The "Black Burner" enduro wheelset from Tune weighs just 1520 grams. It owes its light weight to the combination of Tune's King and Kong hubs, the Black Burner AM/Enduro carbon rims and the Sapim D-Light spokes which, together with Sappim's aluminum nipples, hold the whole thing together. Rims and hubs make do with 28 spoke holes. The curiosity about riding characteristics and durability in hard use is therefore quite high. The maximum rider weight is set at 100 kilograms, but I'm still 20 kilograms under that with my equipment.

Setup and terrain

The test environment was enduro races on Madeira and in La Thuile as well as alpine tours, but also descents in bike parks: in other words, everything you need for a comprehensive test over an entire season - rough riding guaranteed.
The lightweight rolling stock was harnessed to a Devinci Spartan, a familiar enduro bullet that can take more punishment than its rider would like.

The Blackburner rims have an outer width of 35 millimetres and an inner width of 29 millimetres, which is a common rim width today. Initially, they will be fitted with Maxxis Minion tyres in 27.5 x 2.5 inch with Exo carcass and in the Wide Tire version for rims from 30 millimetres. In terms of rim width, this is a bit on the borderline, but still works well. The Onza tires Ibex, Citius and later Aquillas with a width of 2.4 inches are used for the races. All in the more robust EDC or even the downhill carcass.

This makes life easy

The enduro bike has become quite light with the Blackburner wheels: The bike stands at just under 13.2 kilograms ready to ride, albeit still with the lightweight Maxxis tires. The lower weight is already very noticeable compared to a wheelset weighing only 200 grams, and that makes a difference on long climbs.

The same applies when accelerating: It's really easy - even with robust and heavier tires. However, the weight is not the only decisive factor for good propulsion during starts and sprints. The wheelset impresses with very good lateral stiffness given the spokes are only 1.65 millimetres thin. On trails with many changes of direction, this is a not unimportant feature. The bike can be maneuvered easily and precisely with the Black Burner wheels, and the front wheel stays on track even during hard braking maneuvers.

Despite a few painful-sounding punctures, the Black Burners survived the tough descents of Madeira well. Only scratches bear witness to the rough terrain. With further touring and park use spread over the summer and fall months, they were subjected to further heavy wear and tear and not spared a bit. This resulted in three loosened spokes and nipples. Despite this, the figure of eight was very small and the rear wheel survived two more long alpine descents. After re-tensioning and re-centering, the rear wheel has already survived several uses and is still running straight. However, the same nipples came loose again, whereupon the "culprits" were immobilized with a drop of threadlocker. The hub brothers King and Kong had to go through mud, dust and numerous washes. The bearings still run almost as smoothly as when they were new and the freewheel still performs flawlessly.

Conclusion

The Enduro version of the Black Burner wheelset impresses with its good riding characteristics and robust carbon rims. It was foreseeable that such hard use of such a lightweight wheelset would not be without consequences in the long run. Nevertheless, it gets good marks for this. In our opinion, the Black Burner is intended for the weight-conscious enduro racer, but can be used just as well as a robust touring wheelset. However, it's too good for weekend bike park battles.

www.tune.de