Does anyone use different front and rear rims. would there be any benefits?

Trials riders tend to run a lighter wheel on the front, other than that…

Non matching parts?
Sudden death guaranteed. 😉

yes all the time as i used to have sets of wheels then i set them all up 180 front and 160 rear and vary them due to punctures, weather laziness
Its fine if you can live with the aesthetic price

I’m not sure if any of my bikes have matched rims just now. Not really by design, I’ve just been wheel shuffling.

One of my sets has a carbon rear and the original roval on the front, because I mashed the rear. Another has a Flow on the front and an i25 on the back- originally a Flow, which I broke, then a Flow Ex, which I flattened. The i25 seems stronger.

I was thinking of changing the wheels on my bike as they are still stock. Tempted to be a tight ass and just replace the front as this is where I assume the extra width will be more advantageous.

Your poor wheels Northwind 😯 What are you doing to them???

yes, it’s fine

Not intentionally but yes 4 bikes and none of them have matching wheels. They’re all black anyway

smatkins1 – Member

Your poor wheels Northwind What are you doing to them???

Riding quite a lot, mostly 😆 I figure you can either go for bombproof and heavy, or lovely and light and accept that they won’t last forever.

The Flow Ex got taken out in one bad overtake at fort william though, after just a couple of rides, that was a bummer. Totally my fault which was even more of a bummer 😆

Standard giant sxc2 on front hope with stans on rear, as cup and cone hubs and my terrible maint schedule don’t agree. Don’t notice as the bike and wheels are normally so filthy you can’t see the decals

Makes sense as front wheels generally don’t have to be as strong as the rear. Wheelbuilders will often use different spokes laterally and different spoke counts front and rear in order to save weight so see no reason why the logic shouldn’t extend to different rims front and rear.

Iv often thought this and next time one needs replacing it probably go down the heavier rear, lighter front road.

I This makes sense Even more on a hard tail.

Rear wheels are inherently weaker due to the offset dish as well as taking more of a beating

Most bikes match. The stooge has a rear flow and front rabbit hole though. Lovely setup.

Wheelbuilders will often use different spokes laterally and different spoke counts front and rear in order to save weight so see no reason why the logic shouldn’t extend to different rims front and rear.

Wouldn’t go as far as often – much more common on factory wheels, but yes, agree on principle. Mine do currently match, but formerly have had multiple wheels that get switched randomly.

According to Sheldon Brown if you have the same front and rear than one of them is probably wrong, over/under-built for the job in hand.

Mavic Crossmax Enduro;

Enduro racing front and rear specific Wheel-Tyre System

Grip and comfort front: 21 mm rim and 2.4 aggressive tyre

Responsiveness rear: 19c rim and 2.3 faster rolling tyre

everyone’s doing it!

Isn’t that the wrong way around

I would put the beefier rim on the back – although I can see how this conflicts with wanting a wider tyre on the front

Mine are different, but that’s because the previous [shimano] hubs wore out at different times.

I have a 21 mm rim on the front [Mavic 721] and a 23 mm [Revolution] on the rear.

Frankly a couple of mm is unnoticeable, unless you are running mega low pressures. Tyre choice is much, much more significant.

On that note, the Michelin Wild Gripr 2 tyre on the front has been a great winter tyre thus far. Not a mud tyre as such, but has a bit more bite and clears very well. Hans Dampfs will still go on in April.

Same rims, different number of spokes. WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

A stronger rear wheel is a good idea on a hardtail.

I’m surprised that not many people are running 29ers with 36 spokes. If I ever make the jump, I’d be certain to.

I rode a Lightville 301 in the summer with a 26″ rear and 650b front! Does that count?

Pretty much came to the same conclusion as the op – Just bought new rims and have gone for an i25 for the front and i23 for the rear because I run a wider tyre on the front.
Was going to get a i25 KOM on the front (lighter) and an i23 frequency on the rear (stronger) but the sale prices of the i23 KOM meant I got tempted and have gone for KOM front and rear. Bit nervous about the rear rim but we’ll see.

Back when i only had one bike for everything (hardtail) i ran a mavic 321 up front with a 48 spoke Halo SAS on the rear – i was going through back wheels something shocking up until then. I still run a burlier rear wheel on the HT but it doesn’t get used for DH or dirt jumping now so i it doesn’t need to be quite so indestructible.

Teen2’s don’t match on account of me leaving the original in a car park and being too tight to replace (was a stock Giant wheel). My fixed road bike don’t match on account of killing the front and stealing Teen2’s Ksyrium.

ndthornton – Member

Isn’t that the wrong way around

Wide on the front and narrow on the back could make sense. Strong on the front and weaker on the back doesn’t though. (Mavic supply some of their pros with “Enduro” wheelsets that use a stronger rim and more spokes on the rear, faked up to look the same as the consumer Enduro, they had a dude working full time on this at the EWS. Pretty shoddy imo)

So are we concluding we should look for a strong semi wide rear rim and a wide lighter rim on the front, for a hardtail?

Any suggestions under £250 for a set?

Yes. And, no, I built mine, sorry.

Our two sets of Roval Traverse ELs have more spokes in the rear than the front.

I’ve gone a la Mccraque on the same bike; both are 35 wide rims though!
Easier rolling on the front while keeping the BB height down with the smaller rear.

19mm rear, 45mm front. 🙂

ENVE AM Front
ENVE XC Rear

Dirtyrider, did you choose those to have a narrower rim on the rear?

no, well sort of, i bought them used, but i have no issues with the mismatched width, theres not much in it anyway,

when i stripped out the hubs and rebuilt them onto 240s i chose the wider for the front