28 SPOKES
Going light doesn’t mean recklessly cutting weight. We kept these wheels 28h for reliable performance and optimal ride feel.
The purpose-built ultralight race wheel designed to exploit every meaningful gram.
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Going light doesn’t mean recklessly cutting weight. We kept these wheels 28h for reliable performance and optimal ride feel.
Claims the title for the lightest production XC wheelset built with a 30mm internal width and a full 28 spokes per wheel.
2mm deeper than the Ethos XC rim for efficient power transfer.
Designing a 270g mountain rim with a 30mm internal width, capable of building into a sub-1000g wheelset, is no small task. Delivering true race-day performance, precise handling, and efficient power transfer at that weight makes it exponentially more challenging.
The Ethos SL rim achieves this through an aggressively optimized ultralight layup, utilizing layers of T800 and T1000 carbon fibre, which have a significantly higher tensile strength-to-weight ratio than T700. These high-modulus materials, manufactured by Toray, allow us to reduce weight while providing leading impact resistance for the ultralight category. Compared to our XC rim platform, the SL adds 2mm of depth to prioritize power transfer. Berd spokes complete the system, reducing rotational weight while enhancing vibration damping and traction.
Ethos rims feature wider, flared rim beads that increase the contact surface area at the outer diameter of the rim. This broader interface helps distribute impact forces across a larger area rather than concentrating load at a single point, improving overall impact resistance and durability.
Taking it a step further, the wide, flared bead is reinforced with a flexible material specifically developed to improve resistance to off-axis, one-sided impacts. On the trail, impacts are rarely evenly distributed across both rim beads; one-sided strikes are far more common.
The Ethos lineup introduces a concave profile developed to optimize torsional stiffness. This profile allowed us to reduce rim depth to improve compliance and fine-tune support, particularly when paired with BERD spokes.
Exceptionally light and reliable at just 283g for a set, and engineered in Switzerland, these hubs feature ceramic bearings and a 36 or 54-tooth ratchet system for reliable engagement and efficient power transfer. Designed for ultralight performance with a proven track record of reliability, DT180 hubs are the perfect match for the sub-1000g Ethos SL180 wheelset.


Made from Dyneema®, Berd spokes offer an industry-leading strength-to-weight ratio—up to 12 times stronger than steel by weight—while weighing less than half of traditional steel spokes. Their fiber construction naturally absorbs high-frequency vibrations, reducing trail feedback and improving traction while delivering a smooth, controlled ride feel that remains efficient under pedalling forces.