Reynolds Blacklabel 307 and 309 Enduro and DH Wheels
Internal Width: 30 mm
Sizes Available: 27.5’’ (aka “307”) and 29’’ (aka “309”)
Material: Carbon Fiber
Stated Weight:
- Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro Wheelset: 1,834 g
- Blacklabel 309 Enduro Expert Wheelset: 1,870 g
- TR 309 Enduro Wheelset: 1,943 g
- Blacklabel 309 DH Expert Wheelset: n/a
MSRP:
- Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro Wheelset: $2,300
- Blacklabel 309 Enduro Expert Wheelset: $1,900
- TR 309 Enduro Wheelset: $1,450
- Blacklabel 309 DH Expert Wheelset: $1,900
Blister’s Measured Weight:
- Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro Front: 847 g
- Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro Rear: 986 g
- Total: 1,833 g
Bolted To: Contra MC, Trek Slash, & [REDACTED Future Bike]
Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Test Locations: Washington & British Columbia
Test Duration: 6 months
Intro
Reynolds has been making carbon-fiber bike wheels for a long time now, and today their gravity wheel line gets a big overhaul with new versions of their Enduro and DH offerings, spanning three new rim versions and multiple diameter options, for eight new wheels in total.
Reynolds is making a big deal about the improved vertical compliance of the new wheels and says that feedback and testing from Pivot Factory Racing led them to zero in on that compliance as a key goal for the new wheels to help make the wheels ride more smoothly and maintain traction. And after a season of testing and racing — which saw great race results from Ed Masters, Bernard Kerr’s best season ever, and a set of World Champs stripes for Jenna Hastings — the new wheels are now available to the public.
Design
In keeping with Reynolds’ typical naming conventions, the new Blacklabel 307 and 309 wheels feature a 30 mm internal width in 27.5’’ and 29’’ diameters, respectively, and are offered in Enduro and DH versions; the TR 307 and 309 wheels bring a less exotic, more affordable carbon fiber layup to the same rim profile, in an Enduro build only (no DH version).
To achieve their goals of increased vertical compliance, Reynolds has dramatically overhauled the profile of the new rims, bumping the internal width out to 30 mm (from 28 mm) and reducing the cross-section height to 20.5 mm (from 29 mm). The new, significantly shallower rims are said to be nearly 40% more compliant than the prior-generation 287 / 289 versions in the top-tier Blacklabel versions, and by about 30% for the less-expensive TR offering. Both the Enduro and DH versions of the rims share the same overall dimensions, including their 37 mm outer width, but the DH wheels use 32-hole drilling for additional strength and stiffness, while the Enduro versions drop down to 28 spokes to save a little weight and make the wheels a touch less stiff; Reynolds says that the Blacklabel Enduro and DH rims are essentially the same apart from spoke drilling.
The rim profile is slightly asymmetric for more even spoke bracing angles, and mirrors that of the Blacklabel 329 Trail wheels that we reviewed last year, just in a slightly narrower package, and with a heavier, burlier construction for the rims. It’s interesting that Reynolds has actually gone a little bit narrower on the rims meant for more aggressive use, but probably makes a certain amount of sense — while the plus-size tire trend has almost entirely died off, there are still folks running ~2.6’’ tires on lighter-duty Trail bikes, whereas modern Enduro and DH tires are almost exclusively in the 2.4’’ to 2.5’’ range.
Versions
Reynolds is offering three different versions of the new 307 / 309 Enduro wheelsets (and again, the 307 is the 27.5’’ version while the 309 is the 29er size), plus a single option for the DH wheels. The new rims are only available as part of complete wheelsets, as tends to be the norm for Reynolds. Mixed 309/307 Mullet wheelsets are also available.
Blacklabel Enduro Pro
The top-tier Blacklabel 307 / 309 Enduro Pro wheels use a Reynolds-designed straight-pull version of Industry Nine Hydra hubs, as found on the Blacklabel Trail Pro wheels as well. All the internals are standard Hydra, including those hubs’ crazy 690 points of engagement driver, with the Reynolds-designed straight-pull shells setting them apart. They’re offered in 28-hole drilling and with Centerlock rotor mounts only; front wheels are dedicated to a 110 x 15 mm Boost axle standard, but 148 x 12 mm Boost and 157 x 12 mm SuperBoost rears are available, with your choice of Hyperglide, XD, or Microspline drivers.
