Its all about where you want to sit in the weight/ strength/ price triangle.

Personally I have hope pro2’s with Stans crest which come in around the 1600g the pair. So far these have been used for everything from XC to lift assisted Alps trips on a trail bike with no problems.

Aspens for low rolling resistance & dry terrain, Advantage/Chunky for wet or mixed conditions.
Same wheels means no re-setting brakes every time you switch wheels. Also handy as HT & FS share same set-up that way.
Have a flat bar, disc equipped CX frame set up for road use, with Conti GP 4 season tyres, so no need for road tyres on mtb wheels. Not as fast as an all out road bike, but a damn sight more comfortable!

I disagree – my road bikes are vastly more comfortable for riding on the road, than my MTB, even though the MTB is lighter than the winter road bike! But we digress.

Impressively extravagent to have a spare set of £400 wheels purely to avoid biannual tyre swap 😉

Impressively extravagent to have a spare set of £400 wheels purely to avoid biannual tyre swap

Oh I don’t know about that, seems wholly reasonable to me 😉

£400 – I wish. Hubs are £300+
Bi-annual? Where have you been for the last 12 months?
Ride midweek last week dry & grippy, weekend was wet & sloppy, lots of mud & standing water.
Don’t use mtb on road – have a CX frame built up. Sold the road bike as found it less & less comfortable as each year passed by.

Just to add another build option that has worked well on my RC200 for over 12 months in all conditions in the UK.

DT 240S hubs
Stans Podium MMX
DT Revolution Spokes
Alu Nipples
Stans Tape

weight: 1230g

Handbuilt to fit the Asymettric rear end, never move at all, true as they were when i built them.

The hubs are still perfect after almost 5 years on a wheelset…

Seem to be lots of love about for the 240s. Tempted to get some for a light bicycle carbon rim build but they do blow the budget somewhat.

For a lightweight build… center lock or 6 bolt?

Straight pull? Hubs seem fractionally lighter. Any cons?

Spokes are a bugger to find, they’re harder to build and true. I’d not get straight pull.

6-bolt is better for lightweight, there are very very few lightweight Centerlock rotors, Absolute Black (IIRC) do some, but they’re silly money.

Great hubs though 240s, upgrade the star ratchets to the 36t variant to save another 10g and double the pick up speed.

I love my podium wheels but my main mtb ( an enduro)
Has stans 3.30 hubs and arch ex rims , 1500g the pair inc tape etc
Not full on xc light but since I build them over Christmas they have been perfect
3 fod trips
1 quantocks
Plus my local stuff

For me there a good compromise used to use hope pro 3 am4 wheels
And changing to the stans ones made a huge differnace to the bike

Has anyone else had tyre retention issues on their Podiums? I had a few tyres blow off my front rim at pretty low pressure (c20psi whilst) whilst inflating. I think I damaged a rim (or the first tyre to do it did the damage, not sure what happened first!), rebuilt on a new rim, and it happened on the new one too! Most likely it was a damaged tyre that I accidentally fitted to the new rim – but I rode it several times, then it exploded in the shed!

Killed about 5 Schwalbe tyres now!

Make sure you are not using tubeless ready or UST tyres.

That’s the beauty of the stans rim, you don’t need a tubeless specific bead on your tyre. It means the extra money spent on the rim can be clawed back in cheaper tyres.

I have also had experience blowing up a few times trying to fit a racing ralph with a broken bead.

Not sure how much they weigh exactly but I like my olympics on DT240s. Think the spokes are supercomps, might be revs. Not superlight but light enough, and reasonably durable.

All relative though, my Flows-Comps-Pro2s on the dh bike are pretty damn light at 1850g, for a dh bike. My Traversees on the Hemlock were about 1570g but too light, hammered the rear to death.

My MTB wheels arent very light, lightest are Crest’s (well, rapids, which are OEM crests with eyelets and sleved join), they don’t feel any quicker than my heavier wheels TBH. But then I’m quite heavy but still keep up in most groups so weight is relatively less of an issue for me.

