The Taipei International Bike Show serves as a launching pad for many new products from companies around the world. One of the biggest releases this year is Spank's new EVO rim.
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Spank Industries proudly announces the launch of its ALL NEW EVO Rim line at the Taipei International Bike Show, on March 17!
Spank has invested heavily in a state of the art high-end rim development/production facility in Taiwan. This step has afforded Spank the opportunity to advance the development of its patented Oohbah Profile Rim line by years! For 2010 Spank introduces the EVO line of rims. Vomax EVO (XC race), Oozy EVO (aggressive trail), Subrosa EVO (all mountain), Spike EVO (DH race), and Stiffy EVO (extreme freeride), rims have all been completely updated, now offering what we feel are the strongest, lightest rims on the planet!
All new tooling and profiles, new production processes (including advanced Micro Grain Refinement), and the incorporation of new age materials have allowed Spank to reduce weights across the board from 5-15%, while improving ultimate strength, rigidity, and ductility by up to 20%! Spanks new race-inspired Vomax EVO and Spike EVO rims employ Dynamal Alloy. Normally reserved for aeronautic applications, this rare, virgin alloy blend means achieving stronger, lighter rims, doesnt have to come at the expense of reduced fatigue life and resistance to permanent deformation (yield strength), meaning Spanks EVO rims also show better durability than ever thought possible. The result: the Vomax EVO is now available at a remarkable 335 g and Spike EVO DH race at a trim 599 g! Its EVOlution, and literally a revolution in the way we think about hoops.
Mike Dutton - Spank Brand Manager - had this to say about the new technology: Whats Oohbah? Spanks Oohbah patent is pretty simple as a concept, but took years of tooling experiments and various iterations on design to accomplish. The idea is this; a very important type of the strength in a rim is called hoop strength. Hoop strength is easy to understand. A circle, as a shape is very strong. If you took a long straight section of a rims thin extruded aluminum material, it would offer little resistance to bending. That same material, when bent into a hoop, can withstand much greater forces without deformation.
If you cut out a sectional profile of any rim, you will find there are two horizontal walls creating a chamber, an outer wall of material, and an inner wall of material (the tube well). On any traditional rim, both of these walls are concave. Meaning they both curve inward like a bowl. Now, take a look at the Oohbah profile on the attached photo. The inner wall is curved outward, or it is convex. This is very important. The effect of one concave wall and one convex wall create a second feature of hoop strength in the sectional profile. In essence this allows the rim to approach a toroidal shape, which has the lowest mass and highest stiffness on all planes. This adds immense additional rigidity to the rim as a whole. It creates a positive force of resistance to deformation of the rims straightness and sidewalls (vertical walls), as well as lending further stiffness to the rim, (which improves performance). Think of it this way: if you take an egg, and apply equal force to two sides, it is remarkably strong. Now, if you took two haves of the same shell, and put them together, both in the same direction, they could withstand very little force without caving in. The incredible stiffness and strength that results allows us to reduce the thickness of the material, reducing weight.
It is also worth noting that the wave shape of the inner tube well wall on an Oohbah rim is also far stronger than an traditional design flat or curved wall. A great analogy to explain this is corrugated steel roofing, which can easily support your weight if you walk across a roof. Flat sheet metal of the same thickness would buckle and fail immediately under the same force. On other rims, as the curved tube well bends downward under pressure, it pulls the sidewalls inward causing them to fail and eventually collapse. Oohbah tube wells stay stable and support the sidewalls, maintaining the form of the rim.
Having a lighter, stronger design affords us a really cool opportunity. It allows us to create wider rims than anyone else at equal or lower weights. The wider a rims material, the more rigid the hoop is. Rigidity means less of your energy goes into flex, and more to the ground and your cornering and braking performance are improved. Wider rims also mean greater tire spread, meaning more of your tires treads are in contact with the ground, and your traction or grip on the ground improves. So, wide rims equal better stiffness and traction. If you look at any of our competitors rims, compare weights to find similar models, and then compare widths, ours are usually wider by 5 mm or more (and often still lighter).
The second major feature is the addition of a second set of beadnips, on the inner wall of the rim. Beadnips hold the tires bead in place (the bead-seat) when you are riding. Almost all rims have one on each side of the rim, at the top of the vertical walls. They keep the tires bead from slipping upward and coming off the rim. That is very important. However, there is a second type of flat that called snake bites, or pinch flats. This is when the bead of the tire slips inward, out of the bead-seat, toward the center of the rim. Then the sidewall of the tire collapses, and the tube is pinched, creating two holes (top and bottom of tube), and a flat tire. We have added a second set of beadnips, on the inside of the bead-seat. This keeps the tire in the correct position, even when riding at very low air pressures. Anyone who rides will understand that sometimes, especially on rough and loose terrain, that lower tire pressures improve traction and comfort. With other rims, when you lower your air pressure you run a high risk of pinch flats. Spank rims can run much lower air pressures with significantly reduced fear of flats! Thats Oobah!
Visit www.spank-bikes.com for more details and a sneak peek at the new gear, or contact Spanks American Sales Office at entradaimports@gmail.com, or Global Headquarters at mike@spank-ind.com for more info!
Why can't brands just be honest and tell us what kind of aluminum alloy they use instead of silly marketing speak?
