The Boutique Wheel is Evolving. Tune’s New Nano Series Proves It.

In the world of high-end wheels, Tune is a legendary brand. The Yokto wheelsets are the best of the best, featuring lifetime ceramic bearings, ultra-low weight limits, aero performance, and prices to match. Unfortunately for Tune—and other manufacturers playing in this space—there’s been a shift in rider perception recently. Having a hyper-boutique, restrictive product is sometimes seen as a liability, and companies have had to adapt by offering more pragmatic options.

Tune is doing exactly that with the introduction of two new wheelsets and a standalone hub. The first of this grouping is the easiest to understand. Opting for steel spokes and a little more weight gets you the Tune Nano Road wheels in a 35, 45, or 60mm depth. With a 24mm internal width and a 32mm external width, they hit a very reasonable weight and offer a max system weight of 130kg vs. the 100kg limit of the Yokto series.

From there, you step up to the Tune Nano Road CS wheelset, and this is where things get interesting. The first thing to understand is that the flagship Yokto lineup uses a steel-wrapped carbon spoke designed to deliver a highly specific ride feel. If you don’t need that hyper-specialized engineering and don’t mind a standard carbon spoke, the Nano CS lets you pick your price point based on bearing choice. While the Yokto 3030 remains the ultra-light halo option, a 35mm carbon-spoke Nano CS gives you more flexibility, coming in a bit heavier and significantly cheaper depending on the bearings you choose.

To make that Nano CS wheelset work, though, Tune created an entirely new hub, and the brand is offering it to anyone in the aftermarket who wants it for custom wheel building. Like all carbon-spoked wheelsets, the Nano CS requires a straight spoke. Typically, a brand develops a hub flange that holds the spoke in the correct orientation for one specific rim depth. Since factory builds are all in-house, that’s fine. But for the aftermarket, you need a hub that can handle different spoke angles. That’s where the new Nano CS hub comes in. It allows for a variety of angles by designing the spoke interface in the hub flange to articulate. Instead of locking the spoke into a single, fixed angle, the Nano CS hub allows the head of the spoke to pivot slightly within its seat. This means the spoke can self-align with the rim hole, regardless of the rim’s depth or the specific lacing pattern the builder chooses.

This solves a current wheel-building issue by offering flexibility not available elsewhere. Until now, builders had to choose between ultra-light, one-piece carbon spokes paired with fixed ‘keyhole’ hubs that only aligned with one specific rim depth, or, if they wanted the freedom to choose any rim, they had to use heavier carbon spokes with bonded titanium ends to fit into standard straight-pull hubs. Tune’s articulating interface gives builders a way to use the lightest carbon spokes with more than one rim depth.

For more information, visit the Tune website.

*Note: Tune Yokto wheels include Enduro XD-15 ceramic bearings with a lifetime warranty as standard. The Yokto 3030 tire compatibility is optimized for 28-35mm tires per Tune’s specs.

Custom Builder Note: The Nano Road CS platform is also available as a standalone hubset for custom builds, priced at approx. $720 (Standard Bearings) or $1,320 (Ceramic Bearings).

*Disclaimer: USD pricing is estimated based on a direct conversion of Tune’s ex-VAT European pricing at the time of publication (approx. 1.14 EUR/USD). Final US retail costs may vary depending on shipping, import duties, or domestic distributor pricing.