- 22 hours ago
Ever wondered what hookless rims are and why everyone is talking about them? This video breaks down the technology, explains the differences between hooked and hookless profiles, and highlights key considerations like tubeless compatibility. Discover 7 essential facts that every modern cyclist should know about this evolving rim technology.
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00:00if you've kept up with the latest wheel releases then you've probably noticed
00:04one thing hookless rims they seem to be everywhere but what are they well this piece of technology
00:10is relatively new to the road and gravel market and what benefits does it bestow to the user and
00:16what potential negatives are there well today and in this video i'm going to tell you seven
00:21things that you absolutely have to know about hookless rims i quickly need to step back in time
00:33you see in 1970 mavic released its module e rim a rim that was certifiably a game changer
00:41in the world of cycling you see before that rim existed the only choice for racing was tubular
00:47tires wherein you glue a tub a tubular tire onto a rim for every other type of cycling there was
00:54something called wire-on tires but these tended to be heavy and quite slow the difference with the
01:00module e was it incorporated a hook which allowed it to capture a lighter foldable beaded type of
01:06tire and prevented it from blowing off at high pressures ever since then that has been the most
01:12commonly used form of rim for bicycles but now we're starting to see more and more hookless rims
01:25put simply and as the name suggests a hookless rim is a rim without the hook that would usually
01:31capture the bead of a tire if you look at a profile you'll see that it lacks a hook at
01:36the top of the
01:37side walls of the rim and instead it is completely vertical now this means a couple of things that
01:43are quite important that you need to know the first one is that you cannot use clincher tires this is
01:49a
01:49tubeless only setup that's not to say that you can't run tubes for example if you had a catastrophic
01:54puncture you absolutely could but you could not change the tires to a clincher version even more
02:00confusingly hookless rims aren't actually compatible with all tubeless tires on the market and i'll come
02:06into that a little bit more later on in this video cycling is lagging and not leading when it comes
02:20to hookless rims in fact it has taken from about the 1970s until now for cycling especially road cycling
02:27to catch up with other pneumatic forms of transport mountain bikes have used hookless rims for a little
02:33while now but road cycling has sorely lagged behind however that does seem to be changing and although
02:39they're hardly universal yet there are a lot of notable brands putting quite a lot of time and energy
02:45into developing hookless rims for the road and gravel market these include envy zip cadex the sister
02:52company to giant and giant themselves all of whom are putting money into hookless rims and today i'm using
02:57giants slr one wheel to perfectly demonstrate exactly what hookless rims are and what all of these brands
03:04are espousing when they say it bestows a lot of benefits to the user i'll start by explaining exactly
03:16what the hook is and it's pretty self-explanatory the hook is part of the rim profile that captures the
03:23ties bead and prevents it from blowing off when inflated on hooked rims if you feel the side of
03:30the rims there you'll naturally feel a little lip at the top and that is exactly what we're referring to
03:36when we talk about a hook meanwhile on these hookless rims you'll notice if you can see up close that
03:43the
03:43rim profile is completely straight with vertical sides and that's where they're lacking the hook
03:49now in the early days of tubeless mountain biking setup it wasn't uncommon for riders to experience
03:56something called burping burping was the sudden and unexpected loss of pressure between the tire
04:02and the rim wall now this could happen for numerous reasons it might be that the tire bead wasn't stiff
04:08enough or that the pairing between the tire and the rim wasn't quite right and air was able to escape
04:13either way imagining burping happening on a road bike is absolutely terrifying now proponents of
04:22hookless rims actually say it's a much safer way to have a tubeless setup and that might seem strange
04:28because you're literally removing the hook the thing that was designed for years to keep tires in place
04:33however zip have done a lot of research into this and have found that the pressure required to blow
04:39a tire off a hooked rim and a hookless rim is actually very similar as another example envy say
04:45that by removing the hook from hookless rims brands can actually make sure that the bead seat diameter of
04:51the rim is accurate and consistent the whole way around allowing for a better pairing between the tire
04:56and the rim now this leads neatly onto another aspect that brands are keen to push when it comes to
05:02hookless rims that is superior manufacturing
05:12proponents of hookless rims are keen to talk about their simpler but superior manufacturing process zip
05:18for example told us that hookless rims allow better carbon compaction better resin distribution throughout
05:23the rim more accurate bead seat diameters and ultimately less scrap and less waste to help
05:31demonstrate this point i'm going to talk a little bit about rim manufacturing but i'll keep it brief
05:36because it can be a bit complicated but in short with hooked rims brands use a silicon mandrel to mold
05:43the tire bed cavity now that silicon mandrel is quite soft and can only be used once and then it
05:50needs to be
05:50thrown away however with hookless rims brands can use a steel mandrel to mold that tire bed cavity and they
05:58can
05:58get many more uses out of that because it's much harder that's not the only benefit either a steel
06:04mandrel allows them to create more accurate and more consistent tire bed diameters allowing for a
