Lightweight trail wheels (foray into carbon?)

I’m looking to lighten my do it all hardtail 29er and the wheels are the obvious thing to replace. Currently on stans flows with pro 2 evo hubs. The bike will be used for bike packing, long xc rides and trail centres.

I’ve never really delved into the lighter end of wheelsets before so am after some recommendations. Also,  I’ve never had carbon rims before but may consider it. My budget would would be max £500 and wishlist would be 29er, hg freehub, 25mm internal, boost.

Are there any obvious wheelsets to consider, ones to avoid, or any great deals out there?

you would be looking at xm481’s? or the slimmer variant and dt 370 hubs for just under that budget i would say, that would be a 1800g ish wheelset

https://m.aliexpress.com/store/1859081?trace=store2mobilestoreNew&spm=a2g0n.detail.1000013.1.70c85b0e83LWxa&pagePath=new-category.htm

Might be something suitable on the Elite Wheels AliExpress page

481s are heavyish and 30mm internal. It’s the xm421 for 25mm internal. I doubt there is much in it Vs a flow rim though. I’d bet it’s the hubs on your current wheels that are heavy, that and the use of DT comp spokes instead of something like a sapim dlight or DT comp race.

If you’re happy with the current hubs I’d probably just rebuild them on either XR391 or XM421 depending on your weight/tough balance (or 391 front, 421 rear?).d-light spokes are nice.

I don’t think there’s that much lighter than the 391 in Al and Carbon will push that budget pretty hard. 391 is what i built my latest rear wheel with (on a boosted Pro2 evo) and I think that will do me fine until/if I feel it’s worth spending the money for some Rovals carbons.

I can’t see you losing much weight in the hubs without spending more than you’d like. Spend the difference on a trip/ something else?

I’ve been running stans crest rims (399g) on dt 240 hubs (approx 1650g total) and they’ve taken a surprising amount of abuse for a couple of years. Even building your current hubs on crest rims would make a noticeable difference, weight at the hub is obviously less noticeable.

That seems heavy* for crests on 240s. Obviously depends on which exact 240 but my current in progress build is XR391s on 240 (SP, 28 spoke, CL) with cx-rays which should result in around 1520g. With crests on the same hubs I’d expect under 1500g as they are 20-30g a rim less. Even using dlights or race comp I’d expect under that). Those aren’t even the lightest 240 version either (not EXP!).

OP if you want light total weight without a big spend then really you need some lucky buys on 2nd hand hubs. The set above owes me £120 in rims, £95 in spokes and £150 in hubs. For my daughters bike I got a 350 (the rare silver version from DT wheelesets) for £15! It was missing ratchets but even though badged as a 350 its a 240 weight.

For all new parts one of my friends has a set of crests on the new oneup hubs built with dlights and brass nipples. That is comfortably under 1600g iirc.

* Comparatively obviously, still a good weight.

That seems heavy* for crests on 240s.

To be honest I weighed them at something under 1600g but I didn’t want a smart arse claiming I was being too optimistic. Mine are j bend 6 bolt hubs (luddite spec).

SP are work of the devil IMHO- jbend for the win

They really aren’t. I’ve not found any down sides yet. IME they are quicker to lace and in the hubs I’ve used have equal spoke lengths. I’ll happily build with either but prefer SP for lightweight builds as the hubs weigh less.

Hunt xc wide

or

XC wide race

Both light, under £500.

May struggle with weight limit for bike packing on the race.

Or import some Light Bicycle carbon rims but that’s going to be best part of £500, and you’ll need new spokes, and learn or pay someone to build the wheels onto your hubs.

For your budget a set of Hope Pro 5s built with D-Light Spokes and XM421 rims. ~ 1780 grams.

Hunt are doing their XC-wide and trail-wide wheels for £350ish/pair at the mo.

I’d be tempted to see if you could get DT XM421 rims on 350 or Pro 5 hubs for your £500 though.

Moonglu are a touch over budget at £520, but build a great set of wheels and nice to deal with:

https://www.moonglu.com/2017/builder/moonglu-mtb-wheelset-hope-pro-5-hubs-and-dt-swiss-xm421-mtb-rims.aspx

Edit: You could probably get them to do an XM481 on the front, if you wanted the 30mm internal to run 2.5in or 2.6in tyres.

