Stan's NoTubes Crest S1 Rear Wheel: Customer Review

In this review, our customer Douglas Taylor talks about his new Stan's No Tubes Crest S1 rear wheel mounted to a Bacchetta Agio recumbent bicycle. With a complete engineering system, the Crest S1 wheel is a quality product built to last. Right out of the box, these wheels spin freely and fast. Check them out!

Overview

My wife has a nice older Bachetta Agio recumbent that was equipped with a rear disc brake from the factory. After ten thousand miles the rear wheel could not be adjusted anymore such that the rear disc would not rub the disc brake pads unless the brakes were so backed off that they were virtually unusable. Even with the cones tightened past the gritty feeling zone it still felt bad. This is a common problem we have had on our touring bikes so we knew what to do. I talked to Matt McCluskey (King Gravel) and filled him on the model number and the particulars figuring that we had a $400+ wheel to buy. He gave me several options (which was nice) for a cartridge bearing replacement wheel and I just went with his first recommendation which was the Stan's NoTubes Crest S1 rear wheel.

I had no idea what I was buying, but I trust Matt from another wheel I bought from Worldwide Cyclery which turned out to be nothing short of brilliant. At less than $300, I was actually a little worried that I might be paying too little for the quality I felt I needed. When the Stan's wheel came in, I was immediately impressed with how free the sealed bearings were, yet how tight the wheel was. Usually, a new wheel like this needs at least a hundred miles to be this free. I slapped a new disc on the wheel, put a new rear tire and tube on it (it is capable of being tubeless, but I am a dyed in the wool tuber) and threw it on the blue beauty. After breaking in the pads to the fresh disc, the bike rolled like we were on a permanent decline – just about as close to frictionless as a wheel could be. My very attractive yet intelligent wife was extremely happy with the ride and she picked up 2mph over the previous wheel due to the lack of intermittent disc rub and the very free action of the bearings – no small feat since she rides a lot.

At the end of the day, we got a precision machine built wheel that totally met my expectations and at a large discount to boot. I love my local bicycle store and have bought many wheels from them over the years for my fleet of bikes, and while I trust those guys implicitly, they just don’t build enough high-performance wheels to provide this level of quality consistently – nor anywhere close to this cost. Also, I didn’t buy a series of grab bag components that didn’t know each other and just cross my fingers – I bought a wheel that was designed by a manufacturer to be this wheel – an engineered system.

Final Thoughts

While my amazing wife is small and petite, I am absolutely not! I have crunched, warped, tweaked and replaced so many wheels so I know quality when I see it, and this is the real deal. I have no problem whatsoever recommending this wheel to you (nor does King Gravel). I plan on buying this model for the rest of the fleet when their numbers come up. Very, very happy with the wheel and I saved some serious coin in the process!