06:10better pairing between the tire and the rim the other manufacturing benefit of hookless rims is that
06:15you can get a better distribution of resin in the rim now this not only allows you to create a
06:21better
06:21interface between the tire and the rim which is obviously incredibly important it also crucially allows you to
06:27drop the weight of the wheel however that's not the only thing you drop with hookless rims brands are
06:32also keen to state that they are ultimately cheaper for the consumer because of these more efficient
06:37manufacturing processes now zip are very keen to state that their new 303 firecress wheels are 300 grams
06:45lighter than the old model because they have moved to a hookless design and also they are 30
06:5142 percent cheaper than those old models as well of course inevitably there will be those that say
06:57the drive behind hookless isn't because of performance reasons for the user but actually
07:02because of cheaper manufacturing costs for the brands and they might well be right it's still
07:06a little early to tell but it will be really interesting to see in the future as hookless
07:12rooms become more available and more common on the cycling market where the prices really do go down for the
07:18end user
07:25until very recently if you'd asked me what the widest internal rim widths i'd expect to see on a wheel
07:30i'd have told you 21 mil that was usual for both zip envy hunt all of these wheel manufacturers had
07:37internal room widths that were that wide however with their latest releases both zip and envy have wheels
07:42which have internal rim widths of 23 and 25 millimeters but why have they done this well it all
07:50comes down to the shape of the tire you see on a hookless rim the tire side will sit further
07:56apart
07:56because they're not being pulled inward by the hook if previously you'd put a wide tire on a rim
08:01with a narrow internal rim widths you'd have got a bulbous shaped your tire and it would have looked like
08:05a mushroom coming off the top of the rim now that interface between tire and the wheel has long been
08:11the
08:11subject of study for aerodynamicists who all say that a flush interface so one that sits neatly the
08:19rim into the tire and not a bulbous shape is much more aerodynamic what's more because those sidewalls
08:25are further apart you're able to run your tires at lower pressures this not only creates a more
08:31comfortable bike ride but also has been proven to make the bike faster zip say that on a smooth asphalt
08:37road a wider tire can expect to save between three to five watts up to 40 watts on a rougher
08:43surface
08:44now of course not all riders are going to want to go for wider tires but if you look at
08:49the recent
08:50trend of gc bikes and the sort of top end race bikes on the world tour you'll definitely see that
08:55there is a trend towards wider tires on fast bikes
09:04the reason you might be limited in tires for your hookless rims is ultimately due to the lack
09:10of standards around them basically the rate of change on hookless rims and tubeless tires have gone
09:17so quickly that the two governing bodies the etrto that's the european one and the iso the international
09:23one are yet to be able to sign it off they have fears that high pressures might blow the tire
09:29off
09:29the rim and it's not something they've experienced yet because mountain biking where hookless rims have
09:34been used the most tend to run their pressures much much lower than we would on the road however
09:40with road and gravel companies using that technology from mountain biking they've been pushing
09:45the rate of change in hookless rims much faster than those two governing bodies can keep up for this
09:52reason it has been left to rim and tire companies to work out which tires are compatible with which
09:58rims and most of this legwork is being done by wheel manufacturers for example giant told us that
10:04they're working really closely with tire brands in their testing protocols which involves inflating a
10:09tire to 1.5 the maximum pressure standards to see if it will blow off the rim now if you
10:15look at zip
10:16envy and giants websites all of them have lists of tires which are compatible with their rims but some
10:22of them are smaller than others for example zip only lists five brands that it feels are compatible
10:27with its rims whereas envy and giant list a little more it's all a little bit murky and quite confusing
10:34at
10:34the moment and not unlike the wild west really but as the pace of change increases and the steady march
10:40of technology carries on expect to see tire brands and rim manufacturers working together to create
10:47more compatible products early adopters of the tubeless setup will no doubt welcome hookless rims and the
10:59better interface between tires and rims that it offers and therefore a more secure setup however
11:05as we know from our comment section not everybody wants to set up their tires tubeless and there will
11:11be those that are saying there's no demand for hookless rims and that it's not necessary in the
11:16road market now it does feel important to say that at the time of filming neither continental nor vittoria
11:22two of the biggest tire manufacturers in the world say that their tires are compatible with hookless
11:28rims it will take a couple more of the big name tire brands to get involved and ultimately for etrto
11:35and
11:35iso to get involved and to set some standards but the upshot for the end user could be better value
11:41and
11:42lighter wheels so there you go seven things that you have to know about hookless rims a new technology
11:50for the road and gravel market but one that seems to be advancing at quite a pace if you have
11:56any
11:56questions about these new type of rims then please do leave them in the comments section below and
12:00i'll do my best to answer them and if you have found this video helpful do give us a thumbs
12:04up and
12:05subscribe to the channel it really does help us out now i'll be back soon with some more great tech
12:11content and i'll see you then
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