Sapim CX-Delta spokes with aluminum nipples are used to lace it all together, for a stated total weight of 1,728 g for the 27.5’’ size, or 1,834 g for the 29ers.
Blacklabel Enduro Expert
The Blacklabel Enduro Expert wheels swap in a Sun Ringle Super Bubba X hubset in place of the Industry Nine Hydras used on the Pro version, still in a 28-spoke configuration, with Centerlock rotor mounts and the same options for axle spacing and freehubs (15 mm Boost front and Boost or SuperBoost rear with Hyperlide, XD, and Microspline drivers available). The Super Bubba X hubs use a six-pawl arrangement with alternating sets of three pawls giving 90 total points of engagement (4° between points). The hub swap adds a modest ~35 g to the claimed weights for the wheelsets (1,762 g and 1,870 g for the 27.5’’ and 29’’ versions, respectively).
TR Enduro
The most affordable option in the new Enduro line gets a more basic carbon fiber layup for the rims (which Reynolds calls “PR3” as compared to the “MR5 IDM” version in the higher-end Blacklabel wheels), paired with a new version of the Sun Ringle SRX hubs with a three-pawl design that produces 30 points of engagement (12°). As with the higher-end Enduro wheels in the lineup, the TR Enduros use 28 spokes per wheel and Centerlock rotor mounts. The hub spacing and freehub body options are also the same, but Sapim Sprint spokes with brass nipples are used in place of the fancier options on the higher-end wheels. All that adds about 100 grams over the Blacklabel Enduro Expert wheels (1,861 g and 1,943 g for the 27.5’’ and 29’’ TR Enduros, respectively). Reynolds says that the less-exotic construction of the rims is also slightly less vertically compliant than the higher-end versions.
Blacklabel Downhill Expert
Finally, the Blacklabel Downhill wheels are offered in a single Expert version with Sun Ringle Super Bubba hubs and 32 Sapim Sprint spokes with brass nipples. As mentioned above, the rims are essentially the same as those used in the Blacklabel Enduro wheels, just tweaked to allow for 32-spoke drilling, and in keeping with their intended use case, the Blacklabel Downhill Expert wheels are offered with 20 x 110 mm Boost front hubs and 157 x 12 mm rear hubs only; Hyperglide, XD, and Microspline freehubs are all available, though I’m not aware of any Microspline narrow-range DH cassettes on the market at this point.
The Super Bubba hubs feature an interesting split ratchet ring design that can be set up to achieve 45 points of engagement with all six pawls engaging simultaneously, or in a staggered setup with two sets of three pawls each trading off power transmission duties, for 90 points of engagement. Check out our review of the Sun Ringle Duroc SD37 Pro wheels for more on that. And unlike the Enduro versions of the new wheels, the Blacklabel Downhill Expert wheels come with six-bolt rotor mounts; stated weights aren’t available yet, but based on the hub, spoke, and spoke count changes, we’d expect them to be about 150 g heavier per set than the Blacklabel Enduro Expert wheels, for wheelset weights just over 1,900 and 2,000 g, depending on wheel size. But we’ll update the post when we’re able to get more exact numbers there.
Weight (and Comparisons)
Reynolds doesn’t publish a rim-only weight for the new offerings and doesn’t yet have a stated weight for the DH versions, but the claimed full wheelset weight for the top-tier Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro is on the lighter side for an Enduro-oriented carbon wheelset, though not by a big margin over a lot of its competitors. Below are the weights for a variety of both aluminum and carbon fiber Enduro wheels, all as measured by Blister and in a 29’’ diameter unless otherwise noted.
Wheelsets:
1,803 g Chris King MTN30 (carbon, measured)
1,834 g Reynolds Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro (carbon, stated)
1,840 g Revel RW30 + Industry Nine Hydra (carbon, measured)
1,848 g DT Swiss XM 1700 (aluminum, stated)
1,849 g Reserve 30|HD + Industry Nine Hydra (carbon, measured)
1,864 g Forge+Bond 30 EM 28h + Industry Nine Hydra (carbon, measured)
1,877 g We Are One Union + Industry Nine Hydra (carbon, 27.5’’ diameter, measured)
1,985 g DT Swiss EX 1700 (aluminum, stated)
2,069 g Enve M730 / Chris King (carbon, measured)
2,104 g Reserve 30|HD AL (aluminum, measured)
Reynolds offers a lifetime warranty for the original buyer on all of their carbon rims; hubs, spokes, and labor to rebuild a wheel are covered for the first two years.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) Reynolds’ prior-generation Blacklabel Enduro wheels were notably stiff compared to most modern offerings. The claimed 40% increase in vertical compliance sounds like a very big change on that front, but how do they feel on the trail?
