It took us a while (over 7 years), but we are thrilled to finally introduce Boyd Cycling Mountain Bike wheels! Back when I was racing road full time, I never had time to go out and ride mountain bikes. Now that I am enjoying more time riding my mountain bike, I can test designs and feel what will go into making the best wheels. It’s allowed me to spend a lot more time on some of the best trails in the country, conveniently located right here in the Carolinas. . .which is why the model names have a distinct Carolina touch to them.
RIMS

The Ridgeline carbon MTB rim is an all-terrain rim. Most people riding mountain bikes put a wheel set on, and do all their riding on that set. Coming into the mountain bike scene after years of studying and developing we didn’t want to be the company that said, “Here’s the wheelset you need for fire roads, here’s the one for downhill, he’s the one for riding on 10% grade on 2.3 inch gravel.”

So, we started off with the wheelset that 95% of people will put on their bike and leave for all their rides. It’s a wide rim, but not to the point where you can throw on some light, quick XC tires and ride a shortrack race. Yet, you can also mount big, grippy, gnarly tires and go flying down stuff I personally would be walking!

Ideal tire sizes are between 2.1 to 2.4 and with the tubeless hookless design you can run low pressures for better handling and faster runs.
A lot of people are afraid to run carbon on a mountain bike, but it does give a stiffer ride and carbon is more resistant to impacts than aluminum. Even though the carbon rims are a few grams heavier than the alloy option, it’s a wheelset that gives a distinct strength and stiffness advantage.
Rim depth – 24mm
Rim width – 33mm
Inner width – 26mm
Rim weight – 29er – 415 grams / 27.5 – 395 grams
TUBELESS

There’s still debate on whether tubeless is the best option or not for road wheels. For MTB wheels. . you better be running tubeless. You flat WAY less, you can run lower pressure, handling is better, punctures will seal up with sealant. There’s no debate, you should definitely be running tubeless on your MTB wheels!

With this, all MTB wheels will come set up with tubeless tape and tubeless valves (with the tubeless wingnut). Just mount your favorite tire, add sealant, and be on your way!
Hookless

With the way the rim bed is designed, hooks are not needed to hold the tire in place. The compression of the bead of the tire, combined with the bead locking rim bed means the tire can not come off the edge of the rim. By running a tubeless and hookless system you can run lower PSI, giving you better handling.

The hookless rim bed also gives more material to withstand potential impacts. In over a year of testing on riders of all sizes, we never once burped a tire or damaged a rim.
HUBS

In part of making a complete wheel system, we wanted to have the highest quality hubs come standard on the wheels. We have a CNC factory produce the hubs for us to our specification to ensure you will have the stiffest, most stable, and best engaging hubs on the market.

The MTB hubs feature:

Centerlock mounting system for the rotor
Swappable end caps to go between 135mm QR, 135X12mm thru axle, and 142X12mm thru axle
Wide flange spacing
J-bend flanges for added stiffness
6 pawls operating in a 3X3 manner
4.3 degrees of engagement

SPOKES & NIPPLES

We feature Sapim CX Ray spokes and Sapim brass nipples on all carbon builds. No, you do not need aero spokes on a mountain bike, but with the super high fatigue rating of the CX Ray spoke, combined with the low weight, it makes for a durable and lightweight wheelset.

Spokes are laced double cross on both sides on the front and triple crossed on both sides of the rear wheel for a stronger build and much better transfer of torque. All spokes and nipples are black.
SPOKE COUNT
You are going to be putting these wheels through a lot. Whether it’s long climbing, flying down hills, or crashing (yes, we have to plan for that); mountain bike wheels get abused. That’s ok! We are building them to handle the abuse.
All mountain bike wheels are built with a 28 spoke count front and 32 spoke count rear. So go ahead, do as you please!