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At a carbon whisker under $5,400 AUD, the CADEX Max XC is one of the most expensive mountain bike wheelsets we’ve heard of. Some seriously high-zoot stuff indeed.
They also look nothing like a normal wheel. The carbon spokes are bonded directly into carbon hub flanges, while the complete 29in wheelset has a claimed weight of 1,248g including tubeless tape and valves.
The front wheel will sell for $2,399.99 AUD in Australia, while the rear is $2,999.99 AUD. Stock is currently expected to arrive Down Under in early to mid-October.
CADEX is Giant’s top-shelf component brand
CADEX is Giant’s high-end component arm. Its products look and feel different and sit above Giant’s regular parts and wheels.
The name originally appeared on Giant’s early carbon bikes in the mid-1980s. Giant revived CADEX as a component brand in 2019, initially concentrating on road, triathlon and gravel gear.
Yes, Mick has an old bonded CADEX road bike in his collection. Of course he does. Bonded bikes are just so nice.
The Max XC is the brand’s first proper step into mountain biking, although we’ve been seeing prototypes for a while.
Brendan Johnston raced them on his Giant Anthem Advanced SL at the Leadville 100 this year. They’ve also come and gone on the World Cup bikes of Alan Hatherly and Dario Lillo.
The Giant team hasn’t used them everywhere, with its conventional XCR wheels fitted at other rounds. That could be part of the development process, or simply a matter of choosing different wheels for different courses.
So what is actually different?
Most carbon mountain bike wheels are still built much like an aluminium wheel. The rim material has changed, but there’s still a separate rim, hub and set of tensioned spokes holding everything together.
CADEX has changed the hub end bits completely. Its carbon spokes are bonded straight into carbon hub flanges.
They’re not bonded to the rim thought. Each spoke has a titanium threaded end and an internal alloy nipple, so its tension can still be adjusted individually.
That puts the Max XC somewhere between a normal tension-spoked wheel and something like the Syncros Silverton SL, where the rim, spokes and hub shell are moulded into one carbon structure.
CADEX reckons the bonded connection reduces movement between the spokes and hub, making the wheel more direct under pedalling.
That all makes sense on paper. What we don’t know is how that stiffness translates to comfort and control when the race track gets rougher, and how they make you feel.
Carbon spokes aren’t new
Wheel designers have been messing around with funky spokes and wheel structures for decades.
Spinergy launched the Rev-X in 1990, using broad carbon composite blades instead of conventional wire spokes. Lightweight followed with its distinctive full-carbon road wheels in the early ’90s; they were super exclusive.
The idea eventually made it across to mountain bikes. Bike Ahead developed the six-spoke Biturbo, while the Syncros Silverton SL moulds its rim, spokes and hub shell into a single carbon structure.
There are less radical ways to change a spoke too. The current Shimano XTR WH-M9200 wheels use 24 straight-pull titanium spokes per wheel. Roval’s 998g Control World Cup wheelset uses individually replaceable carbon spokes with titanium ends.
Then there are fibre, rope-like spokes. Berd PolyLights have popped up on several recent 32in bikes, including a cool as Baum gravel bike we saw at the Spoken show this year.
Berd’s spokes use ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibre, with a loop at the hub and a stainless steel thread at the rim. You could even carry a spare in your pocket. Handy.
Berd claims a weight of around 2.4g per spoke, along with some vibration damping and compliance. Spinergy makes similar claims about its current PBO fibre spokes.
That’s a different approach to CADEX, which is chasing a very direct and stiff connection.
Anyhow, we digress, what we are on about is the Max XC isn’t the first carbon-spoked mountain bike wheel. Its unusual bit is the bonded carbon hub and spoke structure, combined with a separate rim that can still be individually tensioned.
Light, but not chasing the lightest
CADEX claims 1,208g without tape and valves, or 1,248g ready for tubeless setup.
That’s very light for a 29in XC wheelset with a 30mm internal rim, but it isn’t the lightest, crazy right? The Roval Control World Cup is claimed at 998g with tape and valves, while Shimano lists its XTR WH-M9200 wheels at a combined 1,157g. Weight conventions do vary between brands.
Looking at the media information supplied to us, CADEX used the Roval as its benchmark. According to its own testing, the Max XC is 5.3% laterally stiffer and withstood 75.8% more compressive load before failure.
Because it’s heavier, the CADEX actually has a lower lateral stiffness-to-weight figure than the Roval. CADEX instead points to an advantage in rear-wheel transmission stiffness, or how much the wheel twists between the cassette and rim under pedalling.
They’re CADEX’s numbers rather than independent results, but they make the goal fairly clear. This isn’t simply a chase for the lowest possible weight.
The practical stuff and specs
- 29in wheel size
- 30mm internal hookless rim
- 20 front and 24 rear carbon spokes
- 1,208g bare
- 1,248g with tape and valves
- Boost hub spacing
- Centre Lock rotor mounts
- 120-tooth rear ratchet
- 3-degree engagement
- Ceramic bearings
- Shimano HG, Micro Spline and SRAM XD freehub options
- Recommended for 2.2-2.6in tyres
CADEX lists a lifetime warranty and five years of incident replacement coverage for the registered original owner.
The main unanswered question is what happens if a bonded carbon spoke is damaged. Its tension can be adjusted at the rim, but replacing it is unlikely to be as simple as fitting a normal spoke.
We’re not getting a set to ride when they arrive in Australia, awwwww please? So this is an announcement rather than a review. For now, the construction and CADEX’s arrival in mountain biking are the real stories.
The post First Look | CADEX’s first MTB wheels weigh just 1,248g and cost $5,400 appeared first on Flow Mountain Bike.
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[[{“value”:”At a carbon whisker under $5,400 AUD, the CADEX Max XC is one of the most expensive mountain bike wheelsets we’ve heard of. Some seriously high-zoot stuff indeed. They also look nothing like a normal wheel. The carbon spokes are bonded directly into carbon hub flanges, while the complete 29in wheelset has a claimed weight
The post First Look | CADEX’s first MTB wheels weigh just 1,248g and cost $5,400 appeared first on Flow Mountain Bike.”}]] Read More Flow Mountain Bike
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