A lot of people have asked if we are going to sell Nimbus Ti hubs as a standalone parts, which we have no plans to do. There are a bunch of reasons behind this, among them:
1. They have a longer lead time than any other hubs we work with, even Tunes, and we don't want to put ourselves in the position of not being able to sell wheels because we sold too many hubs.
2. This has already proven to be a great move for us, and we don't want for it to turn bad for any of the relevant players. Our aim is to offer an exceptional product and value that helps us to continue to grow our wheel business. The plan has never been to disrupt the hub market in that manner, as we feel it would be counterproductive to do so.
3. Without anyone ever having mentioned a price target for a would-be standalone hub, my instinct is that people would expect it to be lower-priced than it would be.
4. We are able to offer a great range of rim and build options that give riders the ability to select and tailor something that will suit their exact needs, yet allows us to manage production efficiently. A great deal of the value in the wheels comes from exactly that - the job board is WAY simplified compared to what it looked like in the very recent past.
We also have a mousetrap which allows people who want to use a rim that we don't offer, or who have a set of rims that need new hubs, to get precisely what they want: BYO rims. Send us your rims in the appropriate drillings (20/24/28 front, 24/28/32 rear) and we will build them with a set of Nimbus Ti hubs and black Sapim Lasers for you, for $500. If you must have CX Rays, those are $80 more. This includes the material cost of the hubs/spokes/nipples/skewers, plus the labor to build them. Return shipping is $35, as with all wheels. Turnaround time is roughly 10 days from receipt of rims. There are of course limitations - rims need to be in good shape, need to be from a reputable source (contact us to be sure), and hell hath no fury like a wheelbuilder who gets a set of nasty dirty rims or tubular rims with glue from one end to the other - but it's a tremendously consumer-centric program that we feel is unltimately a much better all around solution thanselling loose joints hubs.
Of course Rail rims are their own compelling argument, the new Pacenti SL23 v2 rim is taking off like a shot and is a beautiful rim to build, look at, and ride, and the Stan's rims are excellent as ever.
Questions, comments? Fire away.
3 comments
Any sort of timeline on a disc version of the Nimbus Ti…can we expect it in time for cross season or is that being really optimistic?
Mike – yes, so long as cross season doesn't start for you on 7/1. It will be early July. Triston – slightly different dimensions, wider bead seat width, bead blast finish which looks terrific, and the dozen or so we've built so far (a bunch more on tap for today) have a more consistent join. Oh, and a deeper tubeless channel which should make tires somewhat easier to mount. They're quite nice.
What differentiates the revamped Pacenti SL23 from the original iteration?Excited to be placing an order for 52s with Nimbus Tis shortly..