Wheels with Soul

If one day I would need to run a contest of the top wheels I built in 2018 those would be my first pick.

Strong enough to carry on 120+kg rider with equipment, reasonable light showing 1651g on scale, beautiful like 'piano' interior finish in BMW and innovative using Soul-Kozak M-Netic hubs.

These are most probably the first M-netic wheels in Switzerland and they go to Anthony!

Anthony rides long, several days trips on his bike. Due to failure of his previous wheels he contacted me to build a strong, long lasting set of new hoops.

We had several concepts and we ended up with Kinlin XR-31T Disc rims, red Hope pro RS4 hubs and Sapim CX-Ray spokes. However, due to troubles in getting Hope hubs on time I proposed Soul-Kozak as alternative. 

Soul-Kozak hubs were described by me some time ago. The full article is available here

Without going into technical details, worth to highlight is that due to 17mm axle and magnetic clutch they are one of the stiffest and bullet proofs hubs in the market. Except of innovative clutch they have well thought geometry which is not a standard copy-paste from the other manufacturers.  Here it's clearly visible that Mr. Kozak spent many long evenings on figuring out the right dimensions.

Geometry is really important aspect which, if done well, allows to have balanced spoke tension on both sides of the wheel.

On the front, using Kinlin 3mm offset rim paired with Soul-Kozak disc hub the tension between both sides is equal. That is pretty impressive and guarantees stiff wheel on climbing and descending including hard braking. Spokes on disc side have 100kgf tension so braking under high torque won't be any issue. 

Rear hub has also very smart geometry resulted in 85kgf on NDR and 125kgf on DR side.
Free hub is made from steel so there won't be any issue with the cassette biting.

The ratchet is loud but in return capable to cope with high torque including E-bikes.

As stated before I love the look. Black rims, black spokes with two red ones reminds me 'piano' interior in sporty BMW. 

Those wheels are really sexy!

As Anthony didn't want any eye catching decals I proposed to make decals using black, shiny vinyl.

The results is very interesting. Decals are visible only when you get a closer look. IMO matching very well to overall style of the wheels.

Now, couple of facts:

• Kinlin XR31T Disc rims
• Soul-Kozak hubs, 100/135mm QR, 6-bolt disc mount
• 32 Sapim CX-Ray spokes laced 3-cross on front and rear
• Brass nipples
• Front wheel weight 780g
• Rear wheel weight 871g
• Wheels will run tubuless setup

Wheels are available in my shop

Anthony - all the best and good luck on Crans-Montana!

Tomasz
blog-wheelbuilding