If you’re like me, you were born in the mid seventies, and you’re not only good looking, but hilarious and interesting as well. You grew up with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration that actually did space stuff. And you probably wanted to be an astronaut. Which is why you’ll be familiar with this logo, which NASA used from 1975 to 1992, known in NASA circles as the “worm” logotype.
(More on the history of NASA identity here courtesy of the NY Times.)
If you were interested in space anytime between 1975 and 1992, and you are now interested in mountain bikes, then you might notice a bit of similarity between that treasured NASA logotype and the one to be found on Reynolds latest top shelf carbon MTB wheels, the Black Label series. Here’s the Black Label logotype on the hub.
Reynolds is trying to send us a signal here. These wheels are top-shelf, full-bore, high-speed, low-drag. They certainly don’t mind charging money for them either, as the Black Labels will remove a payload of $2400 from your wallet. For that price you can have 27.5 size in either All Mountain or XC versions, or 29″ in Trail or XC.
Reynolds says the Black Label wheelsets are in the 1400g range for 27.5, and pick up another 100g for 29. Here’s their blurb on the 29 XC:
The 29 XC BLACKLABEL wheels combine Reynolds’ unsurpassed MR5 carbon rim design with precision DT Swiss components, resulting in a purpose-built, performance-oriented wheelset that surpasses expectations of weight, stiffness and acceleration. At a scant 1440 grams these wheels accelerate effortlessly and rail through singletrack, making them the perfect complement to your lightweight XC racing machine.
If the Black Labels are a bit too rich for your blood, for $500 less at $1900 you could get into a set of 27.5 AM Summit Series wheels, which are a scant 220g heavier and also come in XC and 29 flavors. And there’s also an alloy option called the MTN R Series which weigh in at 1775g for the set, but only set you back $625.
The full line of Reynolds MTN wheels can be found at this link.
I’d also like to mention here that Reynolds won my Coolest USB Stick award for Interbike 2014 with this cool credit card shaped press kit. Might sound a bit frivolous, but a company that displays attention to detail in something as small as a USB press kit is likely to have that same attitude when they’re building wheels.
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