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Testing the lightest (and weirdest) bicycle spokes you can buy

Mar 23, 2024
- Welcome back to "Berm Peak." I'm Seth and today we're doing something a little different, but pretty much the same. I have a set of mountain bike wheels here. And they're pretty common, there's a carbon rim, there's actually a really nice industrial 9 hydra hub. But something that is not common about these wheels is that they have the

lightest

bicycle

spokes

in the world. But they're not just light, they're really strange. And that is why today I will explain everything about them and what makes them so strange. First, I have to remove the old wheels from my hardtail so I can test them. (upbeat music) So, (drill hum) it is with a heavy heart that I take these wheels off my bike because I really love them.
testing the lightest and weirdest bicycle spokes you can buy
These are Crankbrothers Synthesis alloy wheels, they have been tested for over a year and have been flawless. These Berd wheels have some pretty big shoes to fill. (soft music) So we're ready to get started here. We are ready to test these wheels. But first, we have to geek out a little because there's a lot here. First of all, like I said, these wheels are interlocked with these polyethylene

spokes

. Imagine it as a little piece of nylon rope, that's what each of these spokes are. But there is a little more. There is a piece of metal on each one that wraps around.
testing the lightest and weirdest bicycle spokes you can buy

More Interesting Facts About,

testing the lightest and weirdest bicycle spokes you can buy...

It fits in the center here, like a normal spoke. And of course, if they weren't tight, it would just move like that. So it's actually the tension that holds everything together. And that's a great thing. If you are traveling and want to take a spare radio with you, it can be like this: you can put it inside the handlebars or something like that. Now, there are some advantages and disadvantages of polyethylene spokes. So stop, I know what you're going to say: "Seth, what happens if you go through a lava pit with these wheels?" (Man screams) (ambient music) Well, they would break.
testing the lightest and weirdest bicycle spokes you can buy
You probably shouldn't do that because, like some sort of nylon rope, if you held a lighter over this, it would just disintegrate. But otherwise they're very strong, very durable, Trail of Debris is supposed to just hit them and bounce off. It doesn't really offer you any disadvantages in terms of strength. And like I said, they are extraordinarily light. So let's start by weighing these wheels compared to the previous ones. Both wheelsets therefore have rim tape and valve stems. That's all. It's not an apples to apples comparison because they are alloy wheels, but they look a lot like the best alloy wheels you can get.
testing the lightest and weirdest bicycle spokes you can buy
Let's see how much these weigh. 2.04 kilograms. So let's weigh the Berd wheels. These already feel much lighter, like you're lifting them. Wow, 1.41. This is considerably lighter. Now, part of that could be due to the carbon rims, but carbon and alloy wheels today are quite similar. I'd say it's mainly the spokes. And yes, both wheels have industrial 9 hubs. As you can see, they are remarkably light. They are supposed to be very strong, we are going to try it. They are supposed to provide some compliance. So when you go into corners they flex a little bit and take some of the pain out of the carbon wheels.
We'll see if that's a trick or if it's actually a real thing. Now, with all those advantages there are bound to be some disadvantages, so let's talk about them. As I already mentioned, one of the main disadvantages is that you can't go through lava. These will just break and I guess that also includes campfires, open flames and anything like that. But that is not all. It is also more difficult to lace a wheel with these spokes because if you twist the spoke nipple to tighten it, the spoke will curl. So they actually provide this handy little tool and you can hold the spoke in place while you tighten it.
Now, once you lace one of these wheels, you can put a regular spoke tension gauge on it and watch them reduce their tension and stretch. So after tying the wheel, you have to go back and tighten them all again to get them tight and then they stay tight. So, you have to do a little extra work to build these wheels, but luckily for me, they are already done. So, another thing to note, if you look closely at these buckets, on the flange, where the spill comes in, you can see there's a little bit of silver there, like the paint has been scraped off.
In fact, that's how it has been. Before using these spokes in your hub, you need to ream those holes so they don't have any sharp edges. And once you ream them gently, there is no chance of them cutting these poly spokes and wearing them down. Now, back to the pros, because this is a polyethylene spoke, it's basically a synthetic fabric, you can dye it, different colors, you can use tie dye, the sales rep actually told me that. And then I have some tie dye over here. (bouncy piano music) Now, of course, this being Asheville, it's very easy to find tie dye, they sell it at every gas station, every convenience store, you can get it pretty much anywhere.
So I bought an aqua tie dye, which is kind of an accent color on my hardtail, and I want to dye one of the spokes aqua. As you can see, we dyed this radio and some parts reject the dye, and I think you would need a few coats or a dip in it. So, dyeing a

