Wheels... What's good these days?

I picked up some of the Crossmax XLS in the black Friday sale. They're great. I'm a bit of a Mavic fanboy - they know what they're doing with wheels and I expect them to last as well as every other set of Mavics I've had.

Trying to be sensible I’d go with one of your DT options but not bother with the 54t which may be less reliable especially with a motor.

Or maybe

^^ yeah, my son is hard on wheels, just got himself some Nukeproof Horizon V2s - if he kills them SC Reserves in alu will be next 😀

Carbon WTB rims on CRC for silly cheap.

I just got some Nukeproof Horizon v2 for my Rise, first ride will be tomorrow morning. If I kill them eventually I’ll replace them with what I really wanted which is some DT XM481 & EX511 from Ryan Builds Wheels. I’d been spending too much recently though and the Horizons were on offer.

Not centrelock but I went up to 203mm rotors at the same time anyway.

Im liking the r30’s on my m10, you do see them for sale straight off new bikes for reasonable money on the likes of emtbforums. 1850gr I think and quite stiff.

Id be wary of cheaper wheels around 1800g in ally, i think they might end up a bit flexy and the back end of the rise isnt that stiff. Ex1501’s would be my choice, but id save a bit more and get the carbon ones. Not that easy to get atm though.

Ive run a couple of pairs of that series wheel now and they’ve been utterly bombproof.

The mavic crossmax xl comes stock on some to replace the r30’s now and there doesn’t seem to be any problems with them on the forums, its only really the wheels you’ve got that you hear about and its mainly the hubs that lunch themselves. If they can be had for good money i think you’d be ok.

Also don’t be too hung up on centrelock, a pair of the £30 bargain 203 xt rotors from wiggle and a bolt on magnet and adapters would probably cost £50-60 all in and be a very good value upgrade.

Id also forget the microspline and throw some sram kit on it personally - i detest the new xt.

Jra traildog £400 a pair 32 hole although no centre lock rear hubs currently. Quoted weight <1800g a pair
my mate got these for his spur after considering mavic and being put off by 24h for the same reasons.

JUSTRIDINGALONG.COM "https://www.justridingalong.com/product/traildog-trail-alu/"

Traildog alu wheels (27.5" only) - Just Riding Along

Mountain bike wheelset with 30mm internal width aluminium rims built on hubs to suit your bike. Finished with laser etched decals.

DT350's on either XM421 front & EX471 rear or EX471 both ends. Still not sure that we need 30mm rims, think the profile is better on a 25mm.

I'd steer clear of the mavics and their weird 24 spoke setups, every set i've come across have been a mess, not to mention spares support.

Good deals on hand built wheels here at the minute www.scrubwheels.com/wheels

I'd definitely have a pair if I hadn't just splurged on a bike and Tech 4 brakes.

I've had 3 years on a set of these carbon rims/ novatec hubs. I'm not sure if they do the right free hub. Under £400. Quoted at 1650g. I weighed them when they arrived and I think they were close to the states weight.

Light+ stiff, I've not had to true them in all this time. I've had a few rim out clonks onto rocks with no ill effects. They are a bit scuffed, but other than that fine. I think they have had one bearing change, which was problem free.

Used for trails, peak District and a few uplift days.

I'm a Mavic fan after years of trouble free riding so E-Deemax for no fuss strong tubeless with the ratchet freehub which personally I think is better for eebs / motors.

6 bolt converters can be had from Wish for buttons and the colour of your choice too.

I've just received a set of Silt AM Carbon wheels for the lad's bike. The seem well reviewed, spot on 31mm width and have a lifetime crash replacement warranty. Keen price (£800) for a set of carbon wheels.

Can't report back on how they run as they're sat next to the bike waiting for a chance to fit.

He is having a dabble with some racing this year so they'll be dragged down the rocks of Fort William and Kinlochleven over the summer.

For me - I've just put a set of Hunt Enduro-Wide wheels on my bike. They're 15% off just now so it's £340 for the set. Replacing my Horizon V2s which have got a bit bashed up after a year under my weight on the Aberdeen rocks.

Been on mavic xa elites for a couple of years now, 24h, 25mm internal, great feel-bit of give- been smashed through plenty of rough stuff, still straight and undinged

My full suss has the carbon wheels from eBay, my hardtail has the hunt xc. The hunt rear wheel was replaced under warranty as a spoke pulled through the rim. It also had a replacement free hub as the original disintegrated. Great warranty support. The rear rim currently has numerous dings and dents.

