I looked at superstarcomponents, online shop actionsports.de, but could use some input. I am not that hard ón wheels, i am ridning a fully, mostly xc-fun.

price range up to 200-250.

Anyone know if the Superstar/Pacenti wheels are any good?

As an aside, anyone know why 29er wheels don’t routinely use 36 spokes? Some wheel sets (eg Shimano MT66) have 24, which seems like a recipe for a short lifespan…

Hope with flow/arch/crest depending on what you plan to ride. Freely available for @£280 ish, can be adapted to all common wheel fitment standards, easy to set up tubeless, Hope are great with any warranty claim should you be unlucky enough to need it and the bearings are pretty durable in UK gloop. No brainer really, well worth spending a few pounds over your top budget IMHO.

Don’t go hope/crest. I had them and found them too flexy. I upgraded to Mavic crossmax’s and love them. A lot stiffer. Then I am 92Kg.
A friend rides Hope/Arch. A better balance of cost/value/stiffness/weieght. Set them up Tubless defo. I reccomen 18 bikes as they chuck in the tubeless conversion.

I wont 😕

I’ve been running a set of Mavic Crossrides, found them to be nicely stiff, chucked the bike nicely in the scenery yesterday, wheels still straight and true. Very reasonable price as well, and a nice quiet freewheel that doesn’t sound like a hornets nest under attack.

Got some Kinesis Maxlights for sale if you fancy? Great wheels.

Can someone explain this crest=too flexy thing? I had no problem on mine on tight singletrack switchbacks (some of which I had to do some small hops to get the rear wheel round) rhe other day…

Well I have just managed to put a huge outward dent on my rear Crest after only four weeks of use making them impossible to run tubeless. I’m not sure if it is the Crest or a problem with 29er wheels in general. Never managed to do this with 26 wheels. 😐

Apologies for the direct plug, but I have a very nice, brand new and unused Easton 29er wheelset for sale in the classified if you are interested (see forum activity in my profile).

Crest’s were more than fine in the Surrey Hills. On big rock in Wales/Peaks/Lakes I found the front wandered a bit from where I point it. I held the front wheel between my legs and twisted the bar to see a LOT of flex as the wheel/rim bent. Now I appreciate that this could be down to forks/bar/stem however chucking my friends Arch hoops on my bike and repeating showed the rim was a lot stiffer. My Crossmax ST’s even more so.
Ideally I would like stiffer forks than the 32mm QR15 Reba’s I have but not an easy option at 100mm travel! My stem/bar is a pretty stif combo.

American Classic on Stan’s Arch EX 29. 1640g with tape and valves. Light and tight (and I’m a bit of a fat knacker).

I have hope with stans flows, very impressed..

The Stans I’ve just bought 2nd hand have got a flat spot.

I had heard that the alloy used was pretty soft.

Here’s a crest rim

Crest rim by jamie_mtb, on Flickr

crest by jamie_mtb, on Flickr

I’m going to be building up some Pro2/Light-Bicycle Wide Carbons for my 29er.

Here’s a crest rim

My mate did that to a Mavic 717, and no-one says they’re soft…

Here’s a crest rim

Ouch. 😯

I have a set of Crests on Hope straight pulls, they are light but I dented the rear at CYB, then the front in a 9 day stage race and I can’t get them straight now no matter how much tension I put on them. I never had issues with 26″ Crests. I have since got some Flows and they are stiff as you like but a bit heavy, thinking LB carbons are the way forward, or Pacenti TL28?

If you’d like something in the stans flow rim style, I have a set of Sun ringle charger pro wheels, as new, that you can have for very little indeed. They make stans rims, and licenced the design to build these. New models with uprated bearings. Email in profile if interested.