I haven’t gone boost, so I’m finding a standard 29er rear wheel takes some hammer. I’m running factory Hope Enduros and the non-drive side spokes have worn grooves at the crossover points, the rim dents fairly easily and I have to run high tyre pressure. The trade-offs are still worth it though, but just interested in finding out what people are running without the benefit of boost? I’m thinking of getting the rear wheel built up again using stronger spokes.

yep ime of several hope factory wheels – the spokes let them down big time.

equally i find them under tensioned from factory which lets everything move and it feels flexy compared to my own hand builts.

so real spokes and a decent build will make a big difference imo.

I’m running dt swiss m1700 on my every day bike. Had them a year now and although they don’t take a massive amount of abuse there still running true. On my other bike a set of american classic carbonaters, rear is slightly out after 10 rides or so but I read this in the reviews before I got them, once trued up app they stay true a lot longer.

Been riding 29er for years, never had a provlem with rears showing more wear than any other bike. Run a mix of stans rims to goldtec hubs or ryde rims to goldtecs. As long as the wheel has been well built and tensioned there really shouldn’t be an issue *

*with the exception of the odd hamfisted landing and so on

I was breaking quite a few alloy nipples (mainly in the rear wheel but there was one out front) until I rebuilt the wheels with brass nipples.

I know two other people who have had the same problem, and rebuilding with brass nipples has sorted it.

The wheels were Kinesis in my case, and whatever was on a Whyte and a Spesh £1600 full sus models.

On the plus side I’m running much lower tyre pressures with nil pinch flats, over the same trails I was getting problems with on 26″ wheels. I’m guessing it’s because the curve of the rim is less severe!

I’ve ran hope hoops with Crests on a few bikes now including hard tails and never had that problem

stans flow on stans hubs, all ok!

AC hubs with Ryde trace Enduro 30mm rims (2+ years undinged)

Running Hope XC wheels and they’ve been good for over two years, no spoke damage or breakage and no problems at the crossover points. Not had any rim dents.

I built my own, I retained the Roval rims that came with my Stumpy Evo and swapped the hubs for Hope items. The spokes were exactly the right length too (for the rear hub), I resisted the temptation to shed weight with the stock alloy nipples, which I binned and swapped for brass replacements.

So far, it’s stayed true – more so than any of my previous wheelbuilding efforts – so something must be right.

Not sure they are harder on rear wheels than 26er big forked hardtails.

They are a bit flexier all things being equal though.

yep ime of several hope factory wheels – the spokes let them down big time.

Having rebuilt a Hope Hoop 29er real wheel on a Stan’s Crest with straight spokes I vowed never never to do so again.

Incredibly easy to over-tension, incredibly hard to keep straight. Straight spokes move while building. It feels like the spokes should have a lot more tension in them than they do, and Stan’s Crest rims appear to made of cheese. I have vowed to avoid.

Just put some new E13 TRSr carbon wheels on my Evil. First few rides are fairly positive. Just took handbuilt flows on pro4’s off which were OK, but perhaps not as stiff as I’d have liked for a 160mm travel 29er like mine. Had Light Bikes 24mm internal (30mm external) on my old bike for most of its time, found I could never seem to get the wheels stiff enough for my liking. Spoke tensions were absurd, and to be fair they never failed, but didn’t feel happy and replaced with some 2nd hand ENVE’s I got a deal on… Now they were stiff! Absurdly so.

Got Mavic Crossmax XL’s on my HT right now. They’re a nice wheelset to ride, very forgiving yet just stiff enough.

They will be a little harder on spokes and rims all other things being equal, but only in terms of the “global” strength. Dents in rims are nothing to do with it being a 29er – if anything the bigger diameter will make it roll better over rocks and be less likely to allow a rock to contact the rim, and make the strike less severe when it does.

So it may be the specific rim or tyre that you’re running, or that you’ve started riding more aggressively or clumsily or on rockier trails which is leading to the rim dinging. In terms of spokes rubbing on each other, that happens on any wheel when it gets old enough, but being well tensioned will help.

Been 29er for about 3.5 years now. I’ve been through a succession of increasingly tougher, wider rims, culminating, (at the moment) in LB 30mm internal width times and 2.4 tyres.

It’s been a pretty quick shift, since it’s been pretty obvious that arch size alu rims can’t hack my chosen riding style, and I’ve butchered my way through a few rims.

It’s rims for me, rather than the build of the wheel, the number of flat spots, rim dings and punch flats was getting silly, but I was losing the benefits of low pressure tyres if I cranked up the tyre pressures to add some protection.

So, I’ve ended of with wide rims, big tyres, and low pressures in tough tyres.

TBH, it’s taken me a long time to stop comparing the weight of 29er wheel components to 26ers, but this year I’ve managed to realise it’s not really relevant.

15 stone, hope pro2 Evo hubs with Arch EX rims, been on the HT for over 2 years without any issue.

It’s rims for me, rather than the build of the wheel, the number of flat spots, rim dings and punch flats was getting silly, but I was losing the benefits of low pressure tyres if I cranked up the tyre pressures to add some protection.

Sounds like you need tyres with decent casings to me.

Yep! As I said, I’ve only just started to get away from thinking 29er rubber is heavy. As of last month, I have 2kgs of rubber hanging from the bike.

Not much help, but I’ve found that my Hope hubs, Sapim spokes with brass nipples and Miavic Tn719 rims to be very durable. Pinch flats are a problem if I run tubes, but they always have been for me.

I’ve got the DT Swiss XM1501 wheels that came on my bike – the back wheel is fine but I’m not one for jumping too high :).

Managed to buckle the front after a heavy off, but LBS were able to rescue it…

i have no gripe with stans rims .

i have crests in 29 and 26″ – 26 olympics, 26″ 355s and arches in 29 and have no gripes with them – i do agree with you re staight pull spokes though what a pain in the hoop

Glad to hear comment re. big rubber, I was slightly concerned my chosen tyres on my current project were a bit OTT at around 1kg each but…

I’ve got WTB i30 Asyms on Hope Pro2 Evo hubs, built by myself as my fiurst go at building wheels and they’ve been spot on so far. Big tough tyre (Magic Mary and Rock Razor) combo may have helped somewhat

Can’t say I’ve found any difference tbh. The things you describe sound wheel-specific not wheelsize-specific, worn spokes has to be excess movement in the wheel right?

My Cotic 29er is three years and counting on a set of Mavic Crossmax ST29’s. I’m 90Kg

It has had a fair bit of use as it is my most ridden bike, but not really a lot of very hard use as I don’t take it on really rough stuff that often

The Mavics are as straight and true as the day I put them on, and with the original bearings.

I don’t use anything wider than 2.3 at the front, 2.1 rear.