Spank Spike Race28 Wheel Set

Spank’s Spike Race28 wheel set is the newest addition to the brand’s Downhill friendly category. Designed to take anything that the rider throws its way, the Race28 wheelset is strong enough to bomb drops yet light enough to pedal cross country trails.

Weighing in at 1990g for the set, the Spike Race28’s are a respectable weight for a complete wheelset offering. In my application on a Transition Bandit, they are a bombproof every day wheel that are “set and forget”. I haven’t needed to true this wheelset once since putting them on the bike and I’ve made plenty of mistakes while riding them.

The Race28’s are strong for more reasons than one. Spank have been working with rims for years and have plenty of experience in the “abusive” disciplines – dirt jumping, downhill, and trials. You don’t make rims for use in these categories without building them to last. Spank have been perfecting their Oohbah profile for a while now, and are on to a good thing with increased rigidity over conventional rim profiles.

Having teamed up with Fratelli Industries, the partnership has really stepped up what I would like to consider their overall “service”. Coupled with the new range of Spank hubs, the complete wheel sets are hand built with legendary Sandvik (T302 Triple Butted 2.2/1.8/2.0) spokes and brass nipples. As an added touch, your wheel builder will write down the final spoke tension on the product card that comes with your new wheel set. Spank and Fratelli’s dedication to quality has ensured the customer receives a reliable wheel set that will see plenty of trails in their life.

The Spank Spike Race28 26 inch wheel set features a wide range of hub options. Using the new 32H Spoon hubs, you can choose between 12x135mm, 10x135mm, 12x142mm, 12x150mm and even 12x157mm out back, with 9mm, 15mm and 20mm available up front. Adapters can be purchased separately, so while standards may change, your wheel set need not.

Tubeless riders take note, the Spike Race28 rims are perfect for the task. Valves and rim tape is available through Spank, but I’ve heard people running ghetto tubeless conversions with Oohbah rims in the past with great success.

All in all I’m very happy with my Race28 wheels – while you may find them overkill for my trail bike, I much prefer to have a weekend bike that is always ready to ride. This wheel set gives me that luxury – no hassles, just fun on the trail.

For more information on the Spank Spike Race28 wheel set or the rest of the Spank Bikes range, check out their website at http://www.spank-ind.com.