I’m looking into a new pair of road wheels for next year & fancy building a pair instead of going the usual Mavic Ksyrium route.
I fancy doing something along the lines of Hope/DT Rev/Open Pro.
Anyone riding a similar build? Or know of a lighter rim that isn’t too stupidly priced?

see here:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/road-wheels-build-my-own-or-buy-some-factory-ones

IRD Cadence, Velocity Aerohead and Stans Alphas are all lighter than an Open Pro

open pros aren’t the lightest rim, but cost, durability, reliability they are a decent bench mark.

I am open to changing mine when they wear out but for me, unless anyone can convincingly tell me of lighter rims that won’t wear out quicker, i will stay with the open pros.

If you want Hopes on Open Pro’s, almost certainly cheaper to buy off the shelf Hope Hoops wheelsets than it is to buy the individual components and build yourself, just so you know.

Personally, Hope freehubs drive me mad on a mountain bike, on a road bike I think I’d go over the edge! I like a nice quiet freehub myself, but each to their own.

Just to add a note of heresy, I’ve used Mavic Ksyriums for 8 years; the rear died last year, only because Mavic no longer had the rims in stock.
I’ve just done the 3 peaks on Ksyrium Elites, and am still using Mavic Heliums from 10 years ago on my good road bike.

Well built wheels will last, and Mavic seem to be well built factory wheels.

I’ve also got the usual lazy response wheels; open pros on Ultegra, and they are still going strong, but are only 8 years old.

Weight is wildly over-rated in terms of wheels; light is desirable, but will make little actual difference in performance, largely because the difference between ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ is ‘not very much’.

I know I could buy Hope Hoops, but I prefer to build my own wheels if I’m not running factory built ones like Mavics as hand builds are my ‘thing’ + Hope don’t come with Revolution spokes, only standard Sapim or give the colour option or lacing pattern with handbuilds.
Going by weights listed by the manufacturers & came out at 1595g for the pair, so not too bad.
Velocity rims don’t seem any lighter than the Open Pro’s & Stans are crazy money.
Might rethink the Ksyriums though, as touch lighter & love the look of them.

I just bought some Velocity A23 on Ambrosio hubs with DT spokes from JRA. They are not super light, but comparable to the Hopes. The A23 rim seems rather good, really stiff and the width makes a set of 23mm tyres a really nice shape which rides really well and corners fantastically.