Saying that my road wheels are 1250g and feel great 🙂

Stans Race Gold 29ers are definitely ‘too light’ or maybe just ‘too weak’.1350g for 29er but they use 1.8/1.5/1.8 spokes (thinner than revs!!).Pretty much the flexiest wheels I’ve ever seen!

Not superlight but light enough, and reasonably durable.

just super pricey*, revs and comps all have good deals available, only JRA used to have ok prices with ali nips included iirc, but now just with brass.

*comparatively

D0NK – Member

just super pricey*,

I am not the first owner TBH I mostly got them for the hubs but the wheels are so nice I just kept ’em. I don’t see me ever buying a new wheelset of this quality tbh!

1.8/1.5/1.8 spokes (thinner than revs!!).Pretty much the flexiest wheels I’ve ever seen!

There are 2 versions of Revs – 2.0/1.5/2.0 and 1.8/1.5/1.8. Sapim Superspokes are 1.8/1.4/1.8.

Make sure you are not using tubeless ready or UST tyres.

All the ones to have failed have been Schwalbe tubeless ready – 2 Ralphs and at least 2 Dirty Dans. UST etc aren’t incompatible, just tighter. I wish you could still get older Schwalbes, they did go on better. Other Schwalbe TLRs have been fine, as have Bonty and Spesh tubeless ready.

I went for a wildcard, Light Bicycle 29er all mountain Carbon rims on their Novatec hubs. These hubs are NOT light, 400g + for the rear, about 200g for the front, but they have a steel freehub body that should be more durable than the alloy equivalent (i can save 70g with an alloy version) a steel axle for strength and the weight saving is in the important place, the rims.

They are the same weight as crests, but 23mm wide internally, so running a lightweight 2.25 on it gives a lovely tyre profile and sidewall support. They are pretty quick to get up to speed and strong in the hub, while being as stiff laterally as you could want. They also feel less harsh than similar alu rims, but I dont know why and cant quantify it, so its likely “new wheels syndrome”. Way stiffer than my crest 29er rims, I’m not small so they were a little twangy. The carbon rims are responsive, stiff and as a bonus, look stealthy and subtly bling… 770g front, 980 rear. Could easily drop 250g with some lighter hubs, but I’m going to run the novatecs till they die. Or I get a rush of blood to the head and buy DT240s.

Anyone know of a good reliable light 12×142 rear hub? Those A2Z only seem to have the light ones in QR flavour…

Struggle to beat 240s IMO, not least because in this day and age it’s nice to have a lightweight reliable hub that’s compatible with the myriad axle standards we’ve adopted!

*ahem*
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-new-mavic-xc717-front-wheel-xt-hub-with-ti-spokes

😉

A heavy, outdated rim, a heavy hub, a notoriously bad builder and spokes known for being flexy. Otherwise a great deal! 😉

Struggle to beat 240s IMO

pity they cost a bomb, but the major pita for me is the star drive ring removal faff, other wise good light reliable (so far) hub

got a rear 240 2nd hand and some Magura branded 440s on sale, dt do make good hubs but I can’t afford rrp, so has anyone got an old front 240 for sale? 🙂

but they have a steel freehub body

have AC patented the steel insert for their free hub bodies? Sounds a brilliant idea, pity more manufacturers don’t do it

They come up on the classifieds reasonably often IMO. I’ve got the star ratchet drive removal tool thingy (and the full 240 service kit) at my disposal, so not really an issue. That said, I’ve had about 10 pairs of 240s, some for 7+ years, and only changed that bearing once!

have AC patented the steel insert for their free hub bodies? Sounds a brilliant idea, pity more manufacturers don’t do it

Presumably, as you say, I’ve not seen any other adopters. It’s a great idea, but I still think people worry about the issue far too much!

Changed 440s after 4 or 5 yrs, 240 was completely seized throughout, lbs manage to keep breaking their tool apparently. I should keep a closer eye on classifieds.

Re the free hub chiggle-ing issue, I’ve never ruined a free hub either but seeing your shiny light ali free hub all messed up after even light use is a (ok, very minor) worry. How does the campag design manage?

Yeah, I’ve got 3 240 rear hubs and though I’ve done quite a few outer bearings the inside ones are so well protected, they last for ages.