E*13 TRS Trail Rim

E Thirteen by the Hive is a 1997 trip hop remix album featuring sub par cuts from Tricky wannabes found at the listening station at Borders Books & Music.  You need a time machine to go listen to it, but then once you do, you will realize you could have done something way better with a time machine.  Like drive around in your minivan and go to Tipi’s Taco House, or ride your sled down that slope at the farm that ended in either barbed wire or an icy stream, depending on which way you steered.  I’d use my time machine to go back and ask Rene Herse the real reason he used low trail geometry on his bikes.  We’d have a good laugh, and drink cheap table wine out of an old oil can.  He would say, ‘Jamie mon amie, I did it as a joke!  But no one got the joke, even though the bikes handled like drunken sailors on a 48 hour shore leave.  Alas, as you will see, the joke won’t die!’, and I would take my time machine minivan back to the future, and ride off on my hover board while shredding on a Dean guitar.  

Of course, only part of that story is true.  It was a BC Warlock, not a Dean guitar.  And we didn’t drink wine out of an oil can, it was a goat bladder flask.  Which brings us back to the E "Hotdog End" Thirteen by the Hive TRS Trail rim.  TRS stands for totally rippin’ n’ shreddin’, if you didn’t know.  

Ok, enough chit chat.  I like really nice US made rims.  See Astral, Velocity.  I also like superlative Taiwanese rims, like the Spank Flare 24 and 359 Vibracore rims.  But all of these rims have one thing in common, and it’s not a mutual love for oat milk lattes (is it just me or is oat milk cloyingly sweet?), it’s a high price tag.  The most affordable of these rims runs 120 bucks, and if you add fancy finishes, some aluminum rims are almost 180 bucks each.  Obviously not crabbon fibber pricing, but 360 dollars in rims gets you a lot of oat milk lattes, or 3 BC Rich Warlock bass guitars in Atomic Music’s bargain bin.  

That’s salty, as the deer say, when licking salt licks.  

If you lack the cheddar for that salty salt lick, you are not alone.  After all, I live in a yurt and write to you, dear reader, using a broken chicken bone as a quill pen, birch bark as my paper, and wood stove ashes mixed with maple syrup as my ink.  

Rims, despite what the magazines like Real Simple and Oprah will tell you, are not something you NEED to splurge on.  Splurge on these things, in this order, when build a bike:  Saddle, Bars / Bar Tape / Gel, a stem that gets your bars in the right spot, big pedals, and good brakes.  Everything else is secondary.  Decent rims, built by a competent wheel builder, hold up great, look fine, are plenty stiff.  Hubs and spokes are both more important than rims, if we are talking about today’s rims.  Today’s rims (with some exceptions) are stiff, easy to build with, and durable. 

The E "Hotdog End" Thirteen by the Hive TRS trail rim is the embodiment of a good rim, and it happens to be less than half of what other good rims cost.  Mark, who builds 80% our wheelsets, was surprised when I told him the cost on these rims.  I know I keep rambling about cost, but nutshell, he figured after a building a few sets, that they cost way more than they do.  Because they’re good.  

What should you use these rims for?  ‘Trail’ riding, whatever that is.  ATBing, whatevering, rough gravel, touring, road riding if you are a big rider or really hard on your stuff.   Suitable for tires up to 2.5” wide, and as narrow as 45mm.  

Here’s a good idea for a budget friendly, bad-arse wheelset:  Bitex hubs, Pillar Single butted spokes, brass nipples and E hotdog end Thirteen by the Hive Totally Rippin’ n’ Shreddin’ rims.  It won’t be as cheap as a prebuilt wheelset, but it will have Mark’s special touch in there, and the added benefit of stronger spokes, super even spoke tension, and thorough stress relieving.   

27.5 or 29.  32h only.