(2) It’s also interesting that Reynolds is using essentially the same rim for both their Enduro and DH wheels, just with different spoke counts. Are the Blacklabel Enduro wheels really as competitive weight-wise as the stated figures would suggest? And are they really up for DH abuse at that weight? Reynolds says they’ve raced full seasons of both the EWS and Downhill World Cup circuit on a single wheelset, which sounds promising, but we’ll need to get on a set to find out.
FULL REVIEW
Early carbon-fiber mountain bike wheels were stiff to a fault. They held a line really well when you were pushing them hard, and often held up a lot longer than their aluminum counterparts, but could also feel like they were transmitting every little bit of trail chatter and feedback straight through to the rider.
With that history in mind, “compliance” has since become the buzzword of the moment for carbon wheel manufacturers, who have made huge strides in making their wheels less hyper stiff and punishing in the last handful of years. And that’s great, but more compliance isn’t always better, either.
So, when Reynolds rolled out their overhauled Enduro and DH wheels, I was eager to see what they’d cooked up. It had been a long time since I’d ridden a gravity-oriented wheelset from Reynolds, and I’d frankly found their early efforts to be rather punishingly stiff. But I’ve gotten along well with their newer Blacklabel 329 Trail Pro wheels and Reynolds’ claims of massively increased compliance were compelling. So how would the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros stack up, and where does their on-trail performance fall within the current spectrum of burly carbon wheels?
On the Trail
Mounting up tires on the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro — even the consistently tight DH-casing Continental Kryptotals — was straightforward, and they seated and sealed with little fuss. We were off to a good start there, but how would the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro perform on the trail? And how would their ride quality feel? Reynolds claims a big increase in compliance over the prior-generation Blacklabel 289 Enduros, but those were pretty damn stiff, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect.
Ride Quality, Stiffness, & Wheel + Bike Pairings
As a whole, newer carbon wheels ride a lot better than ones from a generation or two ago — the days of mega-stiff, ultra-punishing wheels seem to be pretty well behind us, but there’s still a good bit of variation in the finer points of the ride feel of modern options. And after six months with them, I can confirm that the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros have indeed mellowed out a ton of the sharpness of their predecessors — they’re a much, much smoother-riding wheel overall.
That said, the 309 Enduro Pros still feel somewhat stiff and relatively springy and energetic in terms of their ride quality — they’re still not the most muted-feeling wheels out there by some margin. But they’re a lot more compliant and smooth riding than Reynolds wheels of old, and I really like the balance that they strike on that front — somewhat dependent on the bike that they’re bolted to.
I’ve spent time with the 309 Enduro Pros bolted to three different bikes — the Contra MC, Trek Slash, and a third, upcoming model that I can’t tell you about quite yet (stay tuned). Those three bikes have presented an interesting case study of how frame and wheel stiffness come together to produce a final end result. The MC is a steel high-pivot bike that’s on the less stiff end of the spectrum for a modern Enduro bike; the Slash has a lot in common with the MC in terms of its geometry and suspension kinematics, but is quite notably stiff; the third mystery bike is another carbon-framed Enduro bike, but it features a more conventional suspension layout and lands somewhere between the MC and Slash in terms of frame stiffness.
In short, I really like the way the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros ride on both the MC and the mystery bike; on the Slash, they feel like a bit much. But while I like the Slash quite a bit overall, it is just a stiffer frame than I’d prefer in the first place, and adding relatively stiff wheels to the package just transmits more small feedback than I’d prefer. It’s manageable, but not ideal. But on the more average-stiffness mystery frame, and especially the less stiff MC, the added precision and responsiveness of the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros (as compared to the most notably compliant carbon wheels out there, like the Forge+Bond 30EMs) starts to feel like a real positive.
