Chris King is known for making high-performance components, but also for their sustainability focus. As a Certified B Corp, it’s part of their mission to include sustainability in everything they do. From recycling the shavings from the steel and aluminum production processes, using US-sourced organic canola oil for cutting oil that can be reused and eventually recycled, or their close loop water mass system that covers their heating and cooling for 2/3’s of the year, they are the only component manufacturer to be certified. With the new ARD44 wheelset, they bring that sustainability philosophy to complete wheel production.
The ARD44 is a high-performance wheelset, let’s get that straight from the beginning. It’s designed to go hard and fast on the road and even make the transition to gravel.
The Wheel
It starts with the Chris King R45D hub. These handcrafted aluminum hubs are used on some of the nicest wheelsets in the industry. They use house-made bearings that only get better with time. A single-piece axle adds durability and stiffness and the flanges are designed to provide lateral stiffness and remain durable under the harshest rides. Out back, the RingDrive system provides 45 points of simultaneous engagement for quick, solid engagement.
On the other end of the bladed spokes, is the 44mm FusionFiber rim. The design and production of the rim is part of a collaboration with CSS Composites, the creators of FusionFiber. Thermoplastic FusionFiber is more robust, more durable, and most importantly, recyclable, while not adding any additional weight to traditional carbon fiber.
What is FusionFiber
To start, let’s go back to the basics of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber takes thin strands of carbon, weaves them together, and impregnates them with an epoxy resin to create sheets that you cut, lay into molds, and thermoset (think bake with pressure), sometimes with additional resin.
FusionFiber combines carbon fiber and nylon. While epoxy is brittle, the nylon fiber bonding process is much more flexible. This allows it to dampen vibrations better, hold up to impacts better, and creates an overall stronger and more comfortable rim over traditional carbon fiber, with no affect on weight. Rims run 435g (+/- 15g) and complete wheelsets weigh in at 1525g. Chris King notes that the rims are tested to withstand 275% of the UCI standard for impact resistance and a minimum of 950 lbs of spoke pull force, which if you don’t know, is massively higher than what spokes are traditionally tensioned to.
Carbon fiber typically requires refrigeration to keep the sheets pliable. Keeping even part of a warehouse or production floor temperature controlled is a considerable task that uses a lot of energy. FusionFiber requires no refrigeration, about 1/3 time to bake the rims, and uses a fully automated cutting, layup, and shaping process, maximizing the use of the material, eliminating harmful epoxy waste, and saving energy. All of this helps to reduce the carbon footprint by 30% per wheelset.
One of the biggest differences though, FusionFiber is recyclable, where traditional carbon is not. If a rim does break, the wheel will be shipped back to Utah, where the rim will be dropped into a chipper, and the resulting chips can be heated up over 500 degrees and made into something new. With the lifetime warranty on the wheelset, Chris King will overhaul the hub, and rebuild it with a new rim.
“While we were fine-tuning the GRD23 and MTN30 rims, I knew developing our own road rim was the next step,” said Greg Hudson, Wheel Product Manager at Chris King. “To design a high-performance wheel that’s worthy of the King name is no small feat, but the moment I rode the first prototype, I knew we were on to something special/unique.”
The 44mm tall rim features a 25mm internal width, 30.5mm external. While the aero shape is designed for 28-32mm wide tires, it can handle up to a 47mm wide tire, making it a perfect wheelset to cross over between road and gravel for a true all-road bike. the TSS hookless rim makes tubeless installation and maintenance easy.
“We all used to think that 19-21mm wide tires inflated to incredibly high pressure produced the fastest ride,” continued Hudson. “We mistook the harsh ride that setup produced for speed, when in reality it caused a loss of speed, through lost traction and body fatigue. These ARD44 wheels represent everything we’ve come to understand about what makes riders faster. We already had a hub we knew outperformed the competition, but getting this rim completed the picture. That the rim could also be made in a more sustainable way, and that, ultimately, is the cherry on top.”
The ARD44 is now available through Chris King dealers and their website. You can select between nine different hub color choices at the time of writing. Freehub options include Shimano/SRAM 11 speed, and XDR. House-made steel bearings come standard, but you can upgrade to ceramic for just $110.
The ARD44 Wheelset is available now through authorized Chris King dealers and on the Chris King website. It is available in all of the 2023 colors finishes to coordinate with any bike. Upgrade to the ARD44 Disc Wheelset today and experience the ultimate ride. At $2,850, they are not the cheapest on the market, but you are getting a lot for the money. Along with that lifetime warrantee, Chris King hubs are works of art and you know that you are helping reduce waste in the cycling industry.
So if you are looking to take the road more or less traveled, the Chris King ARD44 could be the right option for you. It has a tall enough rim to add some aerodynamic advantage to your ride, while still being light enough to climb. With options to run anywhere from a 28-47mm tire and the FusionFiber rim, you’ll have a buttery smooth ride with a sporty feel, while knowing that you are helping support sustainability in the cycling industry.
Heckling Editor, Image Taker, Crash Test Dummy, and Beard Master at Bikeworldnews.com
~Veggie Powered Athlete~
Location – Lancaster, PA
Current Testing Rigs – 2024 Van Dessel Arch65, 2019 Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie, 2018 Van Dessel Motivus Maximus LTD, 2016 Van Dessel Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, 2015 Bianchi Sempre Pro, 1978 Trek TX900
Dream Bike – I’ll tell you when they make it
Discipline – Cyclocross, gravel, road and duathlons (ride/run)
Favorite Rides – Quiet country roads of Amish Country, some of the best roads around.
Food of Choice – Sweet potato roll
Beer of Choice – Unibroue Grand Reserve 17, aged four years
Bourbon of Choice – Widow Jane 10 Year