Hubba Hubba Super Bubba 

Ringlé is a person’s surname. Yes, like Bontrager, Fox, King, Klein, Brodie, or Fisher. I’ve always thought it must be weird, as a mountain bike pioneer, to see your name on parts you didn’t create. From a company you haven’t been involved with for years, decades even. Better, I’d think, to be a Ross Shafer. Always a degree of separation from whatever the big ‘Q’ is doing with that sliver of your soul that they purchased. 

Geoff Ringlé, an inventor-machinist-bicyclist, sold his namesake brand to Sun Metal Products all the way back in 1997. Pairing one of the first Gucci hub manufacturers with a rim maker who had spent forty years progressing from making lawn mower wheels to riding the mountain bike boom to high-end aluminum rim production. In turn, Hayes Bicycle Group (HBG) bought the combined brand twenty years ago. 

HBG also owns the spoke manufacturer, Wheelsmith, who’s high-grade double butted spokes, featuring forged butting and rolled threads, and forged nipples are used to attach their Sun rims to their Ringlé hubs. 

{Above photo: BikeRecyclery.com}

I started this piece with an aside for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t know Geoff Ringlé’s opinion on the subject, but after many months riding on the 6-pawl, 4°-engagement, Super Bubba X hubs, I wouldn’t be upset to have my name printed on them. The drive system has been faultless, and the bearings all still spin nicely. 

I went into my evolved take on straight-pull spokes in my first look at these SR309 wheels, but I want to touch on it again because, despite the evolution of my thinking on the subject, the next pair of wheels I’m building use J-bend spokes. J-bend is easier. First off, it’s significantly easier to make hub shells. Then, due to legacy inventory thinking and mass adoption, it’s easier for an end-user to source J-bend spokes. 

But straight-pull means more even tension and easier stress relief during the build, and fewer broken spokes. It’s not just folks running wheel-building machines that are coming around to them, but an increasing number of ‘I’ve built thousands of wheels’ professional builders as well. There will be fewer holdouts every year.

So yeah, if it weren’t that the single-speeding Luddite 50,000:1 club is all-J-bend-all-the-time, the pair of wheels I’m building would be straight-pull. Unfortunately, Paul Comp isn’t on the straight-pull program. And hey, if you’re on the fence, I’ll borrow from my first look:

“But all the academics aside, my favourite thing about straight-pull spokes is being able to change a broken spoke without removing the brake rotor or cassette. This can be a great time saver.“

{Above photo: elite504 / RetroBike}

Enough With The [Asides] Yet? 

Yeah, so. I still owe you the second reason for the first aside, and I’ve already been sidetracked, again. Here’s the thing. Apart from the ever-rolling compliance vs. stiffness claims*, wheels have managed to sanely skirt the marketing overdrive that has overwhelmed most other component categories. 

Number of spokes, lacing pattern, carbon or aluminum rim, rim width, hub engagement & hub quality, weight, use case, country of origin. There’s a lot of ‘real’ stuff to talk about. But none of it particularly complies with the review goals of entertain, inform, and inspire. 

I love the classic eyeletted rims, and they air up tubeless with ease. As Sun rims have for well over a decade. The graphics are perfectly there and not in my face. The engagement is happily within my <5° preference. The weight {sub 2000g for the set} is totally reasonable for the category, and also, who’s counting micro-grams with aluminum rims these days? In short, the wheels have been fantastic, end of story? 

*{Really, they’re more compliance AND stiffness claims.}

I’ve been running CushCore inserts. I mean, no surprise, if you read MEATengines, you know even my commuter bike runs CushCore. I do have a history of denting rims, even though I don’t cheat on air pressure and check it before every ride, but I’m willing to pedal the extra weight of an insert in exchange for the damping benefit and cost savings. 

Yes, the SR309 Enduro wheels are rated for Enduro and eeb “Abuse” {HBC’s word, not mine}, and, yes, part of that focus is on dent resistance for the sidewall. But, in the split between brands handing out free rims (shipping, spokes, labour usually not included) and those requiring a level of personal responsibility, Hayes Bicycle Group (HBG) is in the latter. 

Working in shops, I’ve seen a lot of broken rims. Either from serial smashers or one-time I-knew-my-rear-tire-was-softer’ers. For the vast of majority mountain bikers, a buy-once-never-buy-again no-questions rim purchase is just marketing. The smashers will buy the beefiest DH rim (of whichever material) and/or run inserts. The one-timers generally take responsibility and want to fastest solution to be back on the trail. 

Either way, it bears mentioning that SUNringlé has a ‘let’s talk’ rim warranty/crash replacement plan as opposed to a blanket freebie guarantee. 

Back to these SR309 wheels, they occupy an interesting position in the market. Sort of like higher-end cable-actuated drivetrains and nicely appointed self-powered hardtails with well-made frames. The perfect wheelset for a full-XT spec Chromag Rootdown with a Select+ suspension fork? 

What I mean is they’re significantly less expensive than sister-brand Reynolds’ carbon creations, or the ultimate CAN-content combo of a Project 321 hub and We Are One hoops. But they’re also significantly more expensive than a basic setup. 

