Looking for a reasonably light 29’ER wheel set for a heavier rider. American classic seem to get good reviews but not many places advertising. Hope evo with stans flow seem to be a pretty obvious choice for serviceability and spares. Then I saw the kinesis IX wheel set. They seem to be everything I want but not been able to find any write ups despite several mags showing pics of them.

Anyone got any experience of them? I should add I’d like the swappable axles as I’ve got quick release now but may upgrade to 15mm.

The last issue of STW had a test of the FF29 on it. Think it had the wheels you are after spec’d on it.

Yes it had the wheels but they don’t actually mention them if I remember correctly – very frustrating. They did say that they’d held onto the bike for 6months and didn’t want to give it back so hopefully that implies the whole package works.

Jenns well worth listening to. She knows about what makes a good bike! She rode a Trek 69er across America SS which was enough for me to get over the odd looks of it and buy one too.

Well I bit the bullet and bought some! I guess it was a bit early to get much feedback on here. I contacted Kinesis and got a reply very quickly. So with birthday and xmas money burning a hole in my pocket I couldn’t resist.

Best thing I’ve done for a long while – totally transformed the way I ride my 29er. It has to be said that putting any half decent set of wheels on would have improved the ride somewhat as I had a very basic set of wheels.

Weight wise the quoted values seem about right. Converted to quick release the back was about 1kg and front 800g on my very dubious kitchen scales. I saved nearly half a kilo overall!

I measured spoke tension on the wheels using a Park spoke tension gauge and they were very consistent with the exception of one spoke which was slightly out. I would say they are much more consistent than other wheels I’ve had – though most of my many wheels are much cheaper.

In the wheel jig one wheel was perfectly straight the other had a very slight side to side wobble and very slight up and down. I believe all would be classed as within tolerance – you only really saw it if you had the wheel in a jig. Everything seemed to be destressed – there was no groaning on first rides and wheels remained straight.

Front wheel conversion is by simply pushing a machined alloy bar through the front hub. Seems to work well, its a close fit and I can see how it should help spread the stress away from bearings. Rear conversion requires the through axle to be removed using two spanners and replaced with a smaller bore axle with screw on end caps, these are done up using allen keys. The thread is very fine so make sure you align them carefully. Undoing the rear axle means the freewheel detaches and lifts away so as I understand it the axle pre-loads the cassette bearing.

The rim strip is standard so you’ll need some stans tape or similar to go tubeless. No valves, spare spokes or skewers are provided.

I’m currently running 2.2 small block 8s with tubes. They fit easily on the rims and when inflated the beads popped in nicely.

The freewheel when you spin it makes a nice sound but when riding I don’t notice it at all much quieter than Hope.

I’ve only had a couple of rides on them so far. One around Cannock in the largely dry and one locally in mud. They feel incredible direct in that you stomp on the peddles and feel yourself surge forward. Climbing seemed easier – mostly due to rotating mass probably. I also found that I used to flatten through bumps on my 29er now I’m much more likely to pop of them and have some fun.

Hope this helps anyone think about these wheels.

Good review. Will let a mate know as he’s in the market for some this year.
Tim

Hi cwriggy how are you getting on with your Kinesis IX wheels. Looking round for new hoops and like the look of these. Its a choice between them or American Classic Terrain wheels.

Got some for sale if you’re interested. Barely used. On my spare bike.