Rims
E*thirteen’s rim is pretty standard with a 23.4mm inside width. Wider rims may be in vogue, but the fact of the matter is that most tires were designed around a rim approximately 23mm wide, so the E*thirteen rim gives most tires a nice shape.
The rims do not have eyelets, but that has become the new norm. The rim bed has a lip, just like WTB rims, or other UST compliant rims. This lip helps to keep the tire bead seated and prevents burping on tubeless tires. E*thirteen advertises that they use a special, proprietary scandium material for their rims. Really what that means is an aluminum alloy with scandium added to improve the rims’ strength to weight ratio.
Spokes
The rim is attached to the hub with 28 quad butted, J-bend spokes on each wheel. With the quad butting E*thirteen is really pushing for weight savings. The nipples are aluminum – again, to save weight.
A 1680 g, listed weight is pretty light for a 29er wheelset. The actual weight of 1844 g, isn’t so impressive. It isn’t bad, but it’s just not notably light and is very different from the listed weight. I almost wonder if E*thirteen didn’t list the weight of a 27.5 wheelset.
The Build
The internet consensus on these hubs has been less than glowing. It seems like the initial batches suffered from durability issues. Recent complaints are less frequent though, so I expect that the issue has been resolved.
I mounted these up on a Canfield Yelli Screamy and I had to change the freehub to an XD driver and change the axle end caps on both the front and rear hubs. The axle end cap change was trivial on the front hub and only slightly harder on the rear. I was able to do the front with my fingers and I needed pliers for the rear. The freehub change required a tool, but was easy.
I mounted both WTB TCS tires and Schwalbe TL tires to these wheels and ran them tubeless and in both cases they seated easily with a floor pump. I’d put the seal pretty close to WTB rims for ease and tightness.
A nice benefit of the E*thirteen TRSr wheels is that they come with both XD and regular hub drivers and all the end caps E*thirteen offers to yield different axle configurations, so you don’t’ need to pay any extra to adapt the wheels to your bike after the initial purchase price. The regular driver is cool to in that they replace three of the splines with steel inserts to help prevent marring from the cassette.
The rim drilling is symmetric, E13 doesn’t try to squeeze any extra stiffness out of offset nipples.
Tire Mounting
It was quite easy to mount and seat WTB, Schwalbe, and Maxxis tires on the E*thirteen TRSr wheels. Once on, they stayed in place well. I have yet to burp a tire, even while running 20psi for one ride (unintentionally).
The Ride
On the first couple rides, the quick engagement lived up to my expectations. It also became clear that the rear hub was very loud – possibly the loudest hub I’ve ridden, certainly right up there with the old Sun Ringle hubs. This noise didn’t change much as the wheels broke in. You pretty much have to decide that you love the noise.
On the plus side, these wheels are stiff! For a pretty light, 28 spoke, 29” diameter wheelset, they nearly match my 27.5, 32 spoke Hadley/Stans Flow wheels for stiffness. Awesome. On an aluminum hardtail like the Yelli Screamy it does make for a bit of a harsh ride, but I’ll take that for the precise handling the stiff wheels provide through corners. Due to the spoke bracing angle, the gains in lateral stiffness are greater than the gains in vertical stiffness, but it is still a stiff wheel in both directions.
Durability
I’ve hit the rims on some decent rocks and landed the odd jump pretty sideways and had to do some truing as a result, but so far, that has mostly been to remedy spoke de-tensioning and slight bends in the rim.
For durability, I’d put them on par with a Stan’s Arch EX rim. On a 650b bike I’d find that inadequate, but I’m more inclined to run a lighter, less durable rim on a 29er because I want to cover more ground, and gaining a bit of strength adds more weight on a 29er than on a smaller diameter wheel.
The only dent on the rim came from an odd rock strike, and it’s on the side of the rim, not the bead. So far, it hasn’t had any notable detrimental effects to true or roundness.
The hubs have been pretty solid. I certainly haven’t had any issues with the flanges separating from the body or cracking, as some people encountered on earlier revisions. But I did have to tighten the rear hub once. That seems about par for the course on many wheels. The front hub stayed free of play.
Comparisons
Hadley Hubs: The Hadley SDH hubs are quieter and offer 72pt engagement instead of 60pt engagement. They don’t offer flanges that are quite as large though. For a 27.5” wheel I’d stick with Hadley as I don’t feel the need for the additionally stiffness of the E13 hub and I suspect the Hadley will be a bit more robust. For 29” wheels I’d take the E*thirteen hub.
Hope Hubs: The Hope Pro II Evo hubs are pretty comparable for noise, but their engagement is slower (40pt vs. 60pt). I’d put build quality on par. If I wanted to save some money, I’d go with Hope. Otherwise, I’d prefer the E*thirteen hubs.
DT Swiss 240 Hubs: The DT hubs are lighter, listed as weighing in at 145 g front, 230 g rear. E*thirteen lists the TRSr hubs as 207 g front and 335 g rear. The DT hubs are also much much quieter. But they are much slower to engage (18 or 36pt vs. 60pt). I’d take the E*thirteen until 54pt kits are widely available for DT Swiss.
Arch EX Rim: The E*thirteen rim is slightly wider and not entirely dissimilar in weight. The bead hook is better on the E*thirteen rim, so I’d give it the edge here.
WTB KOM i23 Rim: It is a toss-up for me between these two rims. The bead hook is very similar, I expect stiffness is similar, but I haven’t tried the KOM rim on the E*thirteen hubs. Weight is a bit better on the KOM – a listed 440 g vs. 483 g for the TRSr Rim.
Bottom Line:
I would recommend these to anyone looking for a stiff 29er wheel, with the caveat that you have to be okay with a loud hub. The E*thirteen TRSr wheels engage quickly and are the stiffest 29er wheels I’ve ridden. That stiffness yields precise and responsive steering that is uncommon in the bigger wheel size. The E13 TRSr wheels aren’t the lightest or the cheapest available, but I’d be bummed to go to a less stiff wheel on a 29er, and I think that would be most other wheels that don’t feature Boost spacing.