Spank Oozy Trail 295 Wheelset – Review
We’ve been Spank-ing the Spank Oozy Trail 295 all winter long. Check out Tom’s review.
I’ve always been impressed with Spank’s products, and with riders like Mick Hannah happy to ride them, that’s a damn good start in my book. Oozy sits at the lighter, trail end of the Spank range, aimed at all day mountain biking, enduro racing and general ragging about. The Oozy Trail 295 wheels come in at just shy of 1700g, light for a set of wheels that should take a thrashing.
It’s before you mount up the tyres that you can really see the tech that has gone into them. Most obvious is the OohBah profile to the rim. Much like corrugated cardboard or roofing, the waves of the rim surface add a load of stiffness without needing to add extra material to the rim. They also help guide the tyre bead into the rim, or seem to at least when putting tyres back on. Ocne seated, the rim has little ridges called “bead bite” that the bead squidges into, in theory allowing you to run lower pressures without burping air.
Tubeless was dead easy to set up with them, tyres from Bontrager, Continental and Maxxis all fitted snugly, seated easily and held air. I’ve punctured a couple of times, always on sharp rocks that have compromised tyres, and I don’t find these rims anymore susceptible to punctures than anything I’ve run recently – Mavic, Pro-Lite and Superstar for example. I’ve smashed down a few things with less air than I should have (sorry….) but the rims are still looking great and running true. This’ll jinx it, but in six months I’ve not snapped a single one of the black straight pull spokes, despite plenty of storm-fall filled trees and the obligatory botched landings. 28 straight pull spokes in each wheel come from the hubs’ cunningly positioned flanges, meaning that all the spokes are the same length – great for the next ride when I’ll inevitably smash half a dozen out!
In the centre of this wheelset are Spank’s own hubs. These hubs will run at 20 or 15mm out front and 142×12 out the back straight out of the box, or you can get adapters for 135×12 back end. Apparently you can also run quick release. Six bolt disc mounts as standard, and no option for centrelock. Inside, the bearings are well protected, and easily changed. The bearings lasted six months front and rear, six months of being washed at least 3 times a week, and hundreds of kms and thousands of metres of descent, perfectly reasonable and when I popped them out the bearings were all in good nick, only just starting to get a bit rough and not as full of crap as you might expect in a Welsh Winter.
The freehub has a lovely click to it, picks up quickly, and has done throughout it’s maintenance free winter. Popping it open, again well sealed and free of gunge. The three pawls each have their own spring, a pleasant move away from the circular spring. I have nothing but praise for this wheelset, from the striking green that matches my bike (more mellow black, white, red or blue options available) to the bombproof yet light reliability, I couldn’t ask for more from a set of wheels. When I go to my bike, I just want stuff to work, and to go on working, and these wheels have done just that.
Spank Oozy Trail Wheelset – RRP £449.99
