Wheelsets

Rider weight / General
All our products exceed Uni/Din safety standard requirements.
As a general rule Uni/Din safety standards and tests consider 90kg. (200Lb.) as rider weight and simulate the efforts of an extremely strong world-class athlete as standard reference.

Are you that strong?
If yes plan to replace your frame/component after a whole racing season since you can have partially fatigued it.
An average good racer outputs 20% lower loads and this doubles at least the component fatigue life.
The loads applied by an average rider affect only marginally the fatigue life of the component.

Rider weight / Wheels
Rider weight doesn't play the main role in the energy q.ty count that can be applied to the bike components.
1) Speed itself increases by the square of the loads applied to the front wheel when hitting an obstacle.
Therefore speed, terrain and the correct pressure of the front tire are the most critical factors.
2) Personal riding and sprinting style can put very limited or extremely high loads on the spoke-rim structure of a rear wheel.
Here key factors are bike/rider lateral angle under sprinting, leg impulsive force and gear ratio.
3) Low gear ratios increase chain pull and this directly increases the mechanical stress on hub freewheel, hub bearings, crank bearings etc.

Carbon Road Rims/General
Carbon fiber rims offer very high stiffness/weight ratio but can't absorb impacts and can't get deformed or bent as alloy rims.
Always remind that Carbon fiber rims are typically sensible to impacts and heat.
Thereafter, despite the extremely careful engineering, all road wheels equipped with lightweight carbon fiber rims should be used only on well paved roads and with proper riding ability.
Never leave carbon wheels exposed to direct strong sunlight for long time nor stored in the car under a hot sun.
In case of rim-brake systems:
- brake shoes should always be carbon friendly and of good quality.
- periodically clean/degrease the surface of rim races with acetone, this maximizes braking performance and reduces rim wear.
Additionally, during long descents, use short strong braking and avoid long mild slow downs.
This allows longer cooling periods between braking sequences and prevents permanent deformations of the rim due to excessive heating.

Carbon MTB Rims / General
Carbon fiber rims offer very high stiffness/weight ratio but can't absorb impacts nor can't get deformed or bent as alloy rims.
X-C Carbon rims are typically over dimensioned especially at their outer edges since the composite material is very sensible to impacts with sharp objects.
Thereafter, despite our very careful engineering, driving ability, tire pressure and suspension setup are the most relevant factors that will condition the rim durability.
Always remind that Carbon fiber rims are typically sensible to impacts and heat.
Never leave carbon wheels exposed to direct strong sunlight for long time or stored in the car under a hot sun.

Road tire installation / tubeless / hokless

SAFETY note for Clincher Rims.
Tape/Flap Thickness on both Tubeless & Classic Tube assemblies.
Road clinchers tire manufacturers haven’t reached a common standard of wire-beading / tubeless diameter yet.
Sealant tape thickness (or flap thickness) and width play an extremely important role on keeping the tire safely onto the rim.
Unfortunately ETRTO (European Tire and Rim Technical Organization) recommendations aren’t well complete yet since do not clearly cover the influence of sealant tape nor tire beading pressure.
Consequently every tire model has slightly different diameters and fitting properties such as wire material and anti-stretch ability.
Thereafter any combination of tire+rim assembly (of any type and brand) requires proper attention applying the tubeless sealant Tape in the right number of turns.
That because the tipical/nominal 622mm rim bead diameter is significantly influenced by the sealant tape turns and thickness.

Tape application and tire installation should be carefully executed by a professional mechanic who has to evaluate if that specific tire model fits correctly onto the rim bead and eventually has to tune properly the tape thickness.
A loose tire can get off the rim while riding whilst a too tight tire is extremely difficult to be installed properly.
The correct combination depends on the correct tape thickness that optimizes final bead diameter of the rim for the inner diameter of that specific tire.
These concepts are a good rule for any type of road tire assembly and especially for hookless rim models.

Tubular tire installation / removal
Both installing and removing tubulars require very good skills.
Removal shluod be donevery carefully to avoid possible rim damages and de-lamination.
Installation requires specific contact glue or specific tape, the operation should be done by an expert technician.

Wheel Servicing

Spoke replacement

Hub maintenance
Please refer to the manual instruction of your specific hub/wheel model.

Elder models: ExtraDisc, ExtraDisc v2.0 , ExtraDisc UL, ExtraTerra, ExtraTerra UL, ExtraRoad SL, ExtraClimbSLC.

Hub opening without messing up "micro tuner" setting
Remove right axle end using a 5mm allen wrench.
In case left axle end unscrews first, remove it and insert a 10mm allen key into axle. Re-assemble left axle. Pull out freewheel body.
Push axle from right to left side.
As left bearing pops out avoid any movement of the internal preload tuner (mark its position with the axle, use a permanent pencil)
Unscrew axle and left axle end, then remove bearing.