The full suss has a much harder life. If the trails are rocky or jumpy the full suss will get taken.

I ran Mavic cross max wheels in 26". They were awesomely light and I never broke a rim. The spokes were £3 a spoke, when Id expect to pay pennies for a j bend. After 3 years it got very tricky to find spokes. I ended up buying complete wheels as they were 26" and cheaper than a few spokes and bearings.

Hunt Trail wide are hard to ignore at a ridiculous sub £300. I know they get a bit of a bashing online for being soft but I’ve been running them on my hardtail for a couple of years and not had any issues despite my enthusiastic but unrefined style

Having mainly owned Mavic in most widths & applications, many Sun & WTB wheel sets, i now own two sets of Hunt trailwides & can say they’re no softer than any others I’ve owned. I’d bear in mind that a lot of internet reviews are prompted by bad experience & give a skewed view of reality. That is, when we’re happy with what we’ve got we rarely spout off about it online, unless someone asks the specific question, so sometimes feels like only negative reviews. As mentioned above, they’re currently selling the enduro wheelset with 15% off, if you’re a bit nervous about strength.

bikeinn has about a billion Mavic spares - if you know what you're looking for, I'm sure you could get what you need.
I could spend days just looking at the pretty diagrams 😀

TRADEINN.COM "https://www.tradeinn.com/bikeinn/en/wheels-and-tyres-rims-and-spokes/mavic/11547-124/sm"

Mavic Bike rims & spokes | Bikeinn

Discover unique offers on Rims and spokes from Mavic. Get Wheels and tyres for bike at bikeinn with fast shipping.

I'd go DT 481 rims on 350 hubs and stay with a 36t ratchet. They'll be strong, reliable and a reasonable weight. Yes lots of other brands will do something similar that might be a bit cheaper or lighter but they won't be as good in the long term.

Newmen, light, reliable, lots of spares about, and my 100kg+ has failed to kill them in 3 years and multiple trips abroad.

If you don't mind centtrelock and a splash of OEM orange/blue colour, Bike-discount.de have some super cheap ones.

I’d go DT 481 rims on 350 hubs and stay with a 36t ratchet.

Sounds good for OP.

I'd get EX471 rear and EX511 front on an eeb - but OP obviously knows they're not a rim-smasher, so 481s must be the default.

Are Hope hubs less in favour here nowadays? Surprisingly little mention of them. I know there's lighter options, but the ability to swap easily (and not at stupid cost) between different standards is a big bonus for me, as is reliability and ease of servicing.

Pro4s with 511s or 471s (or 481 if you're not a rim smasher) are just under £500 it seems.

I default to Pro4 hubs with whatever the most approproiate DT Swiss rim is for that bike. I've got xr391s on the commuter/gravelly bike, xm421s on trail FSer, ex511/471 f/r combo on my Geometron.

Ryan Builds Wheels in Brissle is a nice bunch of people and make lovely wheels.

@tall_martin how much do you weigh?

I'm continuously looking for something lighter for my xc set for my hardtail
my trail wheels are xm481 and dt swiss 350's, think they were under 400 18 months back from fitwheels.eu
i can't fault the wheels for me at 78kg on a 130mm hardtail (2.6 tyres) and anything i look at doesn't really match them on weight/component quality

I think if going Hunt and riding anything vaguely tech / rocky I’d get the enduro ones rather than trail personally.

For me I like dt swiss rims - been running XM421 / XM481s for about 5 years now. I do wonder if I’m beginning to push the limit of an XM481 (in 29er) on the rear of a coil spring Transition Sentinel - I seem to be knocking it slightly out of true from time to time. No dents though.

If I built again I think I’d go XM481 front / EX511 rear.

DT 350’s are fine - although I went Hope Pro4 because I prefer the noise and they were marginally cheaper at the time. Bitex also worth a look if you want to save a few £‘s - I’ve got one of their front hubs which seems fine and a mate has been running a rear one for a couple of years now with no issues.

DT 350 hubs on 471's on my G1 have been perfect for me, so have the Pro2's on 471's on my Sirius. The G1 has been raced DH and took a week in the alps no problem. It's a good compromise between strength and weight and like others have said the rim profile at 25mm just works.

DT Swiss E1900 are worth a look if you want a reasonably priced pair of tough as old boots wheels.

I'm a serial wheel breaker (100kg and a bit smashy smashy) and they have held up well for me.

