Reynolds is a carbon wheel specialist offering high-end road and MTB wheels. Part of the cycling group making Manitou suspension, Answer bars and Hayes brakes, I was just about to write how it has nothing to do with Reynolds UK of steel tubing fame (853 anyone?).

Apparently that’s not true though, the US company was actually born from an agreement with the UK Reynolds to buy in a bit of heritage and kudos for a Californian firm making early carbon fibre bike forks. The US arm then broke away and after a long journey eventually became the brand we’re talking about here. Who knew?

Reynolds as it currently stands has been around since 2010 and has sponsored leading road and mountain bike teams for years. It clearly reckons its hoops are up there with the best mountain bike wheels, supporting shredders like the Pivot Factory DH and enduro teams who hammer its kit at World Cups and events like Red Bull Hardline.

Reynolds Blacklabel rims have a reputation for strength, now the brand wants to build compliance into that too

Reynolds Blacklabel wheels need to know

• High end carbon wheels with rebranded Industry Nine hubs and quick 0.52° engagement
• 30mm internal rim with wide 3.5mm rim hook for snakebite protection
• 28 spokes per wheel, or 32 on the downhill build
• Costs £2,200, weighs 1,813g comes HG, Microspline or XD

Bernard Kerr was running Reynolds Blacklabel at Hardline last year… what better test for bombproof wheels?

Bernard Kerr has actually been competing on its distinctive wheels too, and through this, it’s picked up a bit of a rep for tough and bombproof carbon rims that don’t fall to pieces when smashed into rocks.

I’ve tried some of its MTB wheels over the years, both in XC/trail and gravity models, and my general experience is they’re very responsive and zippy. They are also a often a bit stiff and unyielding compared to some modern carbon rims with extra compliance engineered in.

These new Blacklabel wheels aim to address that by totally re-engineering the rim profile and ‘building even more performance into what was already hailed as the competitive standard’. In other words, it sounds to me like the US brand reckoned its older Blacklabels were sorted for stiffness and strength, but could be made better in terms of comfort and tracking.

To do this, the latest gravity collection has shallower rims across the range. These Pro wheels with Industry Nine hubs are considerably more cash than some popular rival wheelsets with a similar lifetime warranty like the Reserve HD 30 wheeset. Bear in mind pricing is very dynamic at the moment though, and there are some real bargains about online as Reynolds has around 40% off its wheels. That said, Stif currently also has DT Swiss-hubbed Reserve 30HDs for under a grand a pair.

Reynolds Blacklabel rims now stand less tall, which makes them 40% more compliant than older versions, Reynolds says

Design and specifications

Obvious from the first glance, the main difference to previous Reynold’s Blacklabels is a much shallower rim profile. The new shape is a significant 5.5mm shallower, as well as being a tad wider. The lower profile doesn’t look particularly radical though, because older models had deeper-section ‘V’ shaped rims – they were at the taller end of the range for modern MTB carbon rims and more in line with older Enve or Syncros shapes.

The new design shrinks in height, from 26mm to 20.5mm for a more contemporary look. More importantly, this one change alone aids in vertical compliance by nearly 40%, Reynolds says. The enduro and downhill rims share the same basic carbon lay-up and shape, with a lower (28) spoke count for the enduro wheels to save weight and give a softer ride feel, while downhill wheels use 32 spokes for extra strength and toughness.

The wide rim hook is designed to blunt any imapact from rock or root, and hopefully stop the dreaded snakebite

Reynolds’ hookless rim means it has a flat interior surface without a fragile bead lip or hook and is now 37mm external and 30mm internal. This means each carbon rim wall (tyre lip) is a beefy 3.5mm thick to help resist damage from impacts and reduce the chance of snakebite punctures. That’s because the thicker rim wall is blunter and lessens the chance of cutting or damaging tyre sidewalls during harsh bottom out events.

The two most expensive Blacklabel packages, Pro and Expert, boost rim toughness further using something called IDM (Impact Dispersing Matrix). This sees a mix of fibres and a special resin added to the carbon for extra impact resistance.

The Blacklabel wheels come in all three driver body standards, as you’d expect from the Hydra hub

Furthermore, the rim is also slightly asymmetric to strengthen the wheel through more even spoke tension, which should also offer better power transfer and tautness.

Talking of spokes, these are straight pull and bladed with 28 aero Sapim CX Deltas per wheel slotting into cradles on aluminium hubs using Center Lock rotors. The hubs are Reynolds branded Industry Nine Hydras in the Pro version, with a 0.52° pick up. Th Experts meanwhile use fully CNC machined Ringlé Super Bubba X hubs with four degrees of engagement and a phased six-pawl freehub.

The hubs are Industry Nine in the Pro build: drop the price and spec to Expert and you’ll get good quality Ringlé hubs instead

Industry Nine Hydra’s sometimes have an annoying whine while freewheeling that gets more screechy the faster you spin, so I was pleased the Reynolds-branded versions here were considerably quieter. There is a lot of debate around chain growth and suspension performance that questions whether you even want or need near instantaneous pick up like the Hydras – check out my review of e*thirteen’s Sidekick hub and its chainless feel if you want to know more. If I were to forego the quick pickup and opt for the Ringlé  hubs then I’d save 35g in weight and £300 in hard currency.