In case you have lost original bearing tuner setting use as starting position (left to right bearing distance on axle fittings ):
ExtraDisc: 43.95mm
ExtraTerra / ExtraRoad SL: 43.75mm
ExtraRoad SLC: 43.80mm

Axle micro tuner setting (internal)
Insert axle into hub-shell, insert left bearing into hub-body.
Warning: do not push bearing pressing on its inner race. Proper bearing insertion requires pressure on the outer race only.
Tighten left axle-end, insert freewheel (without pawls), and then tighten right axle end.
Try rotating the wheel, checking for smoothness and play (with a tightened quick release).
If necessary adjust bearing tuner again (shorten bearing distance if you wish to reduce play, lengthen to increase smoothness)
Bearing axial tuning involves axle length variations of +/- 0.05mm max, that means 1/10th of a turn of the micro tuner device (thread is counter-clockwise).
The adjustment procedure is simpler than it sounds, once you have done it a few times.
Partially insert freewheel (with pawls), check for correct pawls positioning/engagement, insert freewheel, tighten right axle end. Done!

Bearing Options

All Extralite hubs and wheels are offered with a choice of ready installed bearings among the best available today.

All bearings feature low-friction rubber seals on both sides.

Hyper hubs, that are specifically designed for off-road use, feature an additional external O-r seal that protects the bearing seals.
Internal bearing selection
Each bearing unit is individually selected by Extralite staff, we check seal drag, rolling smoothness then select and divide them 3 different fitting classes of internal diameter, each class is 2 microns by the next one.  
Despite all our bearings come directly from very high quality manufacturers our staff individually checks each unit for rolling smoothness and bore dimensional tolerance.
Extralite staff checks rolling smoothness and seal drag resistance first, then all the units passed are selected and divided in 3 different fitting classes of internal bore, each class is 2 microns by the next one. All that allows our famous truly perfect axle to bearing fitting that together with our precise bearing preload offers very high mileage with minimal rolling resitance. 

Abec5 Steel bearings	Famous Abi-Enduro ABEC 5 precision bearings Standard equipment for all Extralite Road hubs
	Plus	Minus
	High mileage Good rolling resistance High impact resistance Average best choice for dry environments and occasional bike washing	Sensible to water & moisture inside the hub

 

ABI 440C Stainless bearings	Abi-Enduro precision fully stainless bearings 440C Standard equipment for all Extralite MTB hubs 4-5g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
	Plus	Minus
	High corrosion resistance Highly resistant to water/moisture (inside hub too) Medium-high impact resistance Average best choice for humid environment and/or frequent bike washing	Medium mileage Medium rolling resistance

 

 

HYC HyperCeramic	Extralite Ceramic bearings, extremely durable & non-rustable 5-6g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
Stainless Races: AMS5618 Cryogenically treated Triple-polishing process (RA / RC-RP-RV) Ra 0.10 Balls: Grade 3 Silicon Nitride with HIP processing Seals: Hi-quality Low-friction lip-labyrint Really trick!	Plus	Minus
	Low rolling resistance Low weight High mileage High impact resistance Highly resistant to water/moisture (inside hub too) Best choice for maximum racing performance and durability	Installation requires very good skills

 

XD-15 Ceramic	World trickiest Ceramic bearings ever, extremely durable & non-rustable 4-5g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
https://cycling.endurobearings.com/pages/enduro-innovations#xd15	Plus	Minus
	Low rolling resistance Highest mileage Fully openable and rebuildable Highly resistant to water, moisture and salt Best choice for maximum racing performance and durability	Expensive Installation requires very good skills

Read well these basic info before ordering the parts.
Bearing replacement is not an easy operation as it may seem.
Additionally the installation of any kind of Ceramic bearings requires a very good specific expertise.
Extralite offers complete tool-sets for hub maintenance: the Pro-tool kit 1 and Bearing-sitter includes bearing inserting tools in every bearing sizes used on UltraHubs / HyperHubs / CyberHubs.
If your hub was originally equipped with standard bearings it will probably require micro-tolerance adjustments to axle and bearing fittings, this
to allow proper bearing rotation and durability (these operations are for real experts only). Alternatively send your hub to us for this servicing.

 

Read well Bearing Tips before attempting a bearing replacement.

 

This option has been offered till 2024

HDC Heavy-Duty Ceramic	Hi-quality Heavy-Duty Hybrid Ceramic bearing 5-6g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
	Plus	Minus
	Good mileage Low rolling resistance Medium-high impact resistance Medium resistance in humid environment Good choice for best racing performance	Complex installation Sensible to water & moisture inside the hub