One bike two wheelsets - real life experience

Works. Identical hubs and cassettes.
I don’t bother swapping the chain.

If you're swapping regularly you shouldn't need to swap the chain or cassettes. That only really becomes an issue if you run one set of wheels for a few weeks without swapping.
I would suggest getting the same make and model of rear hub though. Make sure the disc and cassette is in the same location. Probably worth doing the same with both of them actually. Or shimming everything to match.
I've done it with several different bikes over the years. It's never caused me any headache after the original setup is done

Yeah I do this.
The hubs are pretty much the same though (DT240/350) both centre lock with same disks and same cassette.
I do this across 2 frames (HT and FS) and no issues with either. Consistency between the wheelsets is key.

This is what we do with my sons bike, he has one set with commuter/slicks for school etc and we swap them over to his Mtb set when we hit the trails. Never swapped chains and he has no issues.

Yes, do this on my gravel bike.

Whatever hubs Hunt uses are a pretty good match for DT Swiss 370s in 700c so no faffage swapping between slicks and knobblies

I've been thinking about this with my new gravel bike, have the original wheels and a nice lightweight pair I've built. Problem is why would I want to put the cheapo originals back on just to use some different tyres?

I'm going to have to build a second pair aren't I? 🤔

I have two wheelsets for one MTB and three for my gravel/tourer. No commonality of hubs. I'm not changing them every week, more down to type of ride. I just swap the cassette over and might have to realign the calipers. Takes no more than 10 minutes.

With a quick link I'd buy two cassettes and swap chains.

My main experience with road wheels was that it was a massive pain unless hubs were identical. Gears didn't quite work and disc brakes needed aligning all the time. Became a chore so I rarely did it.

Did it on a fat bike with fat and 29x2.4 wheels. Matching hubs (Hope Fatsno) with rotors and cassette fitted to both, using a single chain. No issues. When I wasn’t using matching hubs there was faff in aligning calipers each time, but not an insurmountable task, I just hate faff.

Been there, didn't bother swapping chains as the mileage between the wheel sets was comparable. No issues.

I do this on my gravel bike, between road and off-road tyres/wheels.

Identical cassette on each (11-34); not identical hubs. A faff-free swap happens about 50% of the time given that. If I allocate 15-20 minutes the day before I'm usually safe: bike in workstand, wheels out, wheels in, check gearing, and possibly faff with calipers a bit. Gearing is almost always fine but I check it because I've once had a chain stuck behind my biggest cog.

Still far better than swapping tyres though, and cheaper than two bikes for road/grav. I just had to stop assuming it was a 2 minute job, and instead be pleasantly surprised when it actually was. I'd still recommend it but with that caveat.

Works for me. I use the oem heavy synchros wheels from my spark as a winter / spare option with relevant tyres and cross max elites for dry and races. I just swap the cassette.

Levo
Roval 29 summer (std wheels)
Hope pro 4 27.5 winter (*mud clearance on mudguards)

Initial setup was fiddly Had to apply those thin circular disc spacers to get same disc position and bodge a speedo magnet on but once fiddled about it’s now straightforward

I just swap the cassette over and might have to realign the calipers

If they're 6 bolt rotors I've used to use the syntace shims to get differing hubs to behave well in the same callipers  - although they were ISO callipers s so were a lengthy faff to align compared to post mount.

I do. 2 different wheelsets, one running 2.3 xc tyres (local fields / bridalways) and another running 2.6 chunky tyres for outings to the peaks. Luckily not had a problem with chain wear or disk alignment.

Yep, I have 2-1/2 sets for my trail bike.
29er XC lighter set, durable mullet trail set and a DD rear for when the day is going to be rocky.

All hope pro4’s with same size discs.
Swap over easily with no faff, or brake re-alignment. Swap for new chain slight more regularly, but no issues in general.

Using those little disc shims/washers can save some faf if Hubs are different

I used to do this when I only had one bike which got used for commuting in the week.

I had to shim the brake rotors (Syntace sell some 6-bolt rotor shims) on one wheelset.
I didn't swap chains & it was never an issue as I was regularly swapping between wheels so wear was evened out.

Ok so basically I’m the only person here not doing it.

Yep all at it I reckon! Despite hubs not ever being the same OK no issues...luck I guess...never swopped chains but I'm a pretty rigorous chain check tool user

Using identical hubs I have zero problems so far.

