Ive finally killed my rear rim today and need a new one. I ride a Whyte 46, XC mainly with lots of Trail Center abuse and Im 88kg.

Ive had the 717's for five hard years and they seem fine, but looking at their website I see choices. Too many choices.

The Mavic website dosent seem to tell me what the numbers mean. I dont want tubeless or 29". Is the 717 still the strongest/lightest compromise for 1.9 – 2.3 widths ?

Any good places to buy them from ?

I always thought that the first number was the quality, and the second two numbers were the width.

So a 717 is 7/10 for quality, and 17mm wide. An 819 is 8/10, and 19mm.

Really loved my old 717s built on pro2s, but they don't even compare to what I've got now – stans 355s on pro2s.

the 8__'s are tubeless.
The _23 is the internal width.

OK, so the XC717 are the best quality 17mm width rims for XC style riding then. Cheers.

Yep 717/719 are still really the rims for XC. I suppose rims like the Stans and the DT ones compare in quality, but they're pretty expensive in comparison

OK, now thats sorted I need some spokes – I was going to get some DT ones, double butted. But looking at their site they have shedloads to choose from. And then there is nipple choice. Oh bugger.

I use DT Comp double butted. They're pretty robust and light, although last build i used Sapim spokes (just because..) and they seem ok