Even Sun’s own Expert version of this wheelset, using the same rims, is a notable cost savings for a minor weight penalty. Not a choice for me, with its 12°-engagement, and that’s not getting into some of the truly lower-cost options on the market. 

I know that my slice of the mountain bicycling world is tiny, but it seems to me that the middle ground is disappearing. In general, e-or-me-bike, folks are either looking for the best price on a full-fancy T-Type/Factory/Carbon rig or they’re comparing budget-friendliest machines. Maybe the nice middle market mountain machine is still ruling the trails elsewhere?

So, stiffness and compliance? I have not run these wheels on my single-speed {yet}, but I stand a lot when climbing my Arcturian, and I have zero complaints about power transfer. My Chromag is plenty stiff, likewise for the DVO Onyx 38 on the front, and the wheels suit that package perfectly.  

I have run these wheels with 2.6″ tires, front and rear, and 3.0″ tires front and rear. Exclusively with CushCore. So, while I’m definitely able to notice particularly firm or flexible wheels for some applications, I won’t make any claims of compliance here. The 6069 rims, again, go happily unnoticed. 

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[PHOTO ASIDE]

I’m so jazzed to ride Will’s ArctuHawk after, what will be, close to a couple of months without mountain biking, that I was carried away taking some wheel photos. Anywho, rather than waste them, here’s a photo aside of how my Chromag is currently sitting. If you’re just here for the wheel review, feel encouraged to scroll down to where the text starts again and come back later.

[/PHOTO ASIDE]

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I’ll note the rims came nicely taped and said tape has stayed in place through four tire swaps. They also included valve stems and sealant in the box. The rear hub comes with both a MicroSpline (MS) and an XD driver, but I still need to sort out an HG – available aftermarket – so I can run it one-speed. The front hub, likewise, includes both standard end caps and SRAM Torque caps, which is a nice touch. 

While I appreciate that HBC has stuck with 6-bolt rotor mounting here, I {sadly} assume this will change near-future runs of these {and all} wheel systems. It used to be that most folks I know either preferred 6-bolt or didn’t care, and now that has fully shifted in the other direction. I know an increasing number of riders who actively want Centerlock and a few converts who used to be as pro-6-bolt as they were in favour of cable-shifting and pedaling. 

Oh Là Là

Really, Drew-Bob? A CA$1100 wheelset {currently on sale for CA$880} is what you’re calling the middle ground? Yepper do. This is a rad no-compromise 4° engagement wheelset for not a whole lot more Canuck-bucks than a, yes, beautiful, yes, small-batch Canadian-made, Project 321 rear hub. Okay, there’s a bit more drag in the drive system compared to the magnetic-magic, but the Super Bubba X hub is still a premium product. 

And, yes. I love nice small-batch things. And also, in the months since I took on this review, I’ve become a bit of an economic-jingoist. Nearly as much as the next Canadian, even. And yeah, I wish the Badger State hadn’t voted in favour of a global grind towards economic chaos. I mean, asides-on-asides, but how is it that the collective we cannot grasp that 99% of us are infinitely closer to being broke than Bezos? Closer to homeless than yachtmore. Almost every one of us is a pongo, not a Putin. Food for powder. 

Wait, is this idiot making an all-war-is-class-war argument in an article about f*cking high-end mountain bicycle wheels? Ha. Okay, moving on.

I know what I like: high-hub-engagement {<5°}, fully serviceable and supported product. Hubs that I’ll be riding for years. Nice aluminum rims. Bonus for the eyelets. Bonus for the clean graphics. I know the market fairly well, and while I’m always open to debate, this, right here, is where wheelsets start for me. 

I have the privilege to regularly pedal hubs from Project 321 {G2, G2.5, G3} and Chris King, and high expectations for hubs. I’d cut the budget almost anywhere on my bike to be on a great set of wheels. So it’s with full awareness that this set runs a thousand dollars, for a pair of bicycle wheels, that I say it’s my min-max magic point. No compromises, but lacking the finishing details and that perfect magnetic retraction that Project 321 puts out in their ultra-premium rear hubs.

Perfect world, what would I change? This is sliding into GEShole territory, but where I think most riders are better off with a hub that’s single-bolt pre-loaded by their frame’s thru-axle, I’d like to have an adjustable preload collar. And yes, sure, how about a limited ‘special edition’ version with an anodized purple rim, anodized purple hub, and the graphics on both in turquoise? I’m a sucker for nostalgia and anodized purple. 

Let’s wrap it up there for now, with the plan being to come back with a future date to talk more about this sweet single-speeding plan I have, where I’m swapping chains and hub drivers for a sub-10-minute conversion between #1FG and multi-speed setups. 

SUNringlé SR309 wheels. There are many more Gucci options on the market, but if you’re lucky enough to be rolling on a set of these, then you’re lucky enough. More information at HBC/SUNringlé.

{Pricing as of 24/05/25}

Rear wheel @ CA$687 (on sale for CA$550)

Front wheel @ CA$413 (on sale for CA$330)

Or, to keep some of those margin dollars in country, whatever that country may be, and support some hard-working local folks, hit up your preferred local bike shop for a quote. 

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{For the interested party, here’s my first look at these wheels from October.}

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