XM421s have taken a good amount of (ab)use on my 140/130 trail bike – 90kg rider with a lack of finesse. I was hesitant to drop down from XM481/EX471s but they’ve been faultless in 3 years, I’m impressed. I’ve got mine on Pro4s and know there are lighter (DT Swiss) hub options but I’m happy with minimising the weight at the outer edge of the wheels over the centre.

Hub weight really doesn’t matter, it’s rim and spoke weight that make the difference to feel.  The only way to do that with alloy rims is to have less material and thus be less stiff.  Same with spokes. but a carbon rim is SOO much stiffer that you can have lighter and less spokes and it will still be VERY stiff.

My recent Chris King boost wheelset is 1.3kg,  25mm internal carbon, 28h laced 2x with Polyax nipples and J-bend CX-rays.  That’s with 460g hubs.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275316339378?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=78auDSzORBm&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=a9M6NJdMTVq&var=576092868456&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I bought a set of these mid  pandemic. Carbon rims with novatec hubs. Front is still going strong. I killed the rear with an under inflated tire to rock. The rear hub died in spring and I rebuilt it on a hope hub before cracking it 6 months later.

£366, 1600g and they took bike parks, back packing and loads of terrible landings in that time.

HUNT XC Wide MTB 29 Wheelset

I bought a pair of hunt xc 6 months before that and they have been on my hardtail. They have had a new free hub under warranty and a spoke pulled through the rim sorted under warranty.

£360, 1690g mostly smooth trails with a couple of bike packing rides.

I’d have the carbon wheels again on either of my bikes.

The hunts I’d have again, but they seemed much less robust. The warranty on the hunt was excellent. I treated the carbons as pretty much not having a warranty- but they were absolutely fine for 2 years.

You’d have to be mad to look past a build that’s got DT hubs and either the rim that used to be on the DT XM1501 or XR1501 wheelsets, or possibly a Stan’s Crest for that money.

Carbon looks great, but everyone I know with a carbon wheelset has damaged a rim, and most aren’t actually any lighter.

Word of warning on the 1.5mm butted spokes, they are a pain to build due to the wind up, much prefer to build with something like a CXray if you want to go lightweight. Although they are £2.75 a spoke!

XM421 are bombroof as an XC wheelset. 4500miles on a set and they’ve been trouble free (Pro 4, Sapim Race)

I’d buy a nearly new carbon pair off eBay. You might get a brand new pair from Roval or Bontrager if you’re lucky.

Word of warning on the 1.5mm butted spokes,

Treat them like they are an aero spoke and hold them, though with spoke pliers rather than aero spoke holder.

spoke pliers

FFS, another tool I didn’t know existed and now want! I used to pinch spokes between my finger and thumb to avoid wind-up, didn’t know there was a specific tool for it (I should’ve known better). I’ve only ever built with round DB spokes rather than anything lighter/bladed, but still a good idea.

😀 glad to be of service.

My recent Chris King boost wheelset is 1.3kg,  25mm internal carbon, 28h laced 2x with Polyax nipples and J-bend CX-rays.  That’s with 460g hubs.

That’s seriously light, especially for that spec. What components exactly?

Roval Control SL Team 1190g – 20 carbon spokes

Roval Control SL 1240 – 24 spokes

Hunt XC Race UD 1254g – 28 carbon spokes

DT XRC1200 1303g – 24 spokes

Reserve 28XC 180 1387g – 24 spokes

I’m assuming featherlight race (circa 270g) rims. Not sure I’d be bikepacking those. Something like these https://www.nextie.com/carbon-mountain-bike-rims-supreme-edition

Nextie SL 30 30 29er rims, Sapim Polyax nipples.  Etc.

They’re premium edition, not supreme. I think I weighed them at 310 and 307g respectively.

My recent gravel wheels were built on Lightbicycle ultralight 24mm internal, again with CK hubs, CX ray and Polyax.  This time 24h.  These were seriously light at 1.15kg.