as if my new tyres thread wasnt bad enough…….

I am looking to get a new set of 26″ wheels. These will mainly be used for Trails such as Innerleithen, Golspie and Kirroughtree, the DH stuff at Inners and all day natural rides where its all going to get a bit rocky / cairngorms type stuff.

I had some Stans Flow but they got a bit knackered through old age, I put on some Hope Hoop crests but as I have started doing some DH stuff thought I would like something a bit stronger.

I would be running these tubeless, I had thought about getting some FLOW EX but not sure about any improvement over the original Flow. I would prefer something no heavier than the flow and would probably run on something like PROII hubs although am happy to try something else if there is no choice in this.

So, options with Mavic or anything else? Budget would be up to about £500 for front and rear. I dont want anything like the 819/829 etc, no reason apart from I just dont want them.

I also need the front to be QR15 and the rear standard QR as thats what the bike is setup with just now (SC Blur LT).

Thanks

Unless you’re prepared to go carbon, you will struggle to get something stronger that isn’t heavier.

If you want to run the same wheels on a DH course as you do on a trail ride, you need DH wheels, so you’re looking at 721/325 as a compromise. But these are still quite heavy.

The other route is to look at the new Syntace line of wheels, which are very interesting. They have gone super wide in their rim and built them up conventionally, so while they sell as a unit, any bike shop can support them.

They are making some very bold and interesting claims as to wheel weights, use and weight limits. For example, you can get a 28.5mm internal width rim, built on 32 sapim CXRay spokes that gives a per pair weight of about 1650g with a 120kg rider weight limit.

I’ve not long got some Hope Pro3 AM4’s for my Intense. Built with the original Flow and straight pull spokes. Really good build quality. Did an uplift day at FoD on the (running tubeless) and had no problems at all. They’re a little different too..Weight wise, lighter than my Pro2/DT5.1 combo..

Crossmax SX would be a great option but slightly over budget at best. Flow Ex is marginally heavier than the Flow and is supposed to be a little tougher, haven’t used any myself as my Flows refuse to die even though they’re on the dh bike now.

Now, I’m a wee bit unsure about recommending these, as I’ve not had them long enough to say for sure how they’ll hold up… but as I couldn’t afford Crossmax SXs, I bought Fulcrum’s obvious copy, the Red Zone XLR. Does the same job in much the same way and I paid £275. Now I can’t find any that cheap any more but it looks like they’re still in your budget. I’ve given mine a couple of proper hard knocks and they didn’t notice. (coming down cresta run with a flat frinstance, no bother).

So they seem good but tbh I’d want to put a few more miles on mine before declaring them great, they might explode tomorrow 😉

I had been thinking about the Crossmax SX although hadnt checked prices recently. I remember reading something about the hubs being a bit flaky on them but that might have been rubbish…

i’ve been running ringle abbah sos hubs with atomlab dhr rims for a number of years…they’ve been super reliable and absolutely bombproof

I had been thinking about the Crossmax SX although hadnt checked prices recently. I remember reading something about the hubs being a bit flaky on them but that might have been rubbish…

The rear hub is probably the flakiest thing on a mountain bike. As far as my experience as gone, you’ve got one of two choices.

You can either go for super high quality hubs, like Chris King or the top line DT ones and just accept that they will need fairly regular maintenance and TLC to keep them running sweetly.

Or else you can go for the Hope type option of having a reasonably good quality product that is designed to have things replaced on a semi regular basis rather than serviced on a semi regular basis.

Mavic hubs seem to fall into the latter category but with the added issue of not having spares quite as available as for Hope hubs.

Pacenti tl28s are worth a look.

A set of crossmax sx would also be grand but makes sense to keep your hubs.

If you want to save pennies, superstar have some new tubeless sets with lifetime truing and decent warranty.

spank evo rims are also a good bet, very hard alloy akin to mavic’s.