I bought some DT XM481s laced up to 350s with a 54t ratchet about a year ago from fitwheels.eu. They cost about what you’re looking to pay and fitwheels were superb to deal with (my frame’s got a funny dish on the back and they accommodated this in the build). They also did some sort of voodoo with the tax so that was paid before they were dispatched, meaning the price I paid included import duty.

Nothing to write home about, which is pretty much what I want from a set of wheels. They get the job done, have survived a few clumsy moments without going out of true, and go up tubeless with an old fashioned floor pump without any bother.

I would go Hunt at £300. Even the Torque cap thing is only £10.

Jra traildog £400 a pair 32 hole although no centre lock rear hubs currently. Quoted weight <1800g a pair
my mate got these for his spur after considering mavic and being put off by 24h for the same reasons.
>

JUSTRIDINGALONG.COM "https://www.justridingalong.com/product/traildog-trail-alu/"

Traildog alu wheels (27.5" only) - Just Riding Along

Mountain bike wheelset with 30mm internal width aluminium rims built on hubs to suit your bike. Finished with laser etched decals.

Those rim graphics though! Happy with my XC Monitors, with the flame bit omitted on my request.

After some new wheels to replace the RaceFace ARC 30/ Deore hubs that came on my Orbea Rise.

Nothing really wrong with them except they’re heavy (2.3kg) and the freehub is a bit slow to engage for my liking.

It's the hubs and spokes that are heavy on these wheels. The rims aren't bad at all to be fair.

I rebuilt the rims on my mates M20 Rise onto DT Swiss 350's with DT Comp spokes and dropped more than 400g off the weight of the wheels!

I wouldn't advocate going too high on the engagement points on an eBike mind... 24, maybe 36 if you're a smooth rider at a push. Definitely not the fragile 54t rings...

I’ve seen some Mavic Crossmax XLS on CRC which tick all the boxes but the thought of 24 spokes makes me twitch a bit. Anyone have experience or opinions on these?

Mavic know what they're doing. They're not designing the wheels with 24 spokes to look good but then break on the first trail. I've had several sets of 24 spoke Mavic wheels over the years, given each of them a tough time, they've always shrugged off the abuse to be fair. Mavic design their wheels a lot more holistically than most, if they are happy that 24 spokes are enough for their intended use, then it's cos they've done the R&D to back it up... Worth noting, much as I love DT Swiss hubs or Kings or even Hopes, and I've been building wheels for 20+ years now, there's a certain ride quality to Mavics that is very hard to replicate elsewhere I find. Some people love it, some hate it, some don't notice it. I really like the way Mavics ride myself, they feel well damped but lively at the same time. YMMV...

Hunt Trail wide are hard to ignore at a ridiculous sub £300. I know they get a bit of a bashing online for being soft but I’ve been running them on my hardtail for a couple of years and not had any issues despite my enthusiastic but unrefined style (27.5 so can’t swap them across). Am I really going to benefit for spending (nearly) double on something else?

If you're happy with their slightly softer rims (some might see that as not a bad thing), then genuinely you are unlikely to really feel the benefit of spending twice as much whilst you're riding it at least... Most of the benefit will come in longevity and repairability. And a feel good factor of course...

Can't remember exactly, but think it was about £240 for a pair of DT Swiss 350 hubs, about £60 for the spokes and nipples for my mate, and he bought be a bottle of gin for my time building them, so he got a fairly cheap upgrade... I'd expect to add maybe £60-100 for a shop to build them for you in terms of labour cost, but you'll still have a very nice set of wheels reusing your current rims for £400 or less and almost 1lb of weight saved too...

I rebuilt my M20 wheels with decent hubs & Sapim race spokes. The shitmano rear hub is 480g. The rims aren’t bad & build up nice being offset rims. These are my winter wheels, I also have light set carbon wheels for summer setup

Thanks all. Some really good insight above.

The decision was unfortunately brought forward slightly when my rear wheel ate the mech (12 miles from the car on a windswept moor in the Peak District).

Plumped for a pair of the Hunts as they were in the immediately available budget. Kind of regret not spending the extra on something nicer. Particularly as the hunts came in a bit heavier than advertised.
1975g which is firmly into 28h ex511 on 240s territory and more than my intended 481s.