In use 2 cassette. At some point I might swap them to even up wear. I only have 1 chain

It’s not like I spend the same time in every sprocket is it

I do this on a gravel bike to run 650b and 700c for more or less road focused tyres

Three bikes, three or four wheelsets here - always swapping wheels between bikes, to use different tyres depending on conditions.

No need to change chain. Getting very long life from my cassettes.

I swap wheels regularly with different hubs on two different bikes, one cross/gravel/heap and one mountain bike. I re-centre brakes using one of those clearance shim tool things and it's surprisingly quick and easy. Fortuitously the cassette spacing just matches across different brand hubs with an occasional, minor indexing tweak. I couldn't really be bothered with swapping cassettes/chains.

I can imagine that it would be faffy if you were mechanically illiterate, but for me it's been relatively low hassle and high benefit and a sight less time consuming than swapping tubeless tyres and quicker than fixing flats... just swap the wheel 🙂

Oh, I think identical cassette ratios, or at least close to, are a good idea unless you want to start messing with chain lengths and b-screws etc

Another +1

Road and gravel wheelsets for my gravel bike. Have to put the hanger extender thing on for the gravel wheels with wider range cassette, but 30s job.

Considering a second wheelset for the full-sus, mainly because swapping (particularly tubeless) tyres is a faff. One set for summer and more tame bikepacking type trips, one set for mud and trail centre type stuff.

My wife does on her gravel bike, switches between 650 & 700.

I set up the brakes with shims behind the discs for her and now it just 1 turn of the barrel adjuster when swapping.

To be the odd one out, I did it the opposite way for a couple of years.  Two bikes, one set of wheels, swapping a set of Hope / Stans wheels between my full suss and my hardtail.  Would swap the disk rotors and cassette, taking maybe 30 mins or so, would run the same tyres.

Problem is why would I want to put the cheapo originals back on just to use some different tyres?

This.Had a nice part of hand built wheels for my gravel bike. Then got a pair of ZIPP 303S at a bargain price. Swapped them over twice. The tiny difference between the hubs meant that the front brake needed adjusting each time. It was enough of a pain to put me off. The ZIPPs stayed on. Obvs, if the wheels used the same hubs...

Not a regular swapper, but do play around with 700c and 650b on the gravel bike. Less bothered doing it in winter when I have mudguards fitted and they need moving.

Do this, 3 sets of Mavic Crossrides/CrossOnes, one have 'normal' XC tyres, another with ice tyres and another with super skinny mud tyres.
Dont change the brake disc or cassette. Straight swapover.

Yep do this on my fs mtb xc/Enduro and also gravel/road bike. It's a great way of changing how the bike feels/what it's suitable for.

Wheels have identically sized rotors. Might need to shim, as above.

I swap the casette over.

Just takes a few mins, even with the casette change.

I also have it for a road/gravel bike, my cassettes are the same ratio so it's literally just swapping the wheels with no issues.

Fortunately my modern 11-36 gravel cassette matched my spare old school mtb cassette that was also 11-36.

I do it on my ebike

set 1 - DT H1900 heavy ebike wheels - maxxis DD tyres - for assistance only self uplift rides.
set 2 - DT E1700 lighter trail wheels - semi slick rear, knoblly front - for cycling to the trails with motor off/eco

I swap the cassette over but bought 2nd set cheap rotors and wheel magnet so cassette is the only thing to change

Two wheelsets for the cross gravel bike. One for road use with bigger gears (38x 11-25) and one for off road (38x 13-32). Off road runs nine speed with a spacer inside for serious poor shifting mishaps (cyclocross tip). I would not change sprockets, chains and tyres. In fact I have separate road bikes with and without mudguards (fixed and geared too)!

You won't think twice about swapping a wheel set if everything else remains the same. You will if you need to change a chain/sprocket. Think about swapping tyres...

Yep, another gravel swapper. G540’s have cx tyres on at the minute but usually run the Pathfinder Pros. Other set are Prime rr50’s with Prime rotors and another cassette of the same ratios.

That said- I saw a little trick from Kerry Warner on his YouTube channel about using a cut-off coke can to scoop out the sealant. I have a big syringe that goes inside a valve stem and I just pour the sealant back in through there like a funnel. It makes changing tubeless tyres so quick and faff free that I have happily done it that way a couple of times a month at times.

Yup,all good.
I also have a set of 650Bs in the mix so had three sets on rotation,although this was mostly for an old frame with clearance issues.
As others have said ,if swapping a lot then using the same chain is fine.