And to be very clear, I wouldn’t call the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros harsh or anything like that; they’re on the stiffer end of the spectrum of wheels that I’d generally describe as having a nice, well-rounded feel. That’s a great place to be, especially for a lot of bigger and/or more aggressive riders who’d prefer a slightly more stout-feeling wheel than average. To me, the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros feel slightly stiffer than We Are One Triads (more so laterally than vertically) and pretty close to Enve AM30s; Reserve 30|HDs are noticeably softer flexing than the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros, and Forge + Bond 30 EMs are even more so.
On the stiff Trek Slash frame, the muted, smooth-riding feel of the Forge + Bond 30 EMs felt like an especially good match; on the less-stiff MC, I appreciate the extra precision of the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros. For applications where a stiff-ish wheel is the right fit, they’re excellent.
[Coincidentally, I just recorded an upcoming episode of Bikes & Big Ideas with Brook Macdonald, in which he raised a lot of the same ideas about balancing frame and component stiffness to dial in a desired ride feel. It’s a good one, so stay tuned for that soon.]
Weight
Reynolds has also clearly put some real effort into paring weight out of the 309 Enduro Pros wherever possible. The custom straight-pull Industry Nine Hydra hubs are slimmed down considerably compared to the standard versions, and the 309 Enduro Pro’s versions even use smaller bearings in the front hub than standard Hydra hubs to save a few grams (which also means that they aren’t convertible to a 20 mm axle). Sapim CX-Ray spokes are super light, and the outer resin layer on the rims feels notably thin, too.
The result is one of the lightest Enduro-rated wheelsets we’ve tested to date — a stat made more impressive by the fact that Reynolds uses the same rims, just with a few extra spoke holes, in their DH wheels. The weight difference between the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros and a lot of other carbon Enduro wheels isn’t huge — maybe 60 to 100 grams for the pair — but it’s not nothing, and Reynolds says that their impact resistance is still “industry leading.”
Durability & Maintenance
Per Reynolds’ claims, the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros have indeed held up great for me over the past six months. I’ve subjected them to a whole lot of descending, including some bike park laps, without incident. I haven’t touched them with a spoke wrench, but they’re still running true and with nice, even spoke tension. And the rear rim survived what was easily my most violent rim strike of last year — hard enough to pinch flat a DH-casing tire to the point that the decompression blew the bead off the rim.
I’m still not the biggest fan of centerlock rotor mounts, though. I’ve often needed to go notably over the recommended torque spec to stop them from loosening on a few different wheels, especially with big rotors, and doubly so when using big rotors on adapters (rather than native centerlock rotors). If you have a centerlock rotor come loose on a ride — as I did in my first ride on the Blacklabel 309s — there’s not much you can do about it unless you happen to be carrying a bottom bracket tool with you, which I very much was not.
Once I tightened things up more aggressively, I didn’t have any further issues. But if I’m given the choice between a system with some redundancy (six separate bolts) and the ability to tighten them with a multi-tool vs. a single point of failure that requires a big specialty tool, the decision isn’t that hard. Sure, centerlock saves a few grams, but I just don’t find the tradeoff to be worth it (especially since it mostly pushes weight from the hubs to the rotors, so the net savings are very small).
That said, I’m still happily running the Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pros on the Contra MC, my current personal Enduro bike. I’m a big fan of the wheels’ ride quality, they’ve held up great so far, and the recent increased availability of big centerlock rotors (I’m running Hope’s new 220 mm front / 200 mm rear combo) means that the 309 Enduro Pro’s lack of a six-bolt rotor option is less of an annoyance than it would have been not too long ago.
Bottom Line
Reynolds has done a very good job of making a burly Enduro wheelset at an impressively low weight, and they have improved the ride quality quite a bit when compared to their offerings of old.
The Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro is still a relatively stiff, precise-feeling wheel, but one that’s up-to-date and well within modern norms for a gravity-oriented carbon wheel, rather than feeling super stout to the point of being harsh. They’re a particularly compelling option if you need a strong wheelset and are willing to pay for some notable weight savings.
Great review. I’m curious if you’ll ever write about the CrankBrothers Synthesis carbon wheels. One of you mentioned them on the podcast as having a nice ride feel. They were one of the earlier brands to shoot for compliance and offer front and rear wheels with different rim profiles and spoke counts.