Easton EA70 AX Disc Wheels: Getting Rolling- by Guitar Ted
The wheels for a bicycle are something that is one of my personal favorite things to nerd out on. We have had the luxury here at RidingGravel.com to have had a good amount of wheels come through to be reviewed. I know that many of you readers have expressed that many of the wheels we have looked at are too expensive for your budget. We understand that and we have a set here that fits most budgets a bit more easily.
What It Is: The Easton EA70 AX wheels, a model Easton from Easton’s AX Adventure Road Line, is an all aluminum disc wheel set. Easton claims this set is up to trail riding, but they have optimized the wheels for drop bar use with a Center Lock brake standard, (most often used with road wheels), and a road 11 speed type cassette body. The front axle is 12 X 100 through axle, while the rear is 12 X 142mm through axle. The rims are aluminum, welded at the seam, and boast a 24mm internal rim width which Easton says is compatible with 35mm – 50mm tires. These EA70 alloy rims are then laced with 28 double butted, straight pull spokes in a 3X lacing pattern to Easton X5CL hubs. Both front and rear hubs have equal spoke counts and identical lacing patterns.
First Impressions, Weights, and Tubeless Performance: The wheels are very understated, all black, and look well made. It should be noted that they came out of the box with through axle end caps and no quick release compatible end caps are provided. The rims were taped for tubeless use out of the box with valve stems also preinstalled. That’s a nice touch, and you can easily remove the valve stem if you decide to run tubes. The rim tape looked amber in color, and this reminded me of the sort of tape American Classic used to use in their wheels. If it is the same, it should work well.
The EA70 AX wheels are on the opposite end of the scale from what we have been reviewing of late, both in spec terms, and weight. (Pardon the pun) The retail price on the set is right around $500.00, give or take a few dollars depending on where you shop. The point being, that price for the set won’t even buy you a single rim from the last two wheel sets we reviewed here. So, weight for the set reflects this and I found the set sent to RidingGravel.com weighed in at 1,730 grams.
The tubeless performance was good. Of course, some of that is dependent upon the tires you use. We will try setting up a few different tires as we go along here to see if the rim bead seat diameter favors one type of tire over another. The first tire I set up, a Donnelly MSO 50mm tire, went on easily by hand and set up with a floor pump. No drama there.
So Far……. The Easton EA70 AX wheels are aimed at gravel/adventure riders looking for a durable, easy to get along with wheel set. What I’ve seen so far points to such a wheel here. They are not light, but they are not expensive either. Once the weather breaks here in the Mid-West, the aim for this reveiw will be to determine if the Easton EX70 wheels areup to their billing as a good choice for gravel and back road riders.
Note: Easton sent over the EA70 AX wheels for test and review at no charge to RidingGravel.com. We were not paid nor bribed for this review and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.