Hope Hoops or Shimano XT M75 29er Wheels?

Hi,
Looking at buying some 29er wheels for my Salsa El Mariachi, narrowed it down to the two wheelsets mentioned. Any advantages of the Hopes over the XT’s? The only one in my mind at the minute is being able to have a 9mm & 10mm through axle on the Hopes.
My main concern is getting spare spokes for the XT’s if one breaks.
Not really bothered by the bearing differences, different horses for courses in my opinion.
Any of the STW Hive got any experiances with these?

Ta

XTs are kind of heavy, IIRC. And have Shimano hubs, and proprietary spokes, and you can’t convert the axles, and are centrelock. Hopes.

Hope are easier to re build and get spares for and as you say can swap axles easier.

Good price here too Hope 29er wheels[/url] 🙂

Hope Hoops every time

all hub spares available next day from Hope dealers, and Hope in the UK give excellent backup for any warranty issues, plus multiple axle setups including QR, QR15, 20mm, 135 OLD QR, 135 OLD screw-in bolt and 142mm x 12mm syntace using affordable adapter kits

the Hoops use regular J-Bend spokes and brass nipples, meaning replacements are very easy to source (walk into any bike shop..) and cheap too

the Stans ZTR rims are excellent with great strength to weight ratio and easy installation of tubeless conversion systems, with secure bead lock on tubeless ready tires and good reliability in terms of tubeless security over time

rims are also readily available if you mangle a wheel in a crash!

Thanks, in light of the above replie, looks like Hope, just one more question though, any advantage in the SP hubs versus the regular hubs?
I take it the issue would be sourcing the straight spokes a la Shimano.

the build tension is slightly higher on the SP setup but its doubtful it would be *really* noticeable?

the issue of sourcing straight pull spokes would be a pain, compared to the J-Bend spokes on the regular Evo hubs?

Yea, pretty much answered my concerns, looks like regular Hopes, no bling for me!

So what’s max tyre width on a crest?

The SP build is marginally stiffer but not that you notice much. you get spare spokes with all Hoops builds anyway but Hope stock them all and can get to dealers quickly if need be….

£279 for the hope and crests are a very good price!

A cheaper alternative.

Bigdugsbaws, quality name, my only concern with the SS ones is servicing the hubs. I have Hope hubs that I have serviced and changed axles before, however I have read on STW about difficulties in servicing the SS ones. May be wrong however, I’ll probably go with what I know.

tk – have you managed to get any more 29er Scandals? 😉

SP’s are lighter, not by much (50g), but lighter.

Had no trouble with my 26 Crests

Inbred,

No frames around! 😐

I keep looking though!

Currently saving for a f/s frame! 🙂

I have the hope hoops with the straight pull spokes and stans crest rims.
They helpfully put spare spokes in the box, but they are the J bend ones!