Deep Loam Series: Reserve Overview
‘The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts’… an expression originally attributed to the philosopher Aristotle, but sums up the ethos of Reserve. They focus on creating the perfect and most optimum wheel solution for it’s intended purpose, not just a rim.
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The Reserve Ethos
They could (and have) spent years refining the perfect rim design, and it would still only contribute to 33% of the solution—a rim isn't much good without a hub or spokes to turn it into a functioning wheel. So they use reliable hubs from well-respected manufacturers such as DT Swiss, Chris King, and Industry Nine, and spokes from Sapim to make their wheels come to life. They believe building the wheel is just as important as manufacturing the rim, and each wheel goes through a thorough human and machine-aided inspection before it gets put in the box. This process and inspection is the first and most important step in offering their lifetime warranty.
Think about it, there’s something special about the synergy created between the hub, spokes, nipples and rim. Individually, each component is of little significance, but together they create something which can dramatically alter the characteristic of a bike and the experience of a ride. Reserve make rims and build wheels. And they do this for every genre of riding you can imagine. So we launching a series of three in depth blogs which will take a deep dive into the products they have developed for Mountain, Road and Gravel. For now we thought we would leave you with a little introduction to the brand before the launch of the next blog on Reserve Mountain…
Reserve Overview
Reserve was founded in 2014 by engineers from Santa Cruz Bicycles, with a simple brief… design and produce the most durable strength-to-weight composite wheels on the market, supported by a lifetime guarantee. Quite a big ask!
The first wheelset was launched in 2017, a Carbon MTB, which with a rim lifetime warranty was (and still is) unheard of. However within 12 months, Reserve soon became renown for their unsurpassed performance and bulletproof reliability. With this success, Santa Cruz swiftly developed composite wheels and rims for all genres of riding for which they produce bikes for, including Gravel and eventually road. Fully rigid off-road and road bikes demand a sophisticated carbon rim lay up to retain control and comfort, with their expertise in carbon construction from 3 years of research and development the reserve gravel wheelsets were developed. Again following the success from the Santa Cruz Reserve Gravel wheelsets, The Reserve brand collaborated with Cervélo to build upon their knowledge of constructing superbly compliant and durable wheels and give them an aerodynamic advantage to create the Reserve Road range.
Performance Come As Standard
Reserve approach every rim they make with a specific problem to solve, and believe the solutions speak for themselves—in the wind tunnel, on the trail, and in the breakaway. All of their rims are designed for tubeless tires—that doesn’t mean you can’t stick a tube in there, just that you don’t need to.
Rider and Racer Developed
At Reserve, each engineer is a rider and a fastidious tinkerer, always searching for the right components to assemble a perfect balance of ingredients to help bring a Reserve wheel to life. Whether it's smashing a World Cup downhill track, exploring a high alpine singletrack to diving into a 90° corner at a local criterium, or climbing to mountain top victories in the Tour de France, Reserve and its team of engineers are thinking about the wheelsets demands and priorities of the rider.
Reserve’s team has decades of experience in composites engineering, aerodynamics, and high-performance bicycle design, and approach every rim they make with a specific problem to solve and a race to win. From the Santa Cruz Syndicate to Team Jumbo-Visma, Reserve’s wheels are tested and approved at the highest levels of competition to bring a uncompromised ride experience to you.
No Missed Rides - The Reserve Promise
As the Reserve engineers and developers are riders first and foremost they know being stranded on a trail or roadside is the best way to deflate your day. Decades of development have brought Reserve to where they are today… thoroughly understanding what strength and impact resistance means for a mountain bike and a mountain bike wheel. Expertise which has been built upon with countless hours of wind tunnel testing and real world rider feedback so they can very confidently offer a lifetime ‘No Missed Rides’ Guarantee!
So whatever your passion, road, trail or gravel as a Reserve owner you don’t ever have to worry about your wheels, just get out there and smash, shred, climb descend. Should anything ever happen, Reserve has got you covered with their ‘No Missed Rides’ lifetime guarantee.
Shop the Reserve Range
Stay tuned for the next instalment of the Reserve Deep Loam Series, which will delve into The Reserve Mountain Range. In the mean time if you are looking for more information on the Reserve range give us a shout on the phone, drop an email to sales@stifmtb.com or to head to either of our stores for a brew and a chat! We have demo wheels available to test in store!
Like these bike checks? We’ve got a wide variety of bikes in the pipeline so make sure to tune back in for more additions of the #whatweride series!