bicycle

spoke will be difficult. But we will try. (upbeat music) I've never liked tie dye in my life because I'm not a dirty hippie, but I know a lot of dirty hippies and I should have leaned on their knowledge. Hey, Alex, what's going on?
Hey, you know how to dye things, right? (upbeat instrumental music) It's working. I think we have this dyed. (upbeat instrumental music continues) Oh, yeah, look at that. Do you know what I just remembered? I have to be very careful not to heat this thing up. The radio would explode. (drier hum) I don't know how it looks in the video, but up close it doesn't look that good. (soft music) Alright, enough crafting. Let's put these wheels back together. (upbeat music) Now that I ride my hardtail a lot and have had this same setup for a while, I'm very aware of what it feels like.
And that's why I wanted to use the same tires. Take the tires off the old wheels and put them on the new ones, so I have the same type of contact with the trails. So I can really make a comparison. (hydra center hum) Listen to that hydra center. (Hydra center continues to hum) I9 continues to feature centers that sound crazier and crazier. (hydra cube hum) It doesn't look bad, it looks a bit like silver spokes, but it's more vibrant. I suspect this is the last time they will look this bright. Let's look at it for a minute. (upbeat music) Alright, I guess all we have left to do is go out and smash.
Let you know what I think. (bell rings) (upbeat music) Sometimes people are really open to the power of suggestion and they say, yeah, it feels different, I think it feels different. There's no doubt it feels different. I'm sure they feel different. I'm just having trouble identifying what feels different. It's almost like the difference between a transistor amplifier and a tube amplifier. As if it were a warmer tone. Is rare. Yeah, this is, I think it's a different feeling. Well, it's ok. Okay, that was different. It was almost softer. One thing's for sure: climbing feels exactly the same.
It's a good feeling. I don't know if it's objectively better, I don't know if it makes me faster, but I know that the bike feels very good. And especially since it is a rigid one. Sometimes you go through a corner that's a little chatty and the steering wheel jumps over it, it still does, like it did before, but that sensation feels different. It's almost like it feels different. It is as if the natural resonance of the wheel is different. That's the best way I could describe it. It feels great. But I'm curious about something else. Pretty dry day, but I'm surprised at how well they repel dirt.
I just take dirt and rub it on the radius, as hard as I can. And I'm sure you can see that this one is bright white and this one is not bright white. I wonder if it will just wash off and look white again? I mean, (sighs) I'd really like to make this messier, but it's like things don't really want to stick to it. No, it still looks pretty dirty. Let me see if I put a little alcohol in it or something if that works out. So what I guess happens if you have the white ones is that they all turn a little bit whitish because I don't know what it looks like on the video right now, but I would hazard a guess if it did. , you couldn't tell which was the dirty radio.
That's not a huge concern, but personally, if I were to order these wheels, I'd probably order them with black spokes, although they look great on the nose. Alright. I have some ideas. So, Berd wheels. Without riding these long term, I don't know what happens when you get unlucky. Some really bad things come up, you ping the rim. I don't know if they will hold up because I haven't ridden them long enough to have very bad luck. But I can tell you how you feel and you feel good. I don't know if they will make you faster, I don't know if they will give you more compliance in shifts, I have no scientific evidence of anything.
The best way I can describe it is what I said before: it gives the acoustics of the entire bike a different tone. Now, if you are really stretching your budget and trying to get some wheels, I would buy something that is tried and true. But if you're an early adopter and you have a lot of money and you're trying to build a really unique bike, this is a part that you should consider because it gives the bike a different feel, it gives the bike a different look. It's a talking point, but you'd definitely have to be an early adopter of Berd wheels or spokes.
This is purely subjective. I think these wheels look really cool. First of all, the Berd logo is cool and I like how they put the logo at 90 degrees to the valve stem, because if you line up your tire marking with the valve stem, like you're supposed to, It weighs better and looks good when the bikes park there. Will that improve your performance? Only a little. So I hope you found it interesting, I hope you learned something today, and if you didn't, I hope you at least found it entertaining. Thank you for traveling with me today. And I'll see you next time.
Alright, let's take a different route so we can really feel the trail here. Oh. I don't know if I feel different or if I'm just imagining things. Too early to tell.

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