A carbon fiber wheelset’s overall weight stems from three core components: rims, spokes, and hubs. Of these, the rim is the most critical factor for weight reduction. It accounts for the largest portion of a wheelset’s total mass and poses the biggest challenge for material science and manufacturing precision.

Spoke weight can be reduced by adopting carbon fiber alternatives, while hubs can be lightened via cutout machining. However, rim lightweighting requires far more complex performance trade-offs, covering carbon fiber material selection, layup design, molding techniques, and structural reinforcement solutions. A single design flaw can compromise structural strength and durability in pursuit of ultra-light weight.

Today, we analyze three core technologies of Light Travel Cycling’s ultra-light carbon mountain bike rims starting with the rim structure: one-piece molded spoke holes, blended high-grade Toray carbon fiber layup, and advanced high-toughness material application.

Spoke Hole Forming Technology

Traditional carbon rims are fabricated into a full circular hoop first, with spoke holes drilled through post-processing. This drilling process severs continuous carbon fibers and undermines the overall integrity of the carbon layup.

In contrast, our factory adopts custom proprietary molds to form spoke holes integrally during one-piece molding. No carbon fibers are cut or damaged, delivering rims with exceptional structural strength and crack resistance.
This technology greatly improves the tensile strength of spoke holes, consistently exceeding 300 kgf. In ultimate tensile testing, spokes fracture completely while the spoke holes remain fully intact. This proves that the load-bearing capacity and tear resistance of our spoke holes far surpass those of standard spokes, completely eliminating the risk of rim failure caused by damaged spoke holes.

Spoke Hole Tensile Test

From a durability perspective, once the nipple is fully seated in the spoke hole, the entire contact surface fits closely and is fully wrapped by carbon material, enabling even stress distribution over a broad area. This uniform load dispersion greatly improves long-term structural durability.

All spoke hole angles are precisely preset during the design stage. After wheel assembly, the spokes, nipples and rim holes align perfectly in a straight line. This ensures force transmits along the designated axis, with no lateral or angled tension that generates extra torque. The end result is more stable riding performance and reduced component wear.

The Critical Role of High-Grade Toray Carbon Fiber in Carbon Wheelsets

T700 and T800 carbon fibers serve as the core materials for Light Travel Cycling’s standard mountain bike rims. As a high-modulus carbon fiber, T800 delivers higher stiffness and lighter weight than T700 at equivalent mass. However, rims built purely with T800 fiber become overly rigid, sacrificing ride comfort and increasing the risk of impact fracture.

To offset T800’s brittleness and T700’s weight disadvantage, we adopt T1000 and T1100 high-grade fibers. Our R&D team has developed an advanced blended layup solution, which is mainly applied to our Flyweight-series lightweight rims.
Material blending: We stack multi-layer low FAW T700, T800 and T1100 carbon plies to minimize modulus differences between different materials, enabling tight bonding of mixed-modulus carbon layers.

 
Precision reinforcement: Targeted reinforcement is added to stress-concentrated zones such as spoke holes, maximizing weight savings without sacrificing structural strength.
Stepped lapping: Carbon plies adopt staggered step overlaps to reduce overlapping area, cutting excess weight while retaining dynamic balance.
Thinner, lighter plies: Ultra-thin, lightweight carbon plies are utilized to achieve precise and customized performance tuning.

Product Models & Versions: LT XC-31 Disc - 29er Carbon Rim Ultralight with IW/Depth 31/22mm(Flyweight Version)

High-grade Toray carbon fibers are premium materials manufactured by Japan’s Toray Industries. The widely used T700, T800 and T1100 grades all fall into this series, featuring light weight, high strength and high stiffness.

Our design team does not simply stack T700, T800 and T1100 fibers mechanically. Instead, we adopt an engineering-driven blended layup strategy to achieve balanced performance. Our core goal is to strike an optimal balance among stiffness, weight, toughness and ride comfort through scientific fiber blending.

Product Models & Versions:  LT XC-30 Disc - 29er Carbon Rim Ultralight with IW/Depth 30/22mm(Standard Version)