Recommend me some CX wheels (or sell me yours!)

Thinking out loud a bit..

Dithering over wheels for my CX bike build – busy with work and already building a bike for partner’s b’day so for once I’m not excited by the idea of building my own, though I might have to to stick to budget.
Aiming for £200 or less.
Have decided to spend more on the rims than would have done in the past due to the whole rolling weight thing – previously I’ve tended to buy decent hubs and use any old rim.

Criteria:
Light, decent tubeless ready rims (but not a b*tch to put clinchers w tubes on)
Solid hubs – don’t mind cup+cone but pref cartridge
Hopefully road 11sp compatible for future proofing
Convertible front hub (QR/15mm etc) for future proofing/emergency use with MTB
Can get spokes through work so hubs+ rims could take me up to £180ish.

So far considering…
Hubs:
XT M8000 (15mm with Nukeproof QR adapter).
Novatech D771 / 772 sb
Shimano Rs505

Rims (in order of price):
DT Swiss R 460 db
WTB Frequency CX Team i19
Velocity A23 (have a rim brake surface)
H+Son Archetype (not officially tubeless ready but apparently work)
H+Son Hydra (prob. have to scavenge some hubs as these are £80ish each)

Cheers!

Don’t know if XT hubs will work with 11 speed road?
THese are hubs you want anyway http://www.bitexhubs.com/htm/products_detail.php?p=568f6ee9cb13f
http://www.bitexhubs.com/htm/products_detail.php?p=568f6f2548341

Quite a few custom builders seem to be building with them. I’ve got a set and they seem pretty good, better than Novatec anyhow. You might be able to get them cheap off ebay.

A23 rims are ****

Ive got a kinesis V3 CX wheelset for sale with 28c schwalbe pro ones setup up tubeless, slx discs. Weight 1555g.. Done about 500 miles on road. £220 posted.
PM me or email in profile if interested.

Someone was selling the V3s for £120 the other week and I foolishly tried to haggle! I may PM you though don’t need the road tyres. Cheers.

You’re correct re. XT – I wouldn’t be running 11 speed anyhow but it’s a consideration for future proofing otherwise I’d def have gone XT. I know people who have ground a bit of the base of the freehub and I believe you can use a larger cassette which will clear the spokes (34t plus) but all a bit bodgy.

The higher-end Novatec offerings ain’t bad – I’ve had a pair of the Novatec D771/2 SB and they are pretty decent and there’s a UK supplier with good communication + supply of bits. (Spokesman Wheels) The ‘anti-bite’ guard on the freehub was useless though.

I’ve seen the Bitex on ebay carbon builds – will investigate.

Slight thread hijack – I’m looking for a rear 11 speed disc hub to build into a existing wheel* so would appreciate any opinions re the hub part of this.

Of those available / listed the Shimano RS505 seems the most appealing (i.e. cheapest by a long way, plus it’s Shimano so will be well engineered although cup&cone which I’d prefer to avoid). Are they any good ?

* – it will be either replacing a rubbish OEM formula hub in a Maddux wheel, or replacing a singlespeed hub in a Stans Crest wheel – largely depending on which if any set of dimensions allows the existing spokes to be re-used.

Markwsf – The RS505 seems alright too – I’m tempted by a pair of them and then spend most on rims. Or XT 15mm with a QR adapter front, RS505 rear.

Though they seem to be less available in the UK (Loads from Europe, e.g. Rose) so wondering if they’re to be discontinued.

I love the look of the CX75s but they seem pricey for what they are.

Note that while the RS505 group seems to be marketed as 105 level, these hubs aren’t – they have a standard old fashioned axle which the cone and locknut both screw on to, while the current 105 group (5800) hubs have a cone which is tightened with a cone spanner, and a silver screw-in end cap which acts as the locknut. The RS505s are Tiagra level at best.
Shimano/Madison have a habit of doing this – I have a CX50 chainset, marketed as 105 level but with CX specific chainring sizes – it’s not as the crankarms are solid not hollow, and are identical in structure to the Tiagra ones.