Wheels For The Standard Rando: Update

Okay folks, here it is, the Standard Rando is back up and running with my new wheel set. These are White Industries XMR hubs laced with Wheelsmith spokes and nipples to WTB KOM rims in the "i25" flavor.

I waffled for a time considering what color to get, but after seeing these on the bike I am glad I ended up choosing black. Twin Six made the scheme black and green, and I just feel that by even putting a white seat on it, I have went beyond the intended color palette for this rig.

There will be tweaking of parts. I have already said that I am not 100% in love with the saddle, and the stem may need to be a tad shorter. The levers need to be tweaked out as far as position goes. Small things like that. Nothing unusual. The main thing is that it is up and running and the wheels are set up with WTB Nano 40TCS tires, which is the first in what I hope to be a series of tires to be set up on these rims to see what effects can be derived by using a wider rim with 35mm to 40mm tires.

Of course, the WTB tires and rims are a dead ringer fit. That wasn't unexpected. I used Caffe Latex for sealant here, as that is being tested for RidingGravel.com as well. Everything else was WTB product though- rim strip, valve stems, and the aforementioned tires and rims.

Puffed up: The WTB Nano 40TCS tires take on a bigger profile on the wide KOM i25 rims.

So, the importatnt bit- just what did this do to the tires? I noted immediately that the Nano 40's didn't look over-stretched or too flat in profile. I was a bit concerned that the wider profile rim might flatten out the casing to the extent that all the tread was hitting the ground, which would have been quite a drag- literally. However; I didn't notice that at all. What I did see was that the bead of the tire seemed lined up more with the edge of the tread area. The sidewalls of the tire were arching from the rim to the tread area quite nicely, which kept the round-ish profile to the tread area intact. Good stuff!

I measured the tire at work and it came out to 42.11mm wide at the widest part of the casing. So, that makes these as big as Bruce Gordon Rock & Road tires on a narrower rim. I would venture to say that the Nano 40 has more volume to the casing as well. As a reference, the Nano 40's have measured out right at 40mm on a WTB Frequency i23 rim for me in the past, so a 2mm inner rim width dimension increase ended up yielding a 2mm+ width increase. I have also thought that the Nano 40's seemed "tall" in profile for their width, but this wider rim has rounded out the casing really nicely. We'll see how that affects ride quality soon.

Stay tuned......