Review: 10 Tech Carbon Wheels
Locally made monocoque design MTB rim.
The standout design features include a single-wall rim with reinforced spoke pockets — the outcome: incredible comfort and traction.
With considerable experience manufacturing carbon fiber items for the aviation, car, motorcycle and mountain bike industries, 10 Tech from Centurion has developed a single-wall carbon wheelset. The big idea with this monocoque-shaped rim is to build a wheel that has a little more vertical compliance, whilst maintaining lateral stiffness. The desired ride qualities include less harsh trail feedback, more rider comfort, better steering accuracy and overall efficiency.
This is not an entirely new direction for carbon wheel design to be heading in. Witness the single-wall Zipp 3ZERO Moto Wheels, (featured in our Trail Gear Show HERE) and the trend of many manufacturers opting for a lower profile design in the pursuit of compliance. Currently, 100% single-wall design rims are few and far between. Experts tell me they are tricky to make. So did 10 Tech get it right? After a couple of weeks of riding the wheels, I tend to think they did. What’s more, they’re pretty impressive on techy trails.
Details
With more than a year of research, development and testing, 10 Tech has refined and settled on their design, layup and construction process. The layup is a combination of twill and unidirectional carbon which is said to optimize strength and weight.
10 Tech Carbon Wheels
| Description: Low-profile single-wall carbon rim |
| Inner Diameter: 30mm |
| Bead: 4mm |
| Spoke: 28h, Pillar J-Bend, 3-cross lacing |
| Tyre size: 2.3″ to 2.6″ Tyre compatibility |
| Weight: 2139g (29er) |
| Max Rider Weight: 150kg |
| Application: Trail, Enduro, eMTB, DH |
| Warranty: 5 Years (First Owner) |
| RRP: TBC |
The spoke nipple pockets are reinforced to eliminate the spokes pulling through the rim as it flexes – which can be a problem on all wheels. The spoke pockets also accommodate a wide range of nipples and make wheel building or maintenance, simpler.
10 Tech says common failure points were reinforced to achieve the above-average maximum rider weight of 150kg. The durability is convincing, they say, hence the 5-year original owner warranty period.
The German-engineered hubs are available as boost or non-boost in either XD or Microspline, with a 60T star ratchet for engagement. The spoke count is 28, in a 3-cross lace pattern using Pillar J Bend spokes with glued nipples. The complete set weighs 2139g and is supplied with rim strips and valves.
MY TEST SETUP | I used the wheels on a 120mm Trek Top Fuel, Specialized Levo and a Trek Slash. Inserts were never used as I wanted to get a feel for the rims with as minimal outside influences as possible. I used the same tyres and pressures as I usually do on these three bikes, riding familiar trails in Cape Town and Tokai.
Ride Impressions
FITTING AND INSTALLATION | The wheels arrived taped and with the valves pre-installed. I was able to seat the tyres with a floor pump for the first ride. When I changed tyres for the second ride, the gorilla tape had shifted and I needed to re-tape the rims to seat them. I mentioned this to 10 Tech and the full production units (I’m riding a pre-production set) will have a higher-spec rim tape so riders shouldn’t have this issue.
ON THE TRAIL | On the first ride, on a 120mm ‘Fun-country’ Trek Top Fuel I could feel the extra 200g of the 10 Tech wheels. Most notably when accelerating at lower speeds. Once up to speed and rolling over 15kph, the added grammage is less obvious. Onto the techy terrain with higher speed traverses and descents, the ride feels softer but not full of wallow. Corner traction seemed better – for sure. I guess a highlight of this first ride was on one particular turn on Vasbyt in Tokai, I managed to no-brake one of the corners that I’ve never previously felt the composure (or confidence) to. I guess the wheels made the difference there.
As a side note: I suspect these are not the lightest hubs on the market so if you are worried about the rotational mass you’d probably be able to save some with a different hub choice. 10 Tech has said that down the line there’d be a DT Swiss build available – that’s 2024.
Onto the 160mm Trek Slash and for this test ride I decided to up the ante. Maxxis Assegai front and Bontrager SE4 rear, low pressures, no inserts, rocky trails, let’s GO! In straight-line rock gardens, I felt slightly less deflection and more composure as the wheels seemed to track very well. Acceleration is once-again, marginally muted by the extra grams. Steering accuracy seems very good. It’s when the speeds are up and the terrain is rough that the real advantage of compliance comes into play. The comfort, composure and traction are proper. The overall performance is very similar to my set of Zipp 3ZERO Moto wheels that I often ride on this bike.
On the Specialized Levo, the ride feel echoed what I felt on the Trek Slash. The wheel (I only tested the front wheel as the Levo is a mullet) feels good on rough, raw, janky terrain. Traction is good. The added weight is not noticeable on the eMTB.
DURABILITY | After completing the ride on the Levo I switched back to the 160mm Slash, lowered the tyre pressures further, (about 3psi down – which is a lot!) and dropped heels. With no inserts to protect the rims and tyres, I definitely incurred multiple rim strikes on some of the rockiest trails in Cape Town, without flatting or damaging the wheels. On a few runs, I intentionally drifted off the optimal lines smashing as many square edge rocks as possible thinking: “if they are gonna break it’s going to be now”. They stayed true, inflated and unbroken. Maybe I got lucky. Or maybe they are really strong. Probably the latter. I’ve broken wheels riding with less aggression than this.
TAKEOUT | With most things in the biking world, there’s a trade-off between strength, stiffness and weight. The 10 Tech wheels aren’t the lightest, they do however offer excellent compliance and seem to be strong enough for very aggressive days out.
These wheels are not going to be raced by World Cup Endurance riders who (rightly so) count every gram. It’s the trail riding, enduro, eMTB and possibly even Downhill crew that should consider 10 Tech when making a performance upgrade.
| WORDS: Myles Kelsey | IMAGES: Rob Ward |