I’m in the market for a 29er wheelset to take up to 2.6″ tyres for a soon to arrive SolarisMAX.
Considering Hope Fortus, Hunt wide trail or Nukeproof Horizon. I’m in Oz and the pricing of the Hope and Hunt is fairly similar, but CRC has a great price on the Nukes.

Any real world experience of these, I don’t want to save a few hundred dollars but end up with shit wheels 😁

Presuming Hope wheels are on the Pro 4 Evo hubs, I’m not impressed with the way my rear wheels (2 sets) go through bearings, springs and pawls. Making wheels easy (apparently) easy to service, doesn’t compensate for you having to it too bloody regularly! Would go elsewhere in future…

Gawd… I was ‘hoping’ that was only an issue with pro evo 2 hubs!

I’d add DT M1900’s to that list.

Presuming Hope wheels are on the Pro 4 Evo hubs, I’m not impressed with the way my rear wheels (2 sets) go through bearings, springs and pawls.

I’d question what you are doing to them. Had Pro 2’s with over 4000 miles on a set of hub bearings (replaced the outer XD driver bearing a couple of times) and the Pro4’s I have now have over 2000miles on them, on original hub bearings and freehub

I have the Hunt Trail wide on my Soda Max running 2.6 tyres & have zero complaints!

Great VFM wheels so far.

Yes, some good DT Swiss deals to be had!!!

The Hope and Nukeproof are heavy for what they are, I would go for the Hunt out of those 3.

Ive got a set of the Hunt trail wides, well built, light and a good price.
Excellent customer service as well.

If you’re a harder rider, or carrying a bit extra, I’d maybe avoid the Hunts. Both me and a mate have put pretty significant dents in the rims through, what I’d consider, pretty regular trail riding. Both sets only a couple of moths old. The hubs sound nice though.

I’m not the lightest so maybe not ideal. Fast engagement of the Hunts is appealing.

Are the DT Swiss 370 hubs any good? Riding mate has the 350s and has been happy, but a bit too expensive for me I think.

I have 7 sets of wheels with Hope hubs, mixture of Pro2, Pro2 Evo and Pro4’s. Over 14 years of riding all year long (albeit not massive milage) i’ve only replaced the bearings in 2 sets of those wheels (the pro2’s, to get wider Axle for thru axles). Amazing durability.

Made of cheese freebody, thats a different matter of course.

Oh, and i’m a 115kg biffer,

I’m with Lardman, out of your original 3 the Hope’s have by far the best hubs, there’s also proven long term spares support, Hope and DT have proven to be very good at that.

Hunt and Nukeproof don’t make their own hubs so in the long run they’re a bit more at the mercy of far eastern suppliers.

The 370 is a Pawl hub like Hope, rather than DT’s signature ratchet system, its not as posh as the 350’s but perfectly good for the money, used by plenty of bike brands, including Santa Cruz.

It’s not the fastest engaging but, all other things being equal, a chunkier mechanism with fewer but larger, deeper teeth is always going to be more reliable and harder to jam than a super fast engaging hub with more, smaller teeth. For a less expensive hub slower engagement can be a sensible trade off for better reliability, especially in UK conditions.

Hope rims whenever I’ve looked have been heavy for what they are – I know Fortus are the new ones but I’ve not read good things about those either. Can’t fault the hubs though – I’ve got some
built onto at xm481 rims and I’m really pleased so far.

I’ve read the Hunt enduro wides are more durable than the trail wides – might be worth a look at those?

On DT Swiss wheels I’ve had e1900’s for 2.5 years ish now. Originally on my full suss bike getting some proper abuse, and now on my play hardtail. They have the 370 hub and I’ve not touched them maintenance wise in the whole time. The hubs still seem to be going strong and the rims are still straight and true.

I’ve got some one ride old Hunt trail wides. If I wasn’t in such a hurry, I’d have got 350s on XM481s or Flows.

The Hunts are nice, quick engagement easy tubeless. Nice weight, but I’d have gone brass not alloy nips, which would have closed the gap a bit to the DTs.

They make a bloody din, though! If you like loud hubs, you’ll luuurrve these. I found myself pedaling down freewheel sections just to get some peace and quiet! I’ll definitely be packing them with some grease soon.

One caveat to my previous post, is that i don’t use Hope rims at all. I build my own wheels using a mix of Stans FLow and Chinese carbon rims.

Still, the hubs are very reliable.

Presuming Hope wheels are on the Pro 4 Evo hubs, I’m not impressed with the way my rear wheels (2 sets) go through bearings, springs and pawls. Making wheels easy (apparently) easy to service, doesn’t compensate for you having to it too bloody regularly! Would go elsewhere in future…

Interesting, me and a friend bought XC Pro 4 wheelset and his rear bearings lasted four months (April – August ’19) before going back for a warranty claim. Less than Stella support from Hope but he got there in the end.

