Wolf Tooth announces new anodised disc rotor lockrings
Wolf Tooth announces new anodised disc rotor lockrings
Want to add a splash of colour to your Center Lock rotors? Wolf Tooth is now offering aluminium Center Lock lockings in its usual array of anodised colours designed to match a number of its other components.
These external-type aluminium lockings will work with the vast majority of Center Lock hubs (except Fulcrum/Campagnolo AFS) and rotors on the market, including those using quick release, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm thru-axles. And just like the external rotor lockrings from Shimano, Zipp, DT Swiss and others, Wolf Tooth has kept the tool interface to a regular 16-notch 44 mm bottom bracket tool (such as the Park Tool BBT-9, Wolf Tooth Pack Wrench, or the Abbey Bike Tools “Common” BB socket).
The lockings are available in black, red, blue, gold, green, orange, silver, and purple. Wolf Tooth is selling these new USA-made lockrings individually for US$15.95.
Of course, Wolf Tooth isn’t the first company to offer aftermarket coloured rotor lockings. Both KCNC and Hope also offer anodised aluminium lockings, but these are the internal type that can suffer from clearance issues with certain hub axles. Meanwhile, Ogle Component Design brought a new level of attention to this small part with its highly desirable machined titanium lockings – something that run a cool US$145 for a pair.
A quick explainer on internal vs external Center Lock lockrings
Invented by Shimano, Center Lock disc brake rotors were first introduced back in the mid-2000s and not a whole lot has changed since. They feature a spline interface that keeps the rotor from rotating and that’s then clamped onto the hub with a lockring – it’s a closely comparable design to a regular cassette and freehub body.
The earliest lockrings were designed at a time when most bikes had skinny quick-release axles and so the internal spline lockring (that used a regular Shimano HG cassette tool) was the standard. However soon bikes were coming with 15 or even 20 mm-diameter thru-axles that didn’t leave space for the cassette tool or the matching splined lockring. Shimano’s first answer was a non-standard lockring and special tool, but that never quite caught on. The next solution was to merely move the tool engagement point to the outside of the lockring.
Today most 12 mm hubs used on disc-equipped road bikes work just fine with the original “internal” lockring. Meanwhile, an increasing number of hubs with oversized axle end caps or those with 15/20 mm axles often demand the use of an “external” lockring. And it’s a common enough issue that Shimano now often gives you the choice between lockring type when buying rotors.
Do note that not all road forks have the clearance to allow the use of external type lockrings (such as these new Wolf Tooth lockrings), and some wheel brands now include special low-profile external lockrings to solve this issue.
More on this subject can be found in our FAQ to disc brakes.
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