Product

FEDERAL STANCE XL RIM – REVIEW

Federal Stance XL. XL! Big rims! Well, wide rims. Federal Bikes are going for maximum width with these Stance XL rims.

Federal Bikes was launched by Seventies Distribution in the year 2000. It’s certainly been through a few different chapters as the landscape of the BMX industry down in Hastings has changed, but Federal continues to be, without question, one of the UK’s strongest BMX brands. Their team over the years has been consistently strong – from international big dogs like Davey Watson, Jared Washington, Stevie Churchill, Bruno Hoffmann and Steven Hamilton, to homegrown heroes such as Dan Lacey, Mark Love and Dan Cox. Federal has always maintained its status as a honourable brand to represent, which has translated into the success of its products, both in the UK and further afield. Federal has earned global respect.

The Stance XL rim has a 40mm cross section, which is definitely pretty wide. You can see the difference just by looking at it. This thing has some girth. Federal have designed it this way to fit with modern tyre sizes, aiming to help the tyre sit right on the rim, keeping its intended profile.

“In the day-to-day world of a BMX rider, the design features on this rim are intended to make life easier.”

Mega width, then. But what about the height? Again, a noticeable difference – the Federal Stance XL has a lower sidewall height, further emphasising the low and wide appearance. It measures at 15mm, which is significantly less than the 20mm found on many other rims.

The extra width, combined with a triple box section construction, Federal claim makes the rim stronger and stiffer than others. It’s not just that, though. They also chose 6066 aluminium over the more common 6061, for increased strength reported at 30%.

In the day-to-day world of a BMX rider, design features on the Federal Stance XL rim are intended to make life easier. The wider profile should help reduce the threat of pinch flats, increased wall thickness around the holes makes the nightmare of spoke pull-throughs much less likely and the sidewalls are designed to keep tyre beads firmly in place, while also being sunken enough to make installation and removal of tyres straightforward. Good!