TrailLite Carbon

Why TrailLite?

The TrailLite is built for riders who do a bit of everything - but want to compromise on nothing.

From aggressive XC racing to weekend trail riding to lightweight ebike use, the demands on your wheels change depending on the adventure. The TrailLite is designed to handle all of it.

Getting the balance right between light weight, durability, and performance is genuinely hard to do. The TrailLite delivers all three - light enough to feel fast, durable enough to attack rough sections without worry, and versatile enough to move with you as your bike and riding evolves.

Adventures change. Your wheels should be able to keep up.

Hub options

All the hubs we sell can be ridden hard and maintained easily. 

We'll ensure they fit your current bike but they're also versatile and adaptable enough to move to your next one. Want to go deeper? Check out the hub deep-dives on our hub portal for the full rundown on each option or get in touch with your hub related questions.

Spoke options

We offer a range of spokes from Alpina and Berd.

The spoke choice comes down to how the wheel feels: weight, stiffness, liveliness and comfort. Want the full picture? Check out the spoke deep-dives on our spoke portal for a closer look at each option, or get in touch and we'll help you choose.

Lifetime guarantee

We back our work. TrailLite wheels are covered by our lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, plus our lifetime guarantee against impact damage and broken spokes under normal riding conditions.

We build TrailLite wheels to be ridden. A well‑looked‑after wheelset shouldn’t regularly break spokes, lose tension, or fall badly out of true.

Our lifetime warranty is there to cover anything that slips through the cracks with components or wheelbuilding. If there’s an issue that comes back to us, we’ll fix it.

If something we can control goes wrong, we’ll put it right.  For full details of coverage and what counts as crash or impact damage, please refer to our main Wheelworks Lifetime Guarantee.

Rims: light, wide, trail-ready

The TrailLite rim is designed to handle the full range of trail riding - from punchy XC efforts to technical descents - without adding unnecessary weight.

30mm internal width gives proper support to trail tyre casings from 2.2" to 2.6", keeping the casing round and the handling predictable whether you're climbing hard or leaning into corners.

Differential front and rear rims let us tune each end of the bike independently. The front rim uses a carbon layup optimized for vertical compliance - absorbing trail chatter and keeping the front wheel tracking. The rear rim is built for impact resistance, handling the harder loads that come from accelerations and rough landings.

At 27mm deep, the profile stays low enough to keep weight down and compliance up, while the reinforced bead and spoke bed handle rock strikes and hard compressions with confidence.

Rims are hookless and fully tubeless-ready, shipped with tubeless tape installed and high-flow valves so you can go tubeless straight out of the box. Standard tube setups work fine too. Max tyre pressure is 30 psi.

If you're unsure on tyre choice or pressures, we're happy to talk it through.

Weights

Please note that wheelset weights will vary depending on the wheelsets spoke count as well as the hub's brake rotor mount and freehub body type.  

3‑axis spoke nipple drilling

A big contributor to broken spokes is forcing them to bend awkwardly between hub and rim. To avoid that, we drill spoke holes in the TrailLite rims at carefully calculated angles in three dimensions.

This lets the nipple sit in line with the spoke in both side‑to‑side and front‑to‑back directions. Combined with spoke lengths measured to tight tolerances, this reduces stress at the nipple and helps prevent fatigue‑related spoke failures over time.

Our choice of hubs complements this by using angled flanges that point towards the rim, further smoothing the spoke path and increasing long‑term reliability.

Max rider weight

TrailLite is optimised for riders up to 110kg using XC or Trail style full suspension or hardtail frames.

For more aggressive bikes and riders we recommend our EnduroLite wheelset.

e‑MTB use

The TrailLite can be used on light-weight ebikes but is not designed for full-power ebikes.

We’ll help you decide whether the TrailLite or one of our other wheelsets such at the EnduroLite is the right choice for you.

What's in the box

• Ready to ride: Your new Wheelworks arrive pre-taped and fitted with high-flow tubeless valves - straight out of the box.
• Free tracked delivery: Courier delivery is free of charge throughout New Zealand and Australia.
• Packaging we're proud of: Your wheels ship in a custom-made cardboard box, produced in-house on our CNC. Made from 68–71% recycled material, sourced from sustainably managed forests in Kawerau and Tokoroa. No single-use plastic, no styrofoam. Designed for multiple uses and fully recyclable.

Production, COO, and EOL

We’re transparent about where XC Lite components come from:  rims are manufactured to our specifications by a specialist carbon partner in mainland China.

At the moment there’s no practical large‑scale recycling stream for carbon rims, but our experience is that a well‑designed carbon rim will outlast multiple aluminum rims used in the same way.

Aluminum hub shells, stainless steel spokes, and brass nipples can be recycled at most metal recyclers once they’ve finally done their duty.

If you ever retire your Wheelworks wheelset and aren’t sure what to do with it, get in touch and we’ll help with the best options at the time.

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