Stan’s NoTubes ZTR Avion Team

› A top-notch wheelset for on or off road

TUBELESS SPECIALIST STAN’S NOTUBES HAS built the new Avion wheelset on its own Neo cartridge-bearing hubs. Good quality Sapim spokes tie said hubs to carbon rims with a big, blunt 41mm deep aero cross-section. These measure an exceptionally wide 21.6mm internally and bulge to around 28mm.

Our test wheelset weighed 1534g in its lightest, thru-axle configuration, while the nicely finished skewers were 110g, with quick-release end caps adding around 20g at the hubs. If you’re running these tubeless (and you should), the included valves add a further 20g.

Setting these wheels up without inners is straightforward. They’re pretaped, and the tyre beads snap into place with reassuring gunshot reports. Those big rims do wonders for tyre volume, and without tubes the scope for running low pressures is considerable. Stan’s recommends rubber in the 25 to 40mm range and we fitted 30mm Schwalbe S-One tubeless tyres, which swelled to a measured width of 33mm. With a light rider on board, we ran them at 30psi off-road without incident, and we don’t doubt that we could have gone lower, as tubeless takes pinch flats out of the equation. There’s huge scope for tuning ride quality with a setup like this, choosing your ideal compromise between grip, comfort and rolling resistance.

The Avions are comfortable, but they’re also stiff, with a lively and exciting feel that’s at odds with their substantial dimensions. These are expensive wheels, but they’re a tremendous upgrade over more traditional offerings, particularly for fatter-tyred bikes, which benefit most from that enormous rim section.