Blacklabels come with alloy nipples to save weight and also fully taped with quality tubeless valves installed, so I didn’t have any extra faff or cost. In terms of Reynold’s replacement warranty, it’s less black and white than some brands’ ‘no-questions-asked’ attitude. Damage the wheels riding and Hayes has got me for a full rebuild or repair to the original owner for two years including labour and parts, so long as I pay for shipping. After that, the lifetime warranty extends to defects only and tips into ‘crash replacement’ territory, rather than full lifetime warranty.

Any number of tyres popped onto the Blacklabel with ease, and none of the fuss some wheels cause

Performance

I take it as a given that a carbon wheelset with precise tolerances should mount tyres easily and hold air straight away. But after a ridiculous struggling tubeless faff with another carbon wheelset recently, it’s worth saying I had zero issues here mounting multiple tyre brands with just a track pump.

The rim well is deep enough for even DH tyre beads and smooth in the middle to help the beed pop out and onto the rim wall. Despite being asymmetric, the valve hole is still in the middle too, so there are no weird wedge-shaped spacers to cause extra fiddling or get lost fixing things in the wild.

In terms of basic function, Reynolds’ 309 Pros never skipped a beat on various bikes. The Hydra freehub engagement was flawless in all weathers, I had no loosening of spokes or coming out of true, and no hub noises, creaks or cracks. The freehub sound is quieter than I’m used to, so perhaps Industry Nine has added more or different grease for this Reynolds build. I also didn’t have a single puncture while testing on multiple tyres, which may potentially be aided by the thicker rim walls, which are less sharp against the tyre casings.

Reynolds has made a bullet proof wheelset, in months of testing I heard not a peep out of them, and didn’t even have to tighten a spoke

Reynolds’ wheels build speed fast under power and feel taut when cranking hard uphill or really sprinting. The ride quality is direct and positive, so I could lean the bike and pump berms and hollows with good energy, but the overall feel is still more towards the right side of responsive/flex-free carbon wheel feel, rather than razor sharp or too edgy.

The ride here is definitely not as jarring as older Reynolds wheels. I’ve ridden a Merida One-Sixty 10K bike a lot that comes with previous generation Blacklabel Enduros and the difference is huge. That bike’s older models are simply too stiff and transmit much more vibration and chatter from small bumps, roots and stones while rolling along. Worse than that though, they can really jar and jolt your body if you hit a big root or rock at speed and transmit forces up through the bike, plus there is noticeably less grip, even using the same tyres.

Reynolds’ new ride feel here is duller and didn’t give me the same kind of spike and impact if you can’t avoid stoving the front tyre into a big root. I’d rate them as similar to many carbon rivals like the Reserve HD30s, where steering feels very accurate, especially through the rear wheel when driving the bike with my feet. There’s not too much skipping or loss of traction at extreme lean angles, or excessive bone-shaking over the tops of rocks and bumps. That said, these wheels are clearly not as conforming and supple as something like Zipp’s 3Zero Moto or Crankbrothers’ Synthesis i9 wheelset.

Crankbrothers Synthesis wheels are the gold standard for compliant rims

One of my favourite wheelsets is the lighter version of Reserve’s carbon 30 line up, the SL. It strikes a really good compromise between stiffness and comfort ,while being really light for fast acceleration and climbing. So, after riding the new Blacklabels for a few months to keep an eye on durability, I back-to-backed them against the SLs using the same tyres and same pressures.

It’s easy to become conditioned to whatever wheel you’re using, so I swapped between the two on a DH/enduro track with a good mix of corners and a few rougher faster sections. There’s a fair argument Reserve SLs aren’t a direct apples-to-apples comparison, seeing as they target trail, rather than enduro riding, and are well over 100g a pair lighter. But I’d argue they’re close enough – both are do-it-all carbon wheels with 30mm internals, use slightly asymmetric rims and have near identical wall thickness. They also both use 28 spokes and have a no-questions-asked warranty that means you can use them for whatever you like. I haven’t broken one yet.

The Reserves perfectly balance a stiff, responsive carbon feel to drive the bike through berms and turns with no mushiness. They have the ability to really zip up to speed with comfort and smooth rolling on very broken and lumpy terrain.

Reynolds Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro carbon wheels feel urgent under acceleration

Reynolds’ wheels share some of the Reserve’s best traits and also mute trail chatter and dull feedback and vibrations to my hands or feet. I’d argue the SLs roll a tad faster, though, just going on my gut ride feel. They are also noticeably more urgent when accelerating and surge forwards more under each pedal stroke when climbing… and by more than you’d expect too, from the 120g or so weight difference.

The Reserves are marginally more comfortable, planted on the ground and smoother. This aids tracking on choppy terrain, but also in sensing exactly what my tyre edge blocks are doing on the ground and when I’m on the limits of traction. The SLs and the new Reynolds wheels (to a lesser extent) can find traction at lean angles without feeling sketchy, where the old Reynolds wheels would occasionally deflect off the edges of roots or rocks.

I’m drilling pretty deep into the nuances here – if I hadn’t directly compared on the same day I suspect I wouldn’t have noticed a massive difference. But, with high-end carbon wheels, it’s these small differences that separate products. These Blacklabels are much improved, definitely solid by having proven tough everywhere from bike parks to natural DH tracks, and are well suited to harder charging or heavier riders.

The Reynolds Blacklabel 309 Enduro Pro is very good, but for the money there are slightly better options out there