Still, they're cheap ('cheap') and they've got me moving again. I'll run them for a bit and when they bend, I'll kick myself even more and just buy DTs

Sadly for you I don't rate the hunt wheels one bit .
Way too soft the trail wides are like peanut brittle and dent easily and crack around the spoke holes
The v2 are not much better .
The ew are heavy without the strength of other brands
The best bit about them is the rebadged notatec hubs which they still use
The ezo bearings don't, last and the tape I'd applied with someone wearing oven gloves
The cap it off never come across wheels that loose tension as much
On the p,us side those half page adds they bang in every magazine pay off as they get great reviews from the press

I'd of gone for the deal on the mavic xls at your price point there a steal

I’m selling a nice set over in classifieds 👍

FWIW I am not seeing any of the above issues with my V2 Trailwide Hunts. I am not light nor subtle and they seem to withstand a lot of abuse without any of the symptoms mentioned, which may be or may not be based on direct experience.

I am lucky to live near Hunt so perhaps a warranty claim will be logistically easy, if it ever comes to that.

Any DT Swiss wheelset is usually the correct answer.

Seems that fitwheels.eu can rarely be beaten in price.

Those Hunts are hefty, that's OEM wheelset weight.

I had some 29er wheels built over a year ago by a UK wheel builder, Bitex 211 hubs, Stans Arch MK4 i28 & Sapim CX Ray spokes for just over £500 and weigh in on digital kitchen scales at 1700g including rim tape & valves. With the exception of using someone like fit wheels I figured it was my best bang for buck / weight.

@bens I’d say the Hunt hubs are probably ok - if you damage the rim (particularly on the back) then just re-rim the hub with a DT EX511 and you’ll be fine. De-sticker the dt rim (stickers just peel off) and they’re just plain black rims.

My Hunt road wheelset rims have been ok (I wrote one off in a huge pot hole - but not sure many road rims would have fared better tbh) - so far the hubs haven’t had a single bit of maintenance and they’re still going ok. Had them since March 2018 and until covid they were getting commuted on in all weather 2-3 times a week.

whats the situation with import duty and vat on orders from fit wheels?

It looks like they dont remove the eu vat portion when you select the uk as the delivery desitination, so Do you end up paying VAT twice, once (eu vat ) when you buy the wheels on the fit wheels website and again when the wheels come into the uk? or is it all set up so the price you see on the website is the price you pay?

Anything DT Swiss for sure. Personally I would never look anywhere else now. Great rims, great hubs. Long bearing life. Easy to service at home.

Trying to be sensible I’d go with one of your DT options but not bother with the 54t which may be less reliable especially with a motor.

This is really good advice. 36t is more than enough pickup for MTB.

whats the situation with import duty and vat on orders from fit wheels?

Asked them the same via ebay and got this

Hello,

on Ebay you can see price without VAT, when package arrive to UK you will have to pay VAT + customs, customs price depends on custom office in your country

I think my desire for a faster freehub comes from exclusively riding hardtails for about 12 years. It seems to make more difference on a hardtail than it does on full suss. I'm sure there's a scientific reason for it somewhere.

So I guess on that basis, 36t is probably plenty. Add in the extra momentum that comes with a motor and all of a sudden, those tech climbs require far less ratcheting thar they did before so I'm starting to see why everyone says 36t is enough.

Didn't mean for this to turn into a hunt bashing thread (let's be honest, there's plenty of those already). I've actually been running trail wides on my hardtail for ~2 years now and haven't had any issues so far. As we established early on though, I'm not particularily hard on wheels.

Still, the weight thing has been bugging me. Not so much the weight, more that I could have got something markedly better that came in at the same weight as the Hunts. The benefits of cheap and light have diminished to simply being cheap.

Anyone want to buy some slightly porky but barely used cheap wheels? Lol

I'll probably carry on with them and get something nicer eventually.

Hunt Trail Wide, I’ve fun them for 4 years with zero issues, my original set I took to Finale twice and fully expected them to look like 50p’s, my second set have been on on my hard tail since new and are just as good, two year ago I built a new Enduro bike with the best hubs Hope did and they immediately felt like a downgrade.

I used Fitwheels.eu a few years back and they were great.

Went for WTB KOM light i29s on DT350s and the 36t ratchet. Not had any issues at all. Got the same hubs on 2 other bikes and not had to do anything to them since I bought them.

Was about £450 from what I remember and they weigh in at about 1800g and made a massive difference to the 2.3kg wheels they replaced.

Next wheels will be some DT 1501s but need to save up for a couple of years for them.

Hunt TWs been fine for me, surprised by weights quoted by OP earlier, mine are the quoted 1800g in XD flavour.
Beefed up since or MS freehub heavier?

Anyway gone Carbon now so my TWs on classifieds. Not so stealth ad…