Last weekend a mate crashed and after sliding off course, landed on my front wheel and pringled it 🙁 Its got quite a kink and cannot be rescued, so…

…new wheels time. I’m not hard on my wheels, just XC with little in the way of airtime, so I’d like a lightweight set, and also want to go tubeless.

My current wheels including tubes (without tyres as they are tubeless ready and will go on the new wheels) come in at approx 2450g which is pretty hefty. They are Hope XC hubs on Mavic X618 rims with DT Comp spokes.

I’ve looked at reusing my hubs with Stans ZTR Arch rims which works out ok cost wise but doesn’t really save a huge amount of weight, for another £100 I can knock off some considerable weight by getting all new wheels.

I’ve looked at the XT 775 wheels, and also at using DT Swiss rims but by the time I add the tubeless conversion kit they are no cheaper than the Stans rims. My girlfriend has the XT wheels and it is obvious they are considerably lighter as soon as you pick them up, but the price jumps to £310 once I add centrelock adaptors for my discs.

Current favourite is custom wheels by Superstar Components, with their Superleggera hubs built on ZTR Flow Arch rims for around £330, which should weigh in under 1700g if I’ve done my sums right, plus about 50g of sealant. Now £330 is going to dent my wallet considerably but hopefully it’ll be worth it…

Anything else I should consider?

(I know I’m getting a bit anal about weight but as we all know, rotating weight is where it all matters, and this is probably the one area I can save a considerable amount of weight without spending thousands 🙂 )

Hope/Stans 355s?

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/

Why, if Arches are too heavy, would you then go for the heavier Flow?

Also, 50g of sealant is a little on the low side unless you’re going to use full on UST tyres with the Stans yellow tape.

Sorry, that was a typo, I meant Arch! Better not make that mistake when I order. I’ll be using yellow tape, I was using the recommended 2 ounces of sealant per tyre which works out at 50g (ish)

Tyres are tubeless ready Bonty Jones ACX which I believe will work fine with yellow tape rather than the liner things.

I think you’d be OK with the 355 rims, exactly the same profile as the Arch but without the internal bracing, so around 45g per rim lighter.

Yeh thanks the Wheelpro Hopes on 355’s looks promising, hadn’t considered the 355 as the website I’ve been using doesn’t include that rim!

Seems they will be light and a bit cheaper…

I have been running my mavic crosstrail wheels for the last 2 and a half years and have never had to true them and have just replaced the bearings for less than £20 (proper skf ones). they are tubeless and iifc they weigh in at around 1800.
they can be found here for just over £280

Sounds like you’ll be fine then.

If your running Stan’s rims for general XC stuff then sticking with non UST tyres will save a few hundreds grams and average about £20 cheaper per set.

For me, that’s the beauty of Stan’s.

You could always consider rebuilding a pair of Olympic rims with DT Revolution spokes onto your XC hubs.

Olympic rim £55 (£68rrp) Wiggle 343g x2
DT Revs £22 (£44rrp) CRC 169g inc brass nipples x2
Rebuild – ask a respected local builder for pricing, he/she may also supply the spokes at a decent price.

(Weights are accurate, not claimed weight btw)

Just a thought to save a few quid. Nowt wrong with Hope XC hubs.

Going for the Hope Hoops with 355s, thanks everyone. £260 from LBS 🙂