Done it a couple of times, never works for me I always end up favouring a single wheelset.

My Most recent foray was building up a "CX race" wheelset for my Gravel bike, except the cassettes didn't quite align so I had to adjust mech position (disc rotors seemed to be fine oddly).
If you're going to do it, use identical hubs, especially on the rear, would be my advice.

That CX wheelset has ultimately led to me building an additional bike to accept the 2nd wheelset as a dedicated CX race bike...

SO yeah a 2nd wheelset works great, once you build yet another bike to fit it to.

I've done it with no problem on different wheels / hubs but probably just got lucky with the spacing beinng the same within tolerance.
Haven't used the road wheels for a while so next use might not go so smoothly. I have just changed the chain though so might be fine 🙂

I already have two wheelsets that have the same Hope rear hub and cassettes so that’s easy enough.

Definitely not swapping tyres around though. I always reuse sealant (aerosol can lid scoop is great) but twice a week would be a royal PITA.

Choosing my frame and fork preference will be more challenging. But not in any rush.

Gravel bike, 2 sets, 1 road, one gravel. Both Mavic so there’s no brake caliper adjustment needed. Only thing is, the gravel wheels (Allroads) are so good I don’t think I’ve used the road wheels in the last year. Might as well sell them really!

Same hub manufacturer you should be OK. Road hubs, swapping two Shimano Dura Ace's over, same hub, no issue, swapping Mavic Aksium with Ksyrium, no bother. Swapping a Dura Ace to a Hope needed two clicks on the indexing (rim brake) but that was easy once you remembered.

I've got a ramin plus with 29er plus wheels well rear is wide rim but 2.4 tyre for clearance reasons, 29er wheels and 650 plus wheels and a planet x London road with 40mm tyres and a set of 35mm road tyres on 700c wheels ive even had the 700c x 40mm on the ramin all sweet, different hubs, rotors and cassettes sometimes needs a little tweak sometimes doesn't

I do this with different hubs in the two wheel sets. Rotors and cassettes on each set and the gears always work with no adjustment necessary. I don’t swap the chain and it’s lasting fine. Only mild faffing is moving the calipers a couple of mm which takes minutes.

Does anyone have a solution for shimming centrelock discs? The only proper shims I can find are nearly £20 for 4 tiny shims...

I do this as well different hubs and 4 tooth difference in cassette range. I have to move the shifter adjustment three notches each time to get perfect shifting. Apart from doing it the wrong way every time it only takes a few seconds

I tried it and the 6-bolt discs were a hair's breadth different on each wheelset. I probably could have got some of those tiny shims you used to get with flat mount MTB brakes on the rotor bolts, but I couldn't be bothered in the end as it wasn't a really important issue for me, I was just trying it out.

As with others, the ease of this for me is all down to having identical hubs and brakes. 11 Speed Gravel bike has 2x sets of wheels. Both have Fulcrum hubs and SRAM centrelock discs. It's just the chunkiness of the tyres (35 or 43) and range of the rear cassettes (34 or 40) that differ. Works a treat as the wheels are literally plug and play with no adjustments required. I just need to avoid small / small or big / big chainrings.
10 speed road bike is a totally different story. Have 10 speed DT Swiss hubs on one set of wheels and 11 speed Ambrosio hubs on the other. Despite spending lots of time spacing the 10 speed cassette on the 11 speed hubs to try and match the cassette spacing on the 10 speed hub, the rear mech always needs adjusting when swapping wheels. The road bike also has rim brakes and the calipers and brake shoes need a tweak due to slight differences in rim width and dishing. Road bike now lives on the turbo, which also has an 11 speed hub with a 10 speed cassette. Turbo cassette spacing doesn't match either set of road hubs. Unless I'm going to use the road bike for a multi day tour, it just isn't worth taking off the turbo when there's a newer gravel bike available.

I have a spare set of wheels with gravel tyres that I use on both my HT and my ebike. All three sets of wheels are different hubs but all seem to play nicely in both frames.
The most adjustment I have had to do is the old loosen the caliper and pull the brake on fix.

Do it on my gravel bike with gravel/road wheels and fat bike with studded/non studded.

Same hub is a good idea, I also found out not all shimano brake discs are equal and had to shift a few around with other bikes to get a set that lined up for the gravel bike.

I let the chain go to 0.5mm and haven’t had any issues with slipping etc so don’t swap the chain over.