I’m looking for a new set of wheels for my Salsa Ala Carte XC bike.. hopefully I can find some good advice here.

I run Bontrager OEM tubeless rims and tyres at the moment.. these wheels are fine, but I wish to donate them to my single-speed urban-hooligan bike (built on an old Gary Fisher steel frame) cos the wheels on that are utterly useless.. Which means I need some new ones for the Salsa.

I’m happy with tubeless, so I’m gonna stick to it.. so I found I can buy a handbuilt Mavic-rimmed wheelset from Life-Cycles for 200+, depending on choice of hubs. This fits the kind of budget I have, unlike a Mavic branded wheelset. A quick search of the forum suggests Life Cycles are competent wheel builders, so I’m wondering whether I need Hope hubs, or Shimano XT.. the latter are approx 50 quid cheaper, which is a good thing!

To be fair, my riding isn’t too demanding of the bike and I’m not a big fella (I’m under 12 stone) so there’s no point in me over-engineering a solution, but I do prefer to buy things only once! Not a fan of false economy at all. 🙂

Alternatively.. does anyone have any other suggestions? I’ve limited my search to Mavic rims, for a start.. any other tubeless/UST rims I should consider? Budget is an issue.. I’m unlikely to spend more than 250 for the wheelset.

cheers!

Nothing wrong with XT hubs, but Hopes are better…

Would you have to buy new splined rotors for the XT hubs? Maybe that would offset the extra cost of the Hopes a bit.

That’s a good point, ta. I have Hope Mini Mono brakes front and rear.. I assume that the rotors would be perfectly happy bolting onto Hope hubs, not so sure about XT?

You’d need adaptors or new rotors for xt.

I’m happy with XT but I think Hope are probably best for most as they require less frequent (but more expensive) maintenance.

Apparently the XT hubs don’t need adaptors for my Hope rotors, according the helpful chap at Life Cycles… so, to XT or to Hope? What about DT spokes.. lighter and stiffer, according to the aforementioned fella.. and 20 quid more than ACI spokes.

Any thoughts?

Make sure you’re ready for the infernal noise if you get Hopes. I couldn’t stand it myself – I like to be stealthy.

XT hubs will not require frequent maintenance – I’d be very surprised if the interval between needing a little tightening of the cones was anything like annually.

ACI spokes are fine AFAIK whichever you get, get double butted.