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Long a fixture on the mountain bike scene for its hassle-free tubeless rims and wheels, Stan’s NoTubes recently finally launched into the carbon aero road wheel market with the new Avion range. Just as you’d expect, they’re a breeze to set up tubeless, lightweight, and – at least relatively speaking – a decent value all things considered. Excellent performance at a lower price than the competition? Sign me up.
One look at the Avion Disc Pro’s spec sheet reveals its progressive nature. Internal width on the tubeless-compatible full-carbon rims is a healthy 22mm – wider than just about any other road rim on the market – the new Neo Ultimate rear hub has an unusually quick five-degree engagement speed, and despite having a versatile 41mm rim depth and new-school fat 28m-wide section width, the actual weight for a complete set is just 1,477g (631g front, 846g rear) including the factory installed rim tape and tubeless valve stems. And that’s with the hubs configured in thru-axle guise front and rear, too.
Plumping up your rubber
Numbers don’t always align with how a product feels in the real world but in this case, the Avion Pros perform just as the spec sheet would suggest – which is to say, very, very well.
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The blunted-profile rims measure 41mm in depth and 28mm in width (external measurement)
NoTubes proudly claims the rim’s ‘RiACT’ rim design yields a softer ride than comparable aero-profile carbon hoops. That may very well be true on a bench test but on the road, what’s much more noticeable is how the wider rim profile and shallower bead hooks really plump up whatever tires are mounted. For example, a set of 28mm-wide Specialized S-Works Turbo Road Tubeless tires (my current go-tos, by the way) measure a whopping 30.5mm even at just 60psi while offering superb traction, heaps of comfort, and sufficient air volume for hours of off-blacktop riding – all with no tangible hit in rolling resistance or weight, either.
Light and stable
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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