Alloy rim brakes wheels. 2021 and beyond!

It's GO Time! JULY 2023 UPDATE

You probably saw the huge news. We invested in starting our own alloy rim production facility! The Altamont rim brake was a deciding factor in that. We no longer could risk being at the mercy of producing and shipping our alloy rims around the world. We knew we had a special design with the Altamont, and we had to bring that home in order for the best possible quality. It took a while, but we are thrilled to announce the Altamont is available!


HAPPY 2023! Update to this blog.

Extrusion samples have arrived. Testing and testing, and even more testing is set to occur over the course of January. Then extrusions are ordered for production, rims are made, and wheels are built. With all this, we are fingers crossed hoping to release these in early March (just in time for the snow to thaw out for a lot of you).
The big piece of news will coincide with the release of these!

 

JULY 2022 Update to this blog.

Well, these rims are still getting a lot of attention. Unfortunately we are still awaiting materials to produce these rims. The good news is we have a new extrusion supplier and the materials will be even better quality. We have a pretty big piece of news to go along with the release of these rims, and we are hoping to have them available for the fall of 2022. Don't worry, we remain very dedicated to producing the nicest alloy rim brake rim on the market.

 

DEC 2021 Update to this blog.

Well, the supply chain issues have not gotten better. We have a great supply of CCC and Altamont Disc rims arriving, but rim brake has been hard to produce. Don't worry, we are still dedicated to making these rims. They would have been the best selling model if we would have had them available in 2021. That being said, these rims will probably not arrive until after Q1 2022. However, there is a really amazing piece of news coming along with the release of these. Stay tuned!!

 

MID MAY 2021 Update to this blog.

Lots of people have read this, and it is currently Mid May. That being said, the materials shortages have gotten even worse and so the new Altamont rim brake rims have been delayed a little longer. We are now hoping to have the new rims in stock later this Fall. Yes, we know it's not what everybody was hoping to hear, but there's just not any aluminum available to make rim extrusions at the moment.

___________________________________________________________

We had a planned model change for the beginning of 2021, and according to our forecasts we had plenty of inventory to last us until the new models came in. However when looking into the crystal ball we did not see a global pandemic, and we did not see that resulting in a bike boom that would clear us out of ALL of our alloy wheels months before we planned. Everybody was buying alloy rim brake like it was still 2013.

NEW 2021 Altamont Rim Brake
 
Yes! We are still dedicated to rim brakes, in fact we are probably the only wheel company out there who just opened up new tooling on a brand new version of the Altamont rim brake rims.
 
The new rims feature a front and rear specific design. The front is a bit shallower at 27mm and features a symmetrical rim shape. The rear rim is a bit deeper at 31mm and has a 2.8mm spoke offset. Both rims feature 6069 series aluminum and a welded seam. Weights are expected in the 440g front and 475g rear range and will feature the new sleek black logos.
However, material shortages combined with a huge increase in demand of cycling parts means the new Altamonts are going to be delivered later than we hoped. We are expecting the first batch of rims hopefully late April to early May (and this may get adjusted)

Ceramic Coating
Sorry fans of the ceramic coating, but we have decided not to continue offering rims with the coating into 2021. When we had a rim produced with the ceramic coating it had to move between multiple vendors and multiple times, exponentially raising the risk of a part that we couldn't sell. With this, the cost of production was extremely high and the quantities were even higher. It just didn't make sense to sit on 2 years worth of inventory just to bring the coating to market.
We do feel confident the changes we have made for the new Altamont rim brake rims will more than make up for having a silver brake track.
Altamont Lite
With the improvements made to the Altamont rim we have decided not to keep the Altamont and Altamont Lite in our lineup. With the new tooling we will only have the Altamont name, and the rims designed as a front and rear specific will benefit every cyclist more than shaving a few grams. 

13 comments


  • Steve Haycock

    Looking forward to the Altamonts becoming available, my original set have been great, but I need to replace my rear after 30K miles on my original set. Front is still fine.


  • Mike

    Sorry to hear you’re having such a hard time getting product. Hang in there. Boyd wheels are definitely at the top of my upgrade list and I will continue to check back weekly.


  • James

    Looking forward to seeing these. I hope will be available for custom wheel builds as I’m sitting on a WI set of hubs in need of rims.


  • romainmousset

    look good
    nice to see some nice alu rims still being made
    been in love with my 2 hands barely used set of custom altamont lite rim brake wheels. With cx ray spokes 20/24 and carbon ti hubs. The set that made me love rims brake again ( with nice callipers , cabling, and the swissstop BXP pads of course ).

    Nothing bad to say about this very rational decision of " mixing " the lite ( I know you hate that term ahah ) and the " regular " in one set to rule them all.

    Is there anything specific about the machined brake track compared to the altamont previous version with machined brake tracks ? That would make the news one " better " at braking ?


  • Dave

    Any idea when these will be available?


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