SUNringlé DJsingle Wheels

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Review by Cory Tepper // Photos by Emily Peterson and Cory Tepper

At a time in the industry where companies are literally trying to re-invent the wheel, I was pleasantly surprised to pull Sun Ringle’s DJsingle wheels out of the box. Intended for the dirt jump/park/street riding crowd, they feature tried and true 3x lacing on high flange hubs with 32 good ole regular j-bend double-butted spokes. As a mechanic this is how I prefer all my wheels - no proprietary funny business, crazy lacing patterns or attempts at weight savings that sacrifice durability, like alloy nipples. The fact that these wheels are blacked out with removable understated graphics was a total bonus as well. At 2065 grams they feel solid yet light enough too say “not bad.” At $500 you wont think twice about beating them up allowing for some risk taking which is of course why dirt jump bikes are so much damn fun in the first place.

DJsingle Wheelset Highlights

• 26-inch Inferno 31 rims
• 31mm rim width
• Premium cartridge bearings
• 20mm front axle with QR15 adapters
• 135x10mm bolt on rear axle
• Aluminum single-speed specific freehub body with lock ring
• Wheelsmith double-butted spokes
• Wheelsmith brass nipples
• 32 spokes per wheel
• Weight: 2065 grams/set
• MSRP $500/set

Initial Impressions and Setup

I headed into the shop and picked up some carbon free-hub spacers and a 12-tooth Chris King single speed cog. They both slid on without issue and the included lock-ring did its job nicely. I swapped my tires and rotors with no particular problems to report here either. I threw the wheels into the truing stand just to make sure, since a lot of prebuilt sets still need some truing/tensioning. These did not. Straight, tight and ready to rally out of the box. They slid easily into their respective dropouts and all that was left to do was tighten down the axles. The 3/8-inch rear bolts really allow some torque to be applied, and while the 8mm wrench seemed overkill at first it is actually rad when compared to the 5mm that seems common on other single-speed hubs. Time then to head out to see what kind of trouble we could get into!

On The Trails And In The Streets

It's January in Portland, that generally means lots of street and lots of The Lumberyard, our indoor bike park. The first thing I noticed about these wheels was their stiffness, they just felt faster than my old wheels when pumping around the Lumberyard. Sprinting into street gaps felt good too. Hub engagement is solid, without much dead space on the first stroke, not bad going for a 3 pawl setup.

The DJsingle's free-hub makes a solid noise and sounds great floating through the air and ripping around town. These wheels spent many hours under my 200-pounds coming up short on jump after jump and they haven't budged, still true and tight. This would especially impress you if you saw how I tag each landing - it’s pretty bad. I even dropped some 3 to 4-foot loading docks to flat which really hurt my knees but also didn't affect these wheels in the least. Pretty remarkable.

I also got a few afternoons in on my buddy’s pump-track but moisture content was still pretty high and didn't allow me to get a fair shot at really pushing these wheels in some corners, but I imagine the stiffness I felt while pumping thru the Lumberyard will translate to solid feedback in corners too.

I look forward to taking these wheels to some bigger dirt features but for the purpose of this review just imagine a mediocre big dude doing a lot of gross 180s, hucks to flat, manuals and coming up short on most gaps. Now that I’ve so accurately described my abilities, I realize that they actually may be the best for testing wheels. Simply put, these wheels got worked and have not only survived but not budged at all.

Long Term Durability

I spent about six weeks on these wheels, not a long time but I tend to destroy wheels pretty quickly due to my lack of steeze and smoothness. The fact that they haven't loosened up at all is a great sign for the long term. I imagine that like all wheels they will eventually come out of true, but because they are 3x laced with double butted spokes and brass nipples they should always be easy to tension back up. My only long term concern is the aluminum freehub body. With a considerable amount of torque always being applied to the same freehub area on a single speed setup some amount of gouging could occur, so I feel the use of a high quality cog with a wide footprint is imperative to longterm use on this design.

What’s The Bottom Line?

The Sun Ringle DJsingle wheelset runs just $500 and holds up under my raw anti-smootheness. They also look great, making them a no brainer in my book. These wheels are a great alternative to building up a custom wheelset for your next hard-tail and will come in cheaper and ready to shred. While I would prefer a dedicated driver with a 9/10-tooth option and wider hub flange spacing, the freehub design is holding up and does allow some chain-line adjustment or the option for a 3- or 4-speed setup on a slopestyle bike. Using an 8mm wrench to tighten the rear axle is a little inconvenient but proved itself useful for getting shit tight. Finally, such a rad wheelset could be made radder still with the addition of a non-disc front hub - because who runs a front brake?

Visit www.sun-ringle.com for more details.

About The Reviewer

Cory Tepper is a life long MTB nerd. He’s been riding since 1994 and spent a little time in the now defunct Semi-Pro downhill category. He’ll always love street riding and pumptracks, and will occasionally scare himself on a decently sized set of dirt jumps. During the day he turns wrenches on $10,000 road bikes and documents the lesser known riders as a photographer and video guy in his free time. Tepper has a three legged dog, and he loves gas station coffee, Dominoes and Katy Perry - basically he is THE best product tester ever. Count on Tepper to keep it real.