I’m looking at a pair of Spank Spike’s, but many reviews seem to be negative. Any other suggestions, ideally that would come in metallic red?

one of my mates loved his and the other said they are great for square edge hits but not if you get a bit lazy and leave the back end out as they are weaker with side hits

Thanks Jedi – food for thought

I have a spike on the front of the DH bike. The rear was very quickly replaced with a now discontinued syncros rim. Don’t do it, they’re made of cheese! I used to count multiple new dents after each ride. I’m not big (75kg) and have ridden the same trails (Wharncliffe, albeit on a smaller bike) with stans flows and had no problems.

i’ve got spikes on my nukeproof mega and before that the norco six. they’re still going strong and must be at least 18 months old now. solid rim IMO – haven’t had to true them up and there’s no significant ding in either. they’re used for everything at the moment, but i tend to hike up big mountains in the lakes. been ragged down DH tracks fairly often as well.

dunno how they would be for full-on DH, but for what i wanted they were a great buy (£165 for a built wheelset from SSC).

Hmm, interesting. The Stan’s Flows get a good write up in Dirt too. More food for thought!

i have spank spike in red custom built with hope hubs and heavy duty spokes wheels never let me down on big drops hard decends or fast turns the only thing that let me down was the tires

Mavic 823 all the way. Or a cheaper option would be the sun mtx.

after proclaiming the strength and brilliance of my Spike rims, I did this last night 😳

That must have been quite some hit with a 2.4 RQ on there (or you had a flat tyre)!

Mavic 721 is the standard choice for me 🙂 Think they only come in black though. If you want coloured rims the Superstar DH ones got a good write up on Southern Downhill, think they used them for a season in Whistler so likely to have taken more abuse there than a whole year of riding over here.

edit – oops just seen this is an old thread and you’ve now got your wheels!

Oh dear – thankfully I plumped for a set of Flows in the end!

chiefgrooveguru – i remember doing it: following too closely behind a mate and couldn’t avoid a sizeable rock.

didn’t realise i had done this until i got home though – VERY surprisingly, i didn’t get a flat!! DH tubes all the way…

i’ve got a 721 in stock to replace it with. i knew there was a reason i was keeping hold of this rim as a spare for so long!

mavic 729………the only rim suitable for 20+ stone blokes :D.

I’ve still Got some 729s – Heavy, not quite as heavy as an 823 but not far off, 721 or EN521 are a good compromise weight wise…