Mad(e) In Seattle: MadFiber Debuts Mad Fiber Wheels 

At Interbike this week, probably the biggest “little” debut came from Mad Fiber wheels. The Seattle-based company, consisting of a wheel design specialist and a Boeing carbon composites specialist combining their skills, wowed Dirt Demo goers with a new wheelset—one that is sure to find its way into triathlon transition areas soon. 

That’s because they’re actually for sale, now. Instead of getting wheels to press and top riders, Mad Fiber put its first run of wheels up for sale—and ran through the first 40 pairs instantly. Their showing at Dirt Demo is more of the same; instead of having big names and press tell you about ‘em, they figured the wheels can speak for themselves. 

“It’s worked out great,” Ric Hjertsberg said. “As soon as we had working, sellable versions, we simply started selling them to early adopters who were willing to ride them in the absence of any reviews and testimonials, aside from those we see on Weight Weenies, the Serotta forum, and on Slowtwitch and Road Bike Review.” 

Hjertberg is well-known in the bike industry as a devotee to the wheel. He founded Wheelsmith in 1975, as well as Full Speed Ahead, and runs wheelfanatyk.blogspot.com (a great source for wheel fans). This one man has spent more time with minutae of a piece of equipment they say can’t be reinvented … trying to reinvent it. Rethinking the wheel, Hjertberg took conventional wisdom (which consists of spokes, nipples, rim beds, rims, axles and hubsets, and decided to start over.)

On their face, Mad Fiber are not unlike a few brands like Spinergy and Lightweight that are making carbon fiber rims with carbon fiber spokes. However, Mad Fiber’s construction method (as well as spoke utilization) is quite different, and as they will tell you, it makes all the difference in how the wheel rides. 

This wheelset has features no one has seen in a single package.

The feedback—coming not from the press but from the riders themselves—has been overwhelmingly positive. They’ve drawn enough interest for names like Thierry Fournier of LOOK Cycles to come over to Mad Fiber’s small 10×10 to admire firsthand. “That’s the thing to do here. Instead of having a booth and talking the story, we let the wheels speak. People who ride them say they have a familiar, comfortable feeling. The buzz has been super, super favorable, better than we expected.” 

The interesting note on these wheels is that the wafer-thin spokes are flexible as a piece of paper. But placed in tension (think a camping tent’s bent frame rods), they become not only structurally tangible, but somewhat invincible—capable of taking high torsional loads while delivering quite a bit more vertical compliance than a stiff carbon spoke would deliver.

Another unique element is the fact that the rim is not extruded from a mold, but is too bonded together from three separate pieces: one tirebed and two aero sidewalls. Instead of simulating a traditional metal spoke with a stress riser area at the eyelet, the carbon spokes are bonded to the rim, spreading the load while eliminating weaknesses from rim drilling.  

The process also makes for a razor-thin rim apex, since a wider “shoulder” isn’t necessary for traditional spoke installation.  

The passion Hjertberg has for his new wheels is not superficial. “I’ve been in the wheel category 30 years, so I have an idea what matters in a wheel, and what you can really get out of it. Strength, weight, stiffness, smoothness, moment of intertia, brake feel. Those are what you want to get. You can’t get a gold medal in all of them, but this wheelset has features no one has seen in a single package.” 

Instead of building a conventional carbon wheel, Hjertberg built it of almost complete carbon fiber, letting the material dictate its build capabilities. In aerospace, there’s a stage one and a stage two of a carbon fiber material. Stage one is called Black Metal; you take a part made of metal, probably titanium or aluminum, and make it out of carbon fiber. The second stage is the structure itself, reimagined in carbon’s favor. So you go from an elliptical spoke to a carbon spoke. You go from a one-piece rim to a three-piece rim. If you look at the B1 Stealth Bomber, it doesn’t look like a plane; it was re-imagined for carbon fiber.  

We took a pair out for a test-spin, and intentionally took them off the smooth black ribbon onto some of the rougher roads. Sure enough, these tubulars really are jacks of all trades; they climb unbelievably, they roll comfortably (much, much more so than Lightweights we’ve played with in the past), and with a deep aero section and wafer-thin aero spokes, it’s certainly a fast wheel. 

The beauty of the Mad Fiber wheels, Hjertberg says, are the way they excel in so many areas. At 1,085 grams, the pair are light enough to be a climbing wheel (with zero weight limit), stiff enough to be a crit wheel, deep enough to be a fast aero wheel, and the same time, comfortable. 

Hjertberg confirmed that the wheels have been tested at the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel. “That’s a story we haven’t even begun to tell yet, but it’s really favorable,” Hjertberg said. “Particularly at high yaw angles, around 12 degrees we begin passing everybody, and from 15 to 30, only disc wheels have as low a resistance. I can only say it’s a consequence of the unique shape.” 

Our test of Mad Fiber wheels reinforced what Hjertberg said: it was a great do-it-all wheelset. It was an overly windy day (with 50mph gusts) but it handled well for the light weight. As advertised, it was extremely stiff out of saddle, but even on rough roads, it was quite compliant in the vertical plane. The wheel is certainly one triathletes ought to have a serious look at. 

Zipp 808 Firecrest Carbon Clincher 

Our other test was on the hotly-awaited Zipp 808 Firecrest Carbon Clincher. The deep-dish carbon clincher wheel (a graduation from the 404 version that debuted this spring) takes on a whole new shape. Engineer Josh Poertner said its design quite literally moves the center of pressure (the area that wants to “turn” the wheel in crosswinds) behind the axle. The result is a wheel that is significantly more stable in crosswinds—a virtual Kona ace-in-the-hole against the Ho’o Mumuku winds that blow off the mountain and onto the water. Smaller riders (especially women who tend to really battle against crosswinds) will rejoice over a wheel that rides more stable than many others. 

“We feel confident that smaller riders and for women can literally ride one wheel up,” Zipp lead engineer Josh Poertner said Tuesday at Dirt Demo.  

Another feature not lost is the fact that the Zipp made the wheels utilitarian, belying the fact that they’re clinchers. Imagine a wheel that requires zero tire levers to chage a flat. That’s thanks to a precision measure on the diameter of the wheel, in concert with the convex lateral surface of the rim. “The shape of the rim really allows the tire to be mounted onto the rim quite easily,” Poertner said. “I’m making an unofficial guarantee that anyone can mount any tire without the need for tire levers.”  

We joined Zipp marketing manager Andy Paskins for a ride to nearby Lake Mead, and had perfect opportunity to test Poertner’s claim that this new 800 was more stable than its early iteration tubular. 

The seven-mile gradual descent to Lake Mead was met with a stiff tailwind that became a dead crosswind with not-insignificant gusts. Among the wheels tested on the day in comparable conditions, the 808 was the deepest, but certainly the most stable, pound for pound. At nearly 40mph, there was no palpable concern for a crosswind blast knocking us off a line beset on one side by cars. The crosswinds were easily countered, and the wheel’s steering line was minimally impacted. For a deep wheel to inspire that confidence was quite remarkable.  

Stay tuned for more gear previews and reviews, as Interbike opens its doors Wednesday at the Sands Convention Center.