will lace your hubs to rims at their Grand Rapids, Michigan facility should you have something you want laced to a Velocity rim. Just contact your local shop for more on that. The builds looked well done. Tensions were great, and everything looked in order.

The P-35 is a rim that was developed in tandem with Velocity by Kirk Pacenti. The rim is described by Velocity as follows: “The P35 is designed for the cross country/all mountain rider craving a laterally stiff yet weight conscious rim that is still tough enough for the occasional Super – D race.” Sounds like an all around use rim to me. And here are the specs on the rim again:
Outside Width: 35mm
Inside Width: 29.5mm
Depth: 22mm

Weight
29”: 595g

Pretty impressive for a 29″er rim. Lighter weight, and a wide inner rim well promise fat, fast tire performance. But will they hold up? That we shall see! As long as we’re on the subject of the rims, I will say that these are designed to be run tubeless. Velocity has decided that for the time being, a Stan’s strip will do for sealing the rim well. That said, they are still working on bringing their own rim strip to market. More details on that when they are released. These will definitely see tubeless usage during our tests. The rear hub attaches via Allen head bolts.

Now for the total weight of each wheel. The front came in at 1030 grams and the rear at 1160 grams. So, no lightweights here, but I figured these would be best suited to more aggressive type riding, and the weight doesn’t bother me in that regard. One has to figure that rims weighing nearly 600 grams each are not going to build up the lightest wheel set!

In the next update I will detail out the finishing touches to this wheel set and hopefully introduce the bike they are going on. Stay tuned!

Note: The reviewed products were provided to Twenty Nine Inches at no charge for review. I was not paid or bribed for this review. I will give/gave my honest opinion or thoughts through out.