With well over fifty collective years of experience within its engineering ranks and as the cycling arm of parent company MacLean Quality Composites (MQC), Reynolds Cycling enjoys an unusually deep and well-versed knowledge of carbon fiber composite design, processing, and manufacturing within the bicycle industry.

While many bicycle companies were just figuring out the composites game, MQC was poised to hit the bicycle ground running in the early '90s as the original tubing supplier for Trek's original OCLV road frames.

Shortly thereafter, it emerged from the background with the Ouzo Pro fork, a then-revolutionary product that struck an ideal balance of light weight, superb ride quality, carefully tuned stiffness, unparalleled durability, and an overall level of performance that was otherwise unmatched by its competition.

Those traits have continued to carry through the entirety of Reynolds Cycling's product line. Even today, the now-ubiquitous Ouzo Pro fork still stands as one of the best carbon forks available and has grown to include the Ouzo Pro Cross and Ouzo Pro Track models, and Reynolds Cycling's list of tubing clientele now includes such esteemed builders as Parlee, Serotta, Seven Cycles, Calfee, and Independent Fabrication.

Most recently, though, Reynolds Cycling has emerged as one of the world's foremost carbon fiber wheel manufacturers with what is possibly the most comprehensive and sought-after line in the industry.

A careful recipe

The popularity of carbon rims has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to their decreased weight, surprising durability, and superior ride quality as compared to aluminum hoops.

Reynolds Cycling's range now includes fourteen distinct carbon models that encompass road, time trial/triathlon, cyclo-cross, and even mountain bike disciplines, and each is at or near the pinnacle of its respective genre. As Director of Sales and Marketing Jonathan Geran puts it:

"If the competition has met the weight of our wheels, they're not nearly as strong, and if they've met the strength, they're significantly heavier."

As much as marketing hype would have you believe otherwise, the quality and performance of a carbon fiber part is dependent on far more than just the modulus of the fibers; higher modulus does not always equate to better, and nowhere is this more applicable than in carbon rims.

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