Stan's New Asymmetric Carbon Flow and Baron Rims - Eurobike 2019

This week Stan's NoTubes introduced their Flow and Baron CB7 carbon wheels and we had a chance to give them a closer look at Eurobike.

The Flow and Baron CB7 rims are available either as a rim only or as complete wheelsets. The rims are asymmetric, which is new to Stan's range, but share their patented patented Bead Socket Technology (BST). CB7 rims were developed in collaboration with Ibis, who wanted the offset spoke drilling to help achieve more balanced spoke tension, an improvement which can result in a stronger wheel.

Developing the Asymmetric BST: The primary challenge created by the asymmetric profile occurred inside the rim, where mismatched angles created problems getting tubeless tires to seal consistently. The shape of a tubeless rim, when well-engineered, is designed to quickly initiate a seal, then guide the beads up and out of the rim's center well to lock into the rim flanges on either side. Off-center spoke holes tend to crowd one side of the rim and interfere with that action. It took a number of tweaks but ultimately, they brought the new rims up to a tubeless standard that Stan's were happy with. Engineers at Stan's say that it helped that Flow and Baron CB7 rims have generous inner-widths.

The Performance Bits: A final challenge of the CB7 rims was to ensure that they were reliable and provided ample control in corners. The differences in shape of the left and right sides of the rims also required extra attention during the impact testing stages of the CB7's development. The present versions are said to seal reliably in off-camber terrain and during hard cornering, while also withstanding equal impacts to both sides.


Rim Details

Flow CB7: The carbon version of the standard Stan's Flow rim, the 29mm inner width Flow CB7 has an added lay-up process that is said to significantly increase strength, while keeping weight to a respectable 420g for the 27.5" rim, and 455g for the 29" version. Flow CB7 rims are said to work best with 2.35" to 2.6" tires.

RiACT: The new rim's shape and layup are designed to absorb vibration, resist pinch flats, and withstand impacts, all while maintaining lateral stiffness for improved control. Stan's calls this Radial impact Absorbing Carbon Technology (RiACT).



Baron CB7: With a similar profile to the Flow CB7, the Baron CB7 is just a little wider - 35mm internal width, to be exact. The mechanical strength of the wider and slightly taller Baron profile resulted in the same weight as its smaller brother. Although it's wider than the Flow, it shares the same weight due to an increased air volume inside. The Baron also uses Stan's RiACT technology.



Wheelsets

Both rims are also available as wheelsets and are built in house at Stan's New York State facility. Wheels use Stan's newest "Neo" hubs, with the rear featuring Stan's latest "Durasync" 6-pawl triple bearing freehub that produces 10-degrees of engagement. Hub shells are CNC-machined from aluminum. and wheel builds use Secure Lock nipples and Sapim J-bend spokes. Both 27.5" and 29" options are available and claimed weights (pair) are 1674g for the Flow CB7, and 1761g for the Baron CB7. Baron CB7 rims and wheelsets are available now. Flow CB7 rims and wheelsets will be available in November.

All carbon rims have a seven-year warranty and lifetime crash replacement for the original owner.

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