fwiw my 717 on hope xc have been very reliable even with a big ding in them. my missus uses them now so dont get much abuse.

killed a crest though, controversial but i recon 717 tougher than crest, but the tubeless and wide rims still makes the crest rim of choice for me.

Similar story to many here really. Been using 717’s for years and they are great as long as you don’t expect too much out of them and run fairly small tyres e.g. 2.1’s. They are perfect on my Cotic Soul with 120mm forks and Conti tyres. Ditto the deals on Merlin! Go for EX’s if you are at all concerned.

Peter’s on a rant about the 321s.

No, just on people who fail to understand that 570g is one hefty old rim, unless you’re a downhiller. 🙂

570g is one hefty old rim,

Oh yeah, with you on that one.

My 717s were fine- plenty tough for the job (which at the time was being ridden on by an incredibly clumsy knobber). But yeah, bit skinny, and heavy for what they do. They don’t do anything wrong, exactly, but they don’t do enough right IMO.

Since it’s for a hardtail, why not buy a light xc style front wheel and a more robust rear?

edit: I run 321s on two of my bikes. Haven’t broke one yet and don’t notice the weight.

This is all brilliant stuff everyone, thanks.

I think my choices are 717s or Arch EX’s and how much I can afford. Sounds like I’ll be happy with both and that Merlin is the place to go.

As long as people are confident I can NoTubes a 717 with just a trackpump then I might have to plump for them.

Cheers.

H

the death of a 717. Still this has taken about 20K miles, bee ridden on bikes from fully rigid to a 6 inch bouncer, taken 8 foot drops and all sorts of use….and that crack only happened as an accident with a cx rider which resulted in her drops going through my wheel and fubaring the spoke tension and buckling the wheel meant that I had to put an absurd, no…an ABSURD spoke tension on to bring the wheel back true….and that was 30 months ago….tht photo was 5 months ago…I’m still riding the wheel but I now have a bit of rim about 2 inches long and half its width that is no longer attached.

Yeah, I’m with Poddy. tough.

oh and how to ghetto compressor a wheel for you…

(NB, that rim is a 719….I prefer them as wider, tougher and no heavier really)

They are not, by any stretch of the imagination, either light, or an XC/AM

Depends what your interpretation of XC/AM is. I never said they were light. I said they weren’t that heavy. And they’re not.

If you truely believe what you wrote then you clearly have a poor imagination.

I like them a lot. They stay round and they keep rolling. I have to say that all this talk of tyre profiles leaves me cold. I’ve run 2.5 Timberwolfs on mine and never thought to wish for a wider rim.

I tried a pair of Stan Flow’s at the weekend on a 29er. The front wheel went out of true on the ride while trying to get the back tyre off to fix a puncture was a total trauma. I had visions of having to walk down the Lairig Ghru pushing my bike as I cursed and swore trying to get the tyre to fit. Garrrrrrr!

I struggle to see the benefit of paying twice the price for rim’s that are to my mind weaker and a major pain in the arse to change a puncture. 😀 My LBS refers to Stans as Stan So Soft’s – I can now see why.

Sounds like bad building tbh.

+1 on the indestructable but too narrow front. Depends if U are a genuinly fast cornering rider. Perfect for me for about 10 years of my riding but im now riding at a level where I do roll them off the rim with a 2.35 highroller (which are actually pretty narrow)

Have moved on to stans

(reads post back and realises quite how arrogant I sound…..oops)

They’re not bad, mine took some abuse before finally taco’ing on a badly landed 180, that was using them for street rather than intended use!

I am wonder how people manage to have a tyre to pop out a X717? I have been riding the whole tranvé with a 2.35 and I had no problem at all…

Popping a tyre off a rim is just a matter of the right combination of forces being applied. I’ve popped a tyre going up the climb of Whites trail at Afan. Same tyre, wheel and bike then spent a week in the Alps being abused by my terrible style without issue.

people are confident I can NoTubes a 717 with just a trackpump

Always did mine with a track pump, no bother. And that was with a bmx tube cut down, proper strips would make it easier. All mavic rims I’ve tried seem to tubeless easily.