AMERICAN CLASSIC
The USA’s wheel deal
Bill Shook, American Classic president, tells Jonathon Harker how the brand is tackling changing wheel sizes, road discs and how not being able to find the right wheels back in the1970s led to the genesis of the brand – which now sits in the Moore Large’s distribution portfolio…
Can you take us through a brief tour of American Classic’s history? I started riding at 14 and then trained hard to become a champion road and track cyclist, earning a place on the US National Team. While racing, I started my design career building projects in my Dad’s garage. In 1974, I created and fabricated the first large tube aluminium bicycle in the world and raced it. While racing, I strove to find the lightest tyres and rims, but in the 1970s in the US, fine equipment was hard to find. That sparked the idea of American Classic — a place where I could design and distribute high performance components. After retiring, I received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University. In 1982, the first products were new concepts, the lightweight water bottle cage and the revolutionary lightweight adjustable seat post. American Classic now has two facilities including our own testing and quality control centre, rim factory and wheel building plant. American Classic has a broad variety of unique designs in all disciplines including road, track, triathlon, cyclo-cross, trekking, cross country, all mountain, downhill and hand cycling. All this, because I couldn’t find the right wheels to race in the ‘70s!
What’s new for American Classic’s 2014 range? Road Wheels, Argent tubeless with 11 speed disc, Hurricane tubeless, Hurricane tubeless with 11 speed disc, Victory 30 tubeless, Carbon 40 all carbon clincher, Carbon 46 tubular, Carbon 46 tubular with disc, Carbon 3 tubular (trispoke style front for TT), Carbon TT Disk with 11 speed (1050 gr), AC RD rim line, 2218 tubeless road rim (24 or 28 spoke holes), Hub (road or MTB), 11 speed disc hub, MTB wheels, Wide Lightning 29 tubeless (32mm wide), Wide
42 BIKEBIZ OCTOBER
Lightning 27.5 tubeless (32mm wide) Disc 101 tubeless rims (32 spoke holes) in 29, 27.5 or 26.
Is the brand embracing road discs? Yes! We had them last year already, so this is the second wave of road discs.
What is American Classic’s take on the changing wheel sizes of the mountain biking world? Is 26-inch taking a back seat to 27.5 and 29ers now? We discontinued the 26-inch wheels. We have some in stock if people want them, but we are not making more. In the UK Moore Large have sufficient stock of 26-inch wheels and will continue to carry them in the near future.
Are there any recent developments in American Classic’s hub technology that the trade should know about? Yes, the 11 speed disc hub is unique. The concept is this: AC MTB disc hubs are all 135mm wide with a Shimano 9/10 cassette body or SRAM XD body. This year, I decided it would be important to offer the 11 speed cassette body for Shimano offered on current road hubs. This body is less than 2mm wider than the existing 10 speed body. So, I make a change to the hub shell forging shrinking it (very expensive, requires new tooling etc) to accommodate the wider 11 speed body. Even though Shimano has not offered the 11 speed disc group yet in MTB, we think it is coming. So we are ready.
And how about AC’s tubeless tech? AC tubeless wheels take rim technology to the next level. Our mountain bikers are successfully riding and racing tubeless, and now this innovation is available for our AC road riders. Our tubeless wheels are set up with a base
layer of AC fibre tape covering the spoke holes and two layers of AC honey coloured tape to seal the rim. Next, install tubeless ready clincher tyres and pump liquid sealant into the system through our proven AC valves. The liquid sealant replaces the conventional tube. You may ask how our tubeless system works. I designed the rim with a bead barb running along the edge of the bead shelf. When installed, the tyre firmly pops into position over the bead barb. The tyre bead centres and tightly grips the circumference of the rim creating a sealed environment to hold the liquid sealant without burping. The number one reason to run tubeless
wheels is to avoid flat tyres. In the event of a puncture, the sealant quickly fills and closes small holes in the tyre preventing flats caused by glass, metal and various other debris. Pinch flats cannot occur as the tube is not part of the system.
Our tubeless system is about speed. It lowers
“Even though Shimano hasn’t offered the 11 speed disc group yet in
MTB, we think it is coming. So we are ready.” Bill Shook,
American Classic president
wheel weight at the extreme outer edge of the rim resulting in lower rolling resistance and better performance. In a traditional clincher set up, the tyre and tube interface moves as the wheel rolls, creating friction and energy loss. With the AC tubeless set up, there is no frictional energy loss between the tyre and tube because the tube is gone. Liquid sealant is lighter than a tube. You can ride lighter weight tyres with our tubeless system because you don’t have to use tyres made with heavy, inflexible puncture layers. Overall, our tubeless system is lighter and the wheel will spin up faster with less rider energy output. And the best part is flat tyres are past history. You can read an extended version of this
interview on
BikeBiz.com 01332 274252
sales@moorelarge.co.uk
BIKEBIZ.COM
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