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After a couple of months of running an auto-search for the Spinergy Rev-x Roks 26 inch wheels, an option to buy these beautiful pieces of retro mountain biking gear came along.
The second I saw the email and looked there were already 6 other people who had made their bid public. With the highest one offering €210 for a complete set.
I looked at Ebay sold listings and decided to offer €350 ($423). I immediately received a reply and the wheels were mine.
The Spinergy wheels are considered icons of the retro mountain biking scene. A lot of people choose these wheels to finalize their retro build.
The iconic Spinergy wheels were designed by former Cannondale engineer Raphael Schlanger, who patented the design in 1990. In 1993, while working for the company Hamlin Transmission, he approached founder and CEO Martin Connolly with his idea of the carbon-composite wheel.
Connolly, a bicycle enthusiast, had raised a significant amount of capital to bring an automatic bike transmission to the market (hence the name of the company). But quickly ditched the idea when he had taken a look at Schlanger’s sketches. Feeling the carbon wheels would prove to be a “easier source of income” than the tough to develop automatic transmission.
Connolly and his team came up with the brandname Spinergy, Spinergy Rev-x for the road wheels and Spinergy Rev-x Roks for the 26 inch mountain bike version.
Its unique design, being featured on high-end big brand name bicycles, and its aggressive promotion through “big-name racers” meant the wheels we’re noticed and received a fare share of industry accolades. They would even be featured on the TV Show “Pacific Blue” alongside another icon the Trek Y33.
The first time we would see Spinergy wheels would be Cannondale’s 1995 catalogue. But the stunning looks of the Spinergy wheels couldn’t hide the fact that they we’re not the best wheels money could buy.
Introduced in 1995 the Spinergy Rev-x Roks MTB wheels would be discontinued 2.5 years later. Despite its push into the mountain bike market, MTB riders had little use for aerodynamics.
It’s the reason why they’re only featured in Cannondale’s 1997 catalog on the high-end XC bikes. And non of the top cross-country riders would be spotted using the wheels. They simply weren’t good enough for this type of riding.
At the turn of the millennium it was all over for the Rev-x. Mavic had surpassed them in sales with their red-rimmed Mavic Helium wheels, introduced in 1996.
The successor of the Spinergy Rev-x Roks, were the the Spinergy Spox. Introduced in 1998 and undoubtedly a better product, they simply lacked that iconic look of the Rev-x Roks.
Sources:
WK cyclocross video: • WK Cyclocross 1996 - A...
Pacibic blue video: • Pacific Blue: First ap...
Spinergy Spox video: • SPOX
World Cross-country Mountain Bike Championships 1996 video: • World Cross-country Mo...
Mavic Helium wheels image taken from retrobike.co.uk: www.retrobike.c...
Spinergy Spox 26″ wheels image taken from retrobike.co.uk: www.retrobike.c...
I've also written about blog post with more information. If you want to read this article go to www.restoratio...
Visit my website for more bike restoration tutorials: www.restoratio...
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Music is from the RU-vid Audio Library
Song is "Song of Sadhana" from Jesse Gallagher
1 окт 2024
