Built to Last

I was bombing down the CDT north of Homestake Pass with my friend, Tour Divide racer Cricket Butler, when I had the misfortune of letting my downhill speed thrill get the best of my tactical sense. I hit a compression between two rocks along the trail a little too hot and the result was a tacoed front wheel. After talking with the Specialized Tech Department I learned that the OEM wheel set for the 2011 Stumpy Expert carbon 29er has proven to be too weak for aggressive riders. There have been numerous reports to Specialized how this wheel sets have difficulty maintaining a true. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have expected such trouble with a DT Swiss wheel set. I've built three of these models in the last few months and all of their wheel sets have required truing right out of the box. Two customers have had similar issues with their wheels since they got delivery. 

So, it seems Specialized has decided to improve their OEM wheel set for the 2012 production models by changing over to a beefier Roval wheel set. Too late for me. To get me back on the trail again, since I only brought one bike back to Montana for the summer, I decided to take the bull by the horns and build myself a tank proof wheel set to take the abuse I'm likely to dish out. 

The result is a rock solid, no pun intended, set of Stan's No Tube ZTR Flow 29ers with DT Swiss 240 hubs, 1.8/2.0 DT Swiss Competition spokes, and WTB 2.1 Nano Raptor tubeless tires. I love the low pressure you can run, the improved climbing traction, and the positive tracking.

This rig has barely been ridden, but now that I'm back in Las Vegas the dirt will fly out in Red Rock Canyon.