STRONG.COMPLIANT.LIGHT.SNAPPY
Carbon without compromise.
For the Era wheelset, our goal was simple: create a carbon wheelset with the compliant ride feel of alloy without sacrificing weight, durability, or that snappy, lively carbon that riders love.
For our racers, for ourselves, and for our community of riders.
Race Face has never made a more durable and compliant carbon wheel than Era. We kept (and, in some cases, increased) the most desirable characteristics of carbon while minimizing the trade-offs.
The Era wheelset is:
- Strong – so you can focus on the ride and let your wheel land sideways.
- Compliant – so you can point and shoot, sticking to your intended line;
- Light – for easy spin up on climbs and more maneuverability; and
- Snappy – so you have all the fun out of corners
Era strikes a balance between all these attributes, excelling at each but sacrificing none and combining them to create the best overall carbon wheelset on the market.
COMPLIANCE WHERE IT COUNTS
The new Era wheelset features optimized rim profiles specifically for the front and rear wheels. Era’s front wheel was designed to prioritize comfort and ride feel, using a shallower, lighter rim to achieve additional compliance without sacrificing overall strength. Riders can point and shoot through a rock garden with absolute peace of mind, knowing their wheel can stand up to the abuse and without the harshness that carbon wheels have been known for in the past.
LET’S TALK LATERAL COMPLIANCE
Like many wheel manufacturers, in the past, we understood vertical compliance of a wheel to be the source of improved ride feel. But our testing of Era and a range of competitors’ carbon wheels revealed there’s more to it than that. Take the vertical transmission of force from the front wheel hitting a bump. The force goes through the tire, then the wheel, then the suspension fork, then the handlebar before reaching the rider’s hands.
Lateral compliance is your wheel’s ability to deflect away from its neutral position when hitting rocks, roots, or other trail features that could knock you off your line. It alleviates the negative feeling of pinballing down a rocky chute or through a sea of off-camber roots.
We believe that a comfortable ride feel in carbon wheels is the result of wheels flexing in the LATERAL plane, not just the vertical plane.
ABSORB LATERAL IMPACTS. NO COMPROMISE.
This chart shows lateral stiffness data collected during our testing, averaged across four different applied loads. The stiffer the wheel—or taller the bar—the less laterally compliant it is. Era turned out to be the second-most laterally compliant wheel in the test group, only surpassed by the Zipp 3Zero Moto, which takes nearly a 300g weight penalty against Era. Crankbrothers Synthesis wheels come close—it’s a great wheelset—but our testing revealed Era is lighter, more durable, and more compliant.
THE SERIES LEADER
Era comes second in weight, strength, and lateral compliance compared to the competing wheels shown in this table. But when you consider the ranking of all three, Era comes out with the lowest number and the highest overall ranking. Era strikes a balance to create what we believe is the best carbon wheel on the market.
LAB TESTED. TRAIL PROVEN.
Utilizing the engineering expertise and advanced research equipment of our FOX Factory labs in Scotts Valley, CA, we built a new test rig to measure forces carried throughout the wheel during an impact. We tested Era against both our competitors’ carbon wheels and our own carbon Next R. However, favorable test results in a controlled lab environment don’t tell the whole story. Era wheels were subjected to over 5,300 hours of rider testing to ensure durability in the harshest riding conditions.
VAULT HUB: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
At the heart of the Era Wheel is the Race Face’s flagship Vault hub. A refined and iterated design has cemented Vault’s place among the best mountain bike hubs on the market.
Rear mountain bike hubs have two sets of bearings. One supports the rider’s weight and allows the wheel to rotate, and the second allows the cassette to freewheel. The wider these bearings can be spaced, the less torsional force they are subjected to from the axle and, therefore, the more durable they will be.
Vault Hub highlights:
- 3-degree engagement for almost instant power transfer. 60-tooth drive ring with six pawls and two teeth per pawl. Low-drag springs ensure quick and positive engagement while retaining low coast drag.
- An over-sized hub shell increases rear drive torsional stiffness as well as optimal lateral stiffness.
- Large diameter 6902 bearings offer robust durability and serviceability.
- Low-drag labyrinth seals (designed specifically for the Vault hubs) keep the grease in and the elements out. Long-term tested in the rain and mud of the Pacific Northwest
- Anvil Edge bead wall.
- Save your tire sidewalls by dispersing the energy of a pinch flat across a broader, flatter surface.
- Balanced spoke tension.
- An asymmetric rim cross-section and an offset nipple bed improve the overall strength, durability and longevity of the wheel.
- Free hub compatibility.
- Available in XD and Microspline, with Shimano HG available for aftermarket conversion.
- 6-Bolt rotor compatibility.
- Centerlock variant coming in late 2024.
- Weight.
- 1750g (29” Wheelset)
- 30mm internal rim width.
- 28 straight pull spokes.
- Double butted — 2.0 / 1.65 / 2.0*
- 29” and 27.5” size.
UNMATCHED ASSEMBLY
The best wheels are assembled with absolute precision. We worked with Holland Mechanics to design and commission a new wheel-building machine capable of precision and consistency beyond what is possible by hand. Our engineers then created and refined the unique build specifications for every wheel version and variant, making Race Face wheels some of the highest-quality factory-built MTB wheels in the world.
A Race Face quality control technician checks automated wheel builds for quality, accuracy, and consistency.
Era wheels are backed up by our Lifetime Warranty, inclusive of crashes.
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