To someone from my era Spinergy probably means only one thing: the Rev X. It was the 8-spoke (bearing a resemblance to a 4 spoke) aero wheel frequently found in triathlons. There are almost a thousand posts about that wheel on our Reader Forum. The first post about Spinergy appeared the day after Christmas in 2002, 10 days after our Reader Forum debuted.

Half of the posts about Spinergy were published within the first 4 years of our Reader Forum’s existence. The second half were posted over the following 16 years. That’s how much Spinergy fell off the map.

But the wheels are on the map now! And they’re on my bike. Just, not my tri bike. Yes, they do make a wheelset that a triathlete could use but, really, it’s an aero road wheel purposed for tri. Spinergy doesn’t make a wheel with a rim deeper than 47mm. Also, that wheel features an 18mm inner bead width and 23mm outer and I’m just past that. If the tire isn’t at least 28mm wide I’m not riding it and that tire width wants rim bead widths of 21mm inner and 29mm outer widths and those are minimums.

But Spinergy’s gravel wheels are another matter. The wheels you see on this bike pictured cost $739 a pair and you see the use I’ve chosen for them: They’re on my bikepacker. For my intended purpose I honestly don’t know what I’d gain by spending 3x or 4x what these wheels cost. (Our editor Ryan Heisler chose Spinergy for his Obed as well.

The Spinergy GX is marketed as its “do-it all, bombproof wheelset” and that has been my experience thus far. I chose it as the wheelset for my bikepacker because of its durability, both the rims and the hubs. Its weight, 1475g for the pair, is pretty good when you consider the use case.

I chose this wheel for this use because it’s the wheel Spinergy makes in 650b, and with a 24mm internal bead width it’s wide enough for the 53mm Schwalbe tires on this bike. Of course I ride this tubeless (I don’t ride with a tube any longer for any use or on any bike I own, whether road, tri, MTB or gravel). This tire and the Spinergy rim are tubeless sympatico: There is almost no leakdown, which means the sealant is used for solving a hole incurred while riding, not solving bad tire/rim fitment.

A feature of Spinergy wheels are the PBO spokes. I don’t know for sure what PBO stands for but there are, according to Spinergy, 30,000 Polyphenylene Bensobisoxazole fibers in one spoke and I’m guessing PBO comes from those two molecular-type words. Aero they are not. But very strong they are and, apparently, vibration absorbing. There is no reason for spokes to be rigid and you can tie these spokes on a knot. What they need to have is a lot of tensile strength (they resist pulling apart).

Hubs are made with “either a high strength forging process or a high strength machined aluminum billet process” and I assume that means the expensive versions are machined and the cheaper forged. Thanks, but I’ll take the forged. Cassette assemblies are from Hadley (I have a lot of good experience with these going back to my bike maker days) and you can get these wheels with driver bodies compatible with Shimano up to 12-speed, SRAM XDR, and Campagnolo up to 13-speed. I believe the wheel is substantially made in North America, that is, its assembly and most of its materials come from that continent.

I just don’t have a bad thing to report yet about this wheel, for this use case. Here is where you'll find Spinergy today.