Despite the not particularly classy brand name, Spank have made some classy products over the years, but perhaps none more so than this new Oozy Trail 285 Bead Bite wheelset. The rather long name gives you a clue as to why these stand out so much, it’s all in this rather clever ‘Bead Bite’. You see the main reason why many riders choose not to run their tyres tubeless is because of the whole ‘burping’ issue. By burping I mean losing pressure when cornering hard thanks to the bead of the tyre coming away from the rim. Thanks to a ridged surface on the inside of the rim these rims look to end that problem once and for all. Apparently this idea was used years ago in motocross and it works on the simple principle of adding friction between the tyre and the rim. The guys at Spank say that even they were amazed at how well something so simple works. They’ve been able to run pressures at low as 18psi without any burping whatsoever.

The ridges aren’t very big at all, but hopefully you can just about make them out in this photo.

This diagram gives you a better idea of what is going on though, and if it works then this could be a real game changer. We’ve previously been very impressed with the strength to weight ratio of Spank wheels, and the price, so if this Bead Bite turns out to be a winner then we really should be in for a treat. If you fancy giving them a go then they’ll cost you £449.99, and they are available in all three wheel sizes.