When we were looking for Wheels it was Hope v Hunt. Sadly Hunt’s were too wide for our frame so went Hope even though Hunts were our preferred choice at the time.

Lardman, would you mind telling me what rims you buy from China and from which company please, many thanks.

I found DT 370 bearings to be very tight to remove, and hubs made from soft alloy that marked and got damaged getting the bearings out..

I’d get hope.

A nice set of wide rimmed DT wheels will be better than anything you’ve mentioned.

I found DT 370 bearings to be very tight to remove, and hubs made from soft alloy that marked and got damaged getting the bearings out

That’ll be cos 370’s are a bit shit, but better than rebadged novatec. You need 350’s minimum,they’re mega

All good information for me to think about. I wish 350s were in budget, but sadly they’re not.

No votes for the Nukeproof.
Mixed reviews on both Hunt and Hope (and personal experience of Hope Evo 2)
DT Swiss are actually the cheapest I can source aside from NP and the only ones I can get from my LBS who say they’ve got great dealer support.

No votes for the Nukeproof.

Reviews mentioning the abysmal rear hubs tie in with claims of them being rebadged Novatec D642s – hubs I’ve had big problems with myself.

The Hunt hubs are also a similar model but despite selling very well they don’t have the same bad rep – so they must be an updated or sufficiently different design.

These don’t look too bad on price

https://www.ptcycles.co.uk/cat/146/Sale+-+MTB/

That is pretty good! A bit outside my budget, but cheapest I’ve seen.

Pity you aren’t after 650b as I have a new set that were built up by 18 Bikes as spares for our Alps trips complete with tyres and no longer have a 650b to use them on

Ordered the same in 29er yesterday.

Reeksy try Start fitness online for Pro 4 wheels. This code might still get you 10% off.

BHSAVE10

Was working earlier as I’ve ordered a pair of non boost 29er wheels.

Cheers

@andeh – interesting about your hunt experiences.

I’ve got the trailwides on my sodamax and I very quickly put a radial crack around the rear (like 2/3rds of it) doing peak district bashing (I think I’m quite quick but shit and have no technique so may be hard on rims).

However, hunt were first class with replacement service and the new rim is holding – perhaps an early manufacturing defect. Hubs sound luuuurvely through a ti frame too.

Now if only my rust ti bars didn’t ting every time I dropped off a kerb…

I’ve got the Horizons – came with my bike – never had a problem with them, but they aren’t particularly light.

JP

Slightly different model, but with the same hubs as Trail Wides – my Hunt Enduro Wides are doing a good job so far.  I’m currently 3.5 stone overweight, recovering from a prolonged period of ill health, but they are putting up with that on a variety of trails from XC to Enduro-style.

@Tracey – i’m in Oz unfortunately, so it really wouldn’t have been easy to organise anyway 🙂

@rumbledethumps – great info on the website and code … it actually gets the Hope price down to competitive, even with delivery.

Ahhh, difficult decisions…

I’d go with a factory DT Wheelset given the choices you seem to have based on budget / availability. E1900 / M1900’s maybe. I only have experience of the E1900 but several years in so far so good. I think the pawls are quite simple / it doesn’t have lightning quick pickup but I personally don’t really notice the difference between them and Hope Pro 4’a (other than the Hopes are a tiny bit louder).

@chevychase
TBF, Hunt were very good about it and I now have some Enduro Wides (with noodles) which seem fine, having just stood up to 2 weeks of British Columbia abuse.

Given the choice I think I’d go Stans on Pro4.

Ignore, wasn’t looking past the pictures

Some deals on Stans S1 Flow wheels about at the mo, did you consider those OP?

I have some Hunt trailwide 27.5 with Rimpact in rear that have shrugged off some pretty hefty blows at BPW, BMCC, & Antur.

Rimpact clearly helps as I have put some decent dings into DT Swiss M502s before.

Very happy with the Hunts for the money.

@chakaping I have some Stan’s Arch ex on pro evo 2 and can’t say I’m terribly impressed with the rims. And I haven’t really seen great options online.

… In the end I’ve ordered Fortus 30 on orange pro 4. Decided every option has its pro’s and cons, but the colour will go well with the BRG SolarisMAX frame (as if I ever care what my bikes look like once I’m riding anyway!)
Thanks for the input…and the discount code!!!

My DT Swiss have been built and on the way. Another tick off before the trip.

My Hunt trail wide’s arrived the other day, they look superb! I love the Lazer etched graphics, the whole package looks great for the money.