Okay so following a rock strike to a rim I have a new rim coming but the old rim isn’t too bad so the company suggested keeping it as a spare wheel, seems a good idea to me!

Which wheel shall I have a spare of, a front or a back and what hub should I get for a purely ‘spares basis’? My thoughts are a front and have it perhaps as a summer winter wheel setup so the spare hub wont have to stand up to as much damage and crappy conditions. However, I’ve managed to break a rear hub before and naturally the same may happen again to the rear wheel with a rock so maybe a spare rear would be handy?

Rear. Carries more weight.
In which case it’ll be the front one you pringle next time. There’s probably no right answer. Why not just leave it un-built so it can quickly replace whichever is broken next time? (assuming it’s an identical rim so you won’t need different length spokes)

Tthew isn’t wrong.. but if you do want to go the build route, go for a rear, as they always tend to be more trouble in my book.
Hubs wise, DT Swiss 240S’s if you can afford it, I’m playing with a set of BOR’s (tune) I got cheap but otherwise Hope for easy fixing/adaptability or shimano if your light on gear, as they do work well and are very cheap (re-grease the cones from new for added re-assurance).

seeing as it’s broken itself it seems a bit bonkers to leave it unbuilt as I would take the time getting a proper fix built rather than an already broken rim to fix and fix if that makes sense. Someone did make a good point that if the damage did get worse they’d rather a back wheel than a front wheel fail.

Just need to decide a spare hub now, must be sram xd compliant!

Why must it be XD compliant? With the upcoming release of XT, you can get 11 speed without needing to invest in SRAM system (no way I’d buy sram 11 speed cassette over an Shimano XT one & I’d be dumping my sram kit asap).

But anyways most decent hubs now come XD compatible – DT Swiss, Hope, American classic

Because Im already a sram 11 speed owner and very happy with it (no way I’d dump it all and buy a Shimano setup now and I wont be dumping my sram kit asap)

Do we have any experience of superstar hubs as a cheap alternative?