FFWD Rides Off

Fast forward almost seven years to 2023 and FFWD are back riding mountain bike wheels again with the all-new Outlaw – a light and affordable carbon trail wheelset. With a lightweight wide 30mm internal carbon rim, the new FFWD Outlaw wheels can cover everything from cross-country to marathon to trail to all-mountain, and surprisingly, they’re now 25% cheaper than when the Outlaw debuted all the way back in 2016!

On the mountain bike side of things, the Outlaw name was first used by FFWD back in 2016 for a pair of light carbon 24mm internal cross-country wheels that were even ridden to a World Champion XC Marathon title, plus a slightly heavier, wider all-mountain version. Now with more modern updated spec and a much more capable 30mm internal hookless carbon rim, the Outlaw is back.

The new FFWD Outlaw is still designed first for cross-country and marathon riding, around wider modern tires. And thanks to improved materials and that wider hookless rim, FFWD says the new affordable carbon wheels are rated up to all-mountain riding, too!

The core new element of the new Outlaw is its wide new hookless carbon rim – 30mm internal, 37mm external, by 26mm deep. It gets newly wider beads to better resist trailside impacts for longer life, and reinforced spoke holes for that extra durability which means it can now blur the lines between lightweight trail-riding mountain bike disciplines. With that wide rim, it's even rated for wider tires – anything from 2.0″ up to 2.75″ officially!

FFWD also has a new aluminum Boost MTB hubset for the new Outlaw, with a centerlock disc interface so you can fit any mountain bike rotors to it – with adapters in the case of 6-bolt rotors. The new hubs also get an upgrade to 36T ratchet internals thanks to that DT tech entering the public domain a couple years back, and spin on premium sealed steel cartridge bearings.

The new FFWD Outlaw wheels are 29er only, and Boost-only. They also are only offered with FFWD's own straight-pull hubs, although a DT Swiss 240 EXP option is also anticipated next year.

FFWD laces the Outlaws up 3-cross with 28 bladed straightpull spokes – Sapim CX-Rays up front & CX-Sprints in the rear – plus brass DT ProLock nipples for extra durability. And they approve the wheels for a max rider weight limit of up to 140kg/265lb.

The wheels come pre-taped for tubeless setups, with alloy tubeless valves already installed – with a max pressure rating of 44psi/3bar. Claimed weights are 795g for the front, 890g for the rear, for a complete Outlaw wheelset weight of 1595g.

The new affordable carbon FFWD Outlaw mountain bike wheels sell for 1499€ for the pair, available direct from FFWD from today for XC & AM riding. The Boost-spaced carbon 29er wheels are available with old-school Shimano HG, new 12sp Microspline, and SRAM XD freehub bodies, and even a Lefty front hub option.

FFWDwheels.com