Thinking of asking Santa for some new wheels. Been looking around and I can get a pair of xt hubs on stans flow rims for not much more that one rear hope wheel, I do like hope wheelsets, question is are the hopes worth the extra dosh.?

I’ll be replacing some 4 year old deore hubs, if I go for the new xt ones will they be loads better or will I not notice much difference?

Where are the XT hubs/Stans Flow rims coming from Martin?

Was going to get them from Merlin.

Why are the Stans rims so expensive? are they better than Mavic?

depends on your definition of “better”

lighter? stronger?

I had this dilemma about a year ago. Going from cheap hubs to much better wheels. In the end, I went for a Hope hub, mainly because a lack of maintenance doesn’t kill the hub. I believe the XT hubs are cup and cone (like the Deore ones, but better sealed I guess), and my chronic lack of maintenance would kill the cup, and therefore the hub. Hope (and many others) are replaceable cartridge bearings, and once they’re replaced, they’re as good as new. I have Shimano Ultegra hubs on my road bike, which are nice, but maintenance is less frequent of course.

lighter? stronger?

yes some stans rims are lighter than some mavic rims and some mavic rims are stronger than some stans rims.

confusing when someone makes a vague attempt at replying to your question isn’t it?

The main type of riding I do is xc, no racing, nothing mental, wheels stay on the ground at all times (only time they leave the ground is when I load the bike into the car), I weigh about 75kgish (11.5ish stone), which rims should I be looking at, I was looking at either Stans Flow or Mavic en521 these should be fine shouldn’t they?

firstly, leaving the ground can actually make your wheels much longer than having no choice as to where/what your wheels hit or roll over/through.
I ride a rear Flow on my hardtail, it’s not as stiff as my usual choice of a 721 but is massively lighter (around 100g). strength/stiffness is a big concern for my wheels even for XC but I’m 2st heavier than you like to jump and ride DH. not really knowing anything other than your vague description about how you ride it’s hard to say but I’d have thought you could get away with something much lighter than a Flow (or 521 if you go the Mavic route)

I have 2 sets of Flows on XT hubs. Like you said I bought each set for the price of one hope wheel.

the only XT hubs I have seen with knackered cups is where chronic lack of maintenance means water has sat in the hub for 6 to 9 months. I have replaced knackered cones and the balls on one of mine but the cup has still been fine even then.

It is soooo easy to maintain an XT hub. New cone 2.60, new balls about 1.50, unscrew it, clean it, regrease it, put everything back in, adjust it. 15 mins. Do that, give it a quick true and its good as new for another 6 months.

You have to seriously not give a **** about maintaining your bike, or ride it in rivers of mud to run any risk of corroding a cup with the seals and just enough grease in place. I am about your weight and I do a bit of jumping (badly) and I like hubs with a big flange because my engineer hat tells me that is better load spreading than concentrating it like on hope hubs etc.

I brought a set of hope pro2’s four years plus ago and not touched them since. Real fit and forget.