Easton EA90 XD Review

When its 1 am local time but your body thinks its half past 2 in the afternoon, you do two things, consider yourself lucky to be in a comfortable United lounge for the entire 8 hours that United has delayed your flight and second  write a review of your new cyclocross wheels, duh!

Pic borrowed from bikeradar.com

Having a whole 6 CX races under my belt makes me feel confident enough to know just about nothing when it comes to CX and the many lessons a seasoned CX racer learns about training, equipment, tires, tire pressure and clothing. What I do know is the difference between using garbage OEM wheels and taking the time to find and invest into a wheel-set that does justice to the frame and groupo that you bought. 

Before I get specific on the wheels let me tell you about the bike they get fitted to:

2013 Colnago World Cup 2.0 Disc w/Sram Red shifters, RD and Cranks

Single 42 tooth chain ring and Sram 12/27 rear cassette

Brakes soon to be upgraded to Avid BB7 SL disc

A great shot taken by Kelly Alexander w/ Alexander Photography @ Campton Hills CX

After getting fitted to my new Colnago early this season I noticed two major characteristics, the bike had extremely tight and responsive handling but it accelerated like it was underwater. It didn’t take long to realize it was the generic rebranded “Colnago” wheels that were drowning the Ferrari like handling of this bike. It’s important to note that EVERY bike on the market and especially mid-level race oriented bikes come with wheel sets that don’t belong on any race course, they are slapped on bikes to keep cost low and get the consumer what they really want, frame and group set for a good price.

This pic also borrowed from bikeradar.com but is the exact rim and tire I am running

Hot on the hunt for new wheels that were light enough to unleash the beast on the CX course but reliable enough I could train on them during the off season. Obviously two wheel sets would be optimal for this situation but since CX is far from my cycling focus and these wheels needed to be disc specific, one utility wheel set must fit the bill.

I chose the Easton EA90 XD wheels for a couple of reasons:

·         Road Tubeless Rims

·         Easton’s sturdy MTB M1 6 bolt disc hubs

·         1,600ish grams for the set

·         Reasonably priced 

Basically Easton took their road tubeless (supposedly different than UST, don’t ask me why) rims, MTB disc hubs and laced them with a few more spokes than you get in a road wheel  and wala, they created a CX specific wheel with parts they had in the warehouse, genius!

You would think that this frankenwheel would do some things well but nothing great? Not so much! For a pieced together CX specific wheel I am currently two months in and still really pleased with the performance and feel that these wheels have delivered.

Pic borrowed from bikeradar.com

In all honesty besides the disc hubs the only feature to these wheels that really impress over your other comparably priced aluminum race wheels is the fact that with the right tires you can run these wheels tubeless right out of the box and pull off some seriously low tire pressure for critical traction in tough conditions.

Note: finding the right tire can be tricky since very few tire manufactures produce a  tubeless specific CX tire (yet) and any clincher CX tire is a crap shoot weather it will seal properly on the rim or not. If you don’t use a tubeless specific tire I have heard that tires with stiffer side walls and Kevlar beads tend to work better. 

Sammy was able to procure a fresh set of Vittoria’s new TNT (Tube No Tube) CX EVO tires that matched the Easton rims like a glove.  

I have honestly not had enough time on the wheels to give you a full in depth and detailed review of the wheels  but if you want big bang for your buck in a race ready bullet proof wheel set you cant go wrong with these Easton’s.   

This is obviously just a first impressions review, if these wheels make it thru the winter in one piece or even if they don't I will have all the details right here in the spring.

Dollar bum hand-ups at Campton Cross

Stay tuned for some Sammy’s team news over the next couple weeks…