When NOBL rolled out its new Ethos line of wheels, they were ultra-high end. All but the eMTB wheelset used fancy polymer Berd spokes instead of metal spokes. All used custom Erase hubs from Belgium with titanium driver bodies. And all used NOBL’s line of Ethos carbon fibre rims. Now, NOBL is opening up the Ethos rim design to more riders and more price points.

NOBL Core Hubs

NOBL’s doing so by rolling out its own Core hub. The last couple of years have seen a proliferation of ratchet-based hub designs. And for good reasons. The design is easily servicable, reliable and performance focused. NOBL’s Core hub uses a 45-tooth ratchet (road and gravel Core hubs use a 36-tooth system). That gives NOBL quicker engagement than a comparable DT Swiss 240 EXP, for only a 30g weight penalty.

“We’ve been building and servicing wheels for well over a decade, and hubs using a similar drive system have returned to our workbench less than anything else. That’s exactly why we built our own,” says NOBL Product Manager Chris MacLeod.

The literal payoff, beyond performance, is a huge cost saving of DT branded hubs. NOBL says its Core-equipped wheelsets are $700 less than the same build with a 240 hub.

NOBL is only offering the Core hubs on its own wheelsets. The hub only comes in matte black with a NOBL shadow logo. Doing so opens up it’s Ethos line to a considerably lower price point and more traditional design.

NOBL Ethos gets Core

As mentioned, NOBL launched its Ethos line as a no-holds-barred performance wheel. That meant wild Berd spokes and a titanium-driver equipped Erase hub. We spent some time on the Ethos Enduro wheelset and it truly is a new level of performance, a distinctive experience compared to any traditional wheelset design. It’s also around $3,000.

With the Core line, NOBL opens up the same rim design to anyone who even considers price when shopping for a new wheelset, and anyone who prefers traditional metal spokes to the new Berd design.

If you missed the Ethos launch, the new rim profile is significantly shallower with a concave rim profile. That look, and some nifty tricks within the rim construction, gives the new rim a more forgiving torsional flex profile while still being snappy when you put power on the pedals. With wider sidewalls and an inner channel shaped to help make seating tires easier (and keep them on more consistently), there’s a lot going on with the Ethos rim design.

That drops the price of the starting point for NOBL Core wheels with new XC rims to $1,800. And NOBL is still backing that full-carbon fibre wheelset with its lifetime warranty.

While the Ethos line hits sub-1,000g territory, the Core XC line is still impressively competitive. With Alpina Extralite spokes and XC rims, the Core XC is just 1,386 grams (no tape or valve). That’s among the lightest stock wheelsets and lighter than some significantly heavier (by XC standars) options.

NOBL is also offering the Core wheels with its newest-generation rims in Trail and Enduro rims or the existing HD30 and HD35 rim builds.

For gravel types, NOBL’s also offering a Core build of its FAR wheels. That option ups the price to $1,999 in Canada for a 1,359g gravel wheelset.

From Ethos to custom mountain wheel builds

NOBL got its start building custom wheelets to its own carbon fibre rims. The introduction of Ethos shifted to set wheelset options. Now, NOBL is getting back to roots and opening that rim profile up to its vast array of custom build options.

NOBL’s offering the new XC, Trail and Enduro rims in custom builds as well as its prior HD30 and HD35 gravity and eMTB focused rim profiles.

Custom builds start at $2,000 in Canadian dollars and $1,580 if your ordering south of the border from NOBL’s Bellingham, Wash. facility.

Check out the full array of NOBL custom options below as well as all the imprtant stats on NOBL’s new Core hubs.

NOBL Custom Mountain Wheelsets
Starting at $1,999.00 CAD | $1,579.00 USD
Rims: NOBL XC / Trail / Enduro / HD30 /
HD35
Hub Brands: DT Swiss / Chris King / Hope /
Project 321 / Onyx / Industry Nine / SON
Spokes: Alpina Extralite, Sapim CX-Ray,
Berd Spokes
Nipples: 10 Colour Options
Brake Interface: 6-Bolt / CL
Driver: XD, MS, HG
Graphics: 12 Colour Options

NOBL Core Hub
45T / 8° Mountain
36T / 10° Road & Gravel
From 365g Mountain
From 326g Road & Gravel
6-Bolt / CL
2-Year NOBL Warranty