Hi all,

Apologies if this has been done to death, but I am really struggling to understand the many and varied wheel options available these days.

Im looking for a 29er wheelset which would be good all-rounders for a variety of trails but nothing too gnarly. They need to be fairly robust as Im 6’4″ and a little under 15 stone when kitted up.

I think Ive narrowed my search down to some Hope Hoops (pro2 evo hubs) with either Stans Arch EX rims or Mavic TN719, (both 29er).

Weight wise the Mavics look to be about 50g per rim heavier than the Arch’s (but lighter than the Flow EX). The mavic website states these rims as “all mountain” so am assuming pretty tough, and I am under the recommended weight limit for the Arch EX’s.

There seems to be a lot of love for Stans on this forum but Im not too worried about tubeless for now.

Are there any major pros/cons of either of these wheelsets? Does anyone have experience of the Mavics?

Thanks

I can’t help with the Mavics but can offer an opinion on the Arch 29’s on Pro2’s as have been running them all summer.

They come extremely well built….spokes are beautifully tensioned and have remained so, despite me treating my HT as I would my 140FS. A blatent lack of skill and disregard for rocks has seen me bulldoze way too many a trail feature. The wheels have remained straight, true and ding free.

I run them tubeless with conti’s. They went up relatively easy although one tyre required an extra lap of tape to get a tighter seal.

I’m 14 stone – just shy of 15 with kit.

719s are good; they’re round, build nice and since then i’ve not thought much about them. I might be tempted to go wider next time though.

I’d be adding flows to your list.

I’d go for the stans no question as they’d tubeless much easier.

You say you’re not worried about tubeless, but why? It’s a big improvement in grip/puncture resistance*

Tubes are for Smarties, Pringles and toothpaste, not bikes. 😉

*and _possibly_ weight, but it depends on your setup.

Very happy indeed with my Arch EX + tubeless 2.2 Rubber Queens. Reckon lots of folk running Flows could get away with Arch EX, and save best part of a pound in weight on rims alone.

wl – Member
Very happy indeed with my Arch EX + tubeless 2.2 Rubber Queens. Reckon lots of folk running Flows could get away with Arch EX, and save best part of a pound in weight on rims alone.

*cough* 80g per rim = 160g total = ~1/3lb *cough*

my 719s were 26er, but I wasn’t too impressed- cracked at an eyelet and had wee white stressmarks spreading around quite a few others, after very little use. Returned and replaced with Flows (OK, one of those also cracked but only after 3 years of horrible beatings not a month of red routes) One of my old 721s went the same way- always slightly suspected that they stress the rims when fitting the nipples.

Thanks guys, the Arch EX’s are certainly very much on the radar and would give me an easy option of going tubeless. Im not anti-tubeless at all it’s just historically (been MTB’ing 24 years) I rarely get punctures (cue onslaught of punctures!), so have really just ignored the whole tubeless debate.

Im conscious I want to keep the wheels as light as possible without compromising too much on strength hence looking at ArchEX and 719’s, both of which are lighter. Im sure the Flows would be bomb-proof but is the weight gain worth it over the Archs or Mavics?

have TN719 – good rim, but found with tubeless can be a bit hit and miss, rims seem to come up a fraction small.

did three wraps of Roval tape to build up rim to work with Racing Ralphs.. only need one with SWorks Ground Control.

I’m having a similar dilemma only in the 26″ variety:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/which-rims-merlin-build

Everyone on here says Stans, all the bike shops say Mavic, I don’t know why the difference in opinion, it’s really perplexing me to be honest, still haven’t made a final decision, every time I’m leaning towards one or the other (719 or Arch ex) something stops me………..

[core]

I hear ya, it’s a nightmare! Almost a case of too much choice. I also went into LBS for a chat he was on the Mavic bandwagon too (they sell everything) but he did admit that it was because he’d never had any problems with his own Mavics so kept loyal. For me Ive had the same bike for the past 5 years so never worried about it or been that bothered about what was the latest and greatest. Now im enjoying the process of building my own bikes up it’s all a bit mind-boggling!

Tell me about it, I’ve ridden my old Giant Yukon very entry level bike on red routes and some (for me) fairly hairy stuff and never had a problem with wheels, and my genesis currently has the bog standard Alex rims on it, being ridden harder and in increasingly worse places, and no problems there either – yet.

So, I don’t know if the cheaper wheels don’t cause many problems because they are made with more metal, thus heavier and stronger, or whether this top end kit and all the ‘issues’ you hear of with certain rims are people trying to ride their bikes like a pro???

I just need a new front wheel because I’ve changed forks, and thought it a waste of time to have the wheel re-laced with a new hub, and with the future in mind would like to have a good matching set worth carrying over to another frame.

I’m sure if I kept on riding the alex rims they’d stand up to my riding for quite some time to come, so all this talk of which is best may be elementary for your average, or below average (me) rider.

Proper minefiled, you don’t know who’s riding what bike, what trails, how hard, how fast,(ooeer) are they racing, etc etc

My gut tells me a Stans Arch ex has to be miles better than my current rims and would last me years, but bike shops say they’re (stans in general) cheap lightweight crap………

core – Member

Everyone on here says Stans, all the bike shops say Mavic,

FWIW my LBS says Stans, because “It’s not 2005 any more” 😆 Though he does like the wheels, just not the standalone rims.

I have both TN719s on one bike and Arch29 on another. 90kg rider on differing terrain.

-Stiffness wise they are pretty similar. I was surprised how stiff the Mavics are tbh.

-The TN719s are easier to build if building your own and suspect will last longer.

-The arches are lighter though by about 60gms per rim (arch=450 vs TN719=515gms) which does make a bit of difference and also a bit wider so a better tyre footprint.

– Arches are easier to set up tubeless

If I was to choose now i would go Arch.

I’ve had both in 26″ and would go for the Arch EX again. They’re definitely a little softer, but to me that’s preferable seeing as a pretty normal ding put an inch long crack around wall of my 719. My archs have a couple of dents but have remained true even with me putting on some (sympathy) baby-weight recently. Weight, width and tubelessability are also excellent.

Out of curiosity, what sort of weight are you & what do you ride (bike & area)?

Thanks everyone, great feedback. Seems like the popular concensus is Arch EX but probably cant go wrong with either, so may as well take the weight saving and be tubeless ready with the Stans.