While hookless rim technology has come under scrutiny as of late, Boyd Cycling is targeting the track with two new hookless carbon wheelsets that the American company assures “can be safely ridden with no tire pressure limitations”.
According to Boyd, its revolutionary system utilizes a state-of-the-art hookless rim design and tube-shaped tire that glues directly to the rim, so riders can be confident their tires will “finish rides the same way they started – attached to the wheel”.
“Beyond eliminating tire pressure restrictions, this new tubular hookless style of the rim has other features that wheel companies look for when they release hookless models – namely that the rims are lighter and cost less to manufacture,” says CEO Boyd Johnson.
In addition to the new rim profiles, an elegant, simple hub design accompanies the new models, featuring a single cog fixed to the hub with a ”pawl-less” design that offers 0º degrees of engagement with one continuous point of contact.
Where’s the proof? Boyd claims, prototypes have been in development since the early 1900s and have been tested for millions of kilometers under the strongest of sprinters.
The new wheelsets comprise three track variants, along with a radical new approach to mounting the track cog, with two Podium Carbon competition models leading the way, followed by a Prologue alloy training set rounding out the range.
Here’s how the models and new track cog breakdown:
60mm Track Tubular
The 60mm is a do-it-all racing wheelset, perfect for outdoor velodromes where the wind can pick up and intuitive handling in a pack is more important that full aero gains.
80mm Track Tubular
The 80mm is a wheelset for those craving speed and a larger aero advantage. For racing against the clock and indoor venues, the 80mm is your weapon.
Rouleur Track
The Rouleur is a great option for workouts or riding the trainer between races – perfect for an inexpensive intro to riding velodromes but also designed to handle roads and even package delivery.
Centerlock Track Cogs
At the heart of these wheels is a clever new hub design – the CL-TK hub uses a center lock spline and cog for a much simpler and extremely secure interface. Simply slide the cog on the hub, tighten the disc rotor lock ring and you are good to go. Cog changes between events have never been simpler. The flip-flop hubs are also threaded for a standard cog and lockring so you can use your existing collection of cogs.
“We feel the centerlock track cog is a much faster and easier method for a track cog interface. Almost every track rider we have spoken to has accidentally cross-threaded a track hub once resulting in needing a new hub.” In fact, the first wheel Boyd ever built was a track wheel when he was a 16-year-old track racer and accidentally cross-threaded the hub. The last thing we need as a company is a kid cross-threading his track hub, learning to build wheels, and becoming a new competitor!”
https://boydcycling.com/collections/podium-track-wheels/products/centerlock-track-cog
Axle specs
“Track bikes have had it simple over the years, they don’t have to worry about derailleur hangers or brake compatibility. However, not to be outdone by the rapidly changing specs of road and mountain bike counterparts, track bikes finally found a way to add a new “standard” axle thickness. For decades, all axle specs were ⅜” for both front and rear axles. Confused as to why every other measurement on the bike was metric except the axle size, modern bikes have adopted an M9 front and M10 rear axle standard. How can you tell if your bike has metric or imperial measurements? A simple way to tell is if your existing wheel axle nuts fit perfectly on both the front and rear axles, then you have ⅜”. If your front axle nuts can not fit on the back then you more than likely have M9 and M10.,” explains Boyd.
“It’s important to note that if you are running a ⅜” bike and fork, an M9 front wheel will be loose in your front fork and an M10 rear wheel will not fit in the rear of your fork. If you are running an M9 / M10 bike and fork, a ⅜” front wheel will not fit in your fork and a ⅜” rear wheel will be loose in the rear of your bike frame,” Boyd adds.
Boyd says, when ordering your wheel or hub configuration you can choose your axle spec (based on your bike) and it will come with the correct size axles and nuts. If you accidentally order the wrong-sized axles, it is a fairly simple process to swap out the axles, you do not need to completely rebuild the wheel.
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