When he launched his eponymous company, Chris King was the sole employee manufacturing one-off headsets and outfitting them with salvaged bearings. Today, the company employs many skilled craftspeople who make a vast array of different brightly colored hubs, headsets, bottom brackets and now: carbon fiber rims.
Chris King GRD23 R45D: construction
(Image credit: Tyler Boucher)
Long a proponent of sustainable manufacturing, Chris King takes a similar approach in constructing its new rims. The GRD23 wheels use thermoplastics developed by CSS Composites to bind the carbon layers together instead of the much more common resin construction. Called “FusionFiber”, this manufacturing technique makes for a less brittle rim which is better able to absorb impact and can also theoretically be melted down and used again, allowing broken rims to be recycled instead of thrown away.
I asked Chris King how the process differs from standard carbon construction of the best gravel bike wheels, and learned there’s more to it than just swapping out a single component:
“The Fusion Fiber manufacturing process requires a fraction of the energy, a fraction of the time, involves no toxic compounds, and produces no waste as any off-cuts or byproduct material is used along with recycled material. Traditional carbon fiber is pre-impregnated with resin, and it must be held at sub-zero temperatures to maintain the integrity of the material and produces a lot of excess material that ends up in the landfill. Fusion fiber isn’t chilled before lay-up and has an infinite shelf-life. The lay-up and cure process takes much less time versus the common carbon fiber rim. The bonding agent in Fusion Fiber is non-toxic and doesn’t require high heat or chemical treatment, so it can be shredded and remolded, and repurposed.”
The rims are hookless and measure 24 mm deep, 23 mm wide internally and 29 mm externally, which is on the narrow end for a modern gravel wheelset. They share the same shape with Revel’s RW23, also constructed with FusionFiber thermoplastic technology, but with a layup that is unique to Chris King. The goal for these wheels, according to Chris King, is to “embrace the contradictions inherent in wheel design and strike a balance between the stiffness necessary for the wheel to track accurately and plushness that keeps the rider smooth and steady in the saddle.”
They have been designed to meet the latest ETRTO guidelines, and can accommodate gravel bike tires anywhere…