I wouldn’t go carbon on my cx on the basis that’s the one bike I continually crash in new and unusual ways – I’m sold on cheap there as I’ll be last regardless.

ANyone actually got those ICAN wheels? Is 30mm enough for 2.8 tyres to be sensible shapes?

If you ride aggressively, occasionally pinch flat tubeless tyres and want to enjoy hammering down rocky trails without worrying about your rims making it out alive then stick with alloy.

If you want to do none of the above then get carbon rims and enjoy the slight increase in stiffness and slight reduction in weight.

CRC / Wiggle are selling carbon rimmed road wheels for ~£500 using their Prime brand. I can imagine that if they expanded into MTB wheels costs would be similar so its not inconceivable we’ll soon be seeing £500 pre-built wheelsets with proper warrenty etc.

slight reduction in weight

We’ve established it can be a pretty signifiant reduction.

I’ve got carbon wheels on my big bouncy bike. Was concerned about breaking them then saw Danny M trying to break a set. Not so worried now.

He said decent not bargain bin knock-off!

I ran some chinese carbon wheels with novatec hubs for 3 cyclocross seasons and they were brilliant. Heard some good reports of icann rims from fatbike owners.

Lots and lots of people running novatec hubs out there.. But yea where are you going to find named brand carbon wheels for  £500.. you aren’t i expect

I read a few reports of Ican wheels – most people seem to be complaining about the hubs and the build.

I think with factory build wheels it’s always wise to get the spoke tensions checked by a local wheel builder.

That said my factory build LB carbon on hope have been fine aside having to get the back wheel rebuilt due to a sudden meeting of derailleur /spoke.

It’s a shame they’re more expensive now, I think mine cost about £650 all in direct from LB built on hope hubs.

I don’t really do proper DH or enduro, but I did have a proper brown pants moment going down a rubble strewn bridle path, front tyre punctured and I was riding on the rim with the tyre flapping about as I tried to slow down as fast as I dared.

No damage to the rim other than a couple of scratches.

Managed to safely, slowly come to a stop. That’s an AM spec 32h rim.

They are bloody strong. Although I’d be wary of going for a lower spoke count or an xc layup to save a few grams.

So after my latest wheel tacho debacle (after buying new forks and shock same month I wasn’t banking on such an early upgrade) I was pondering what to buy.  Either blue flow carbons, Santa Cruz reserve or hope on flows.  I chose the later built up locally by Mboy.  Just because I’m sick of breaking stuff.  I am very hard on wheels and the weight saving benefit was soon outweighed with reliability.  To be honest I’m chuffed with my mk3 flow on pro4 build and can firmly recommend Mboy as a wheel builder in the midlands/south west.

@russyh, not everyone’ll agree but I’m pretty confident my LB 29ers are tougher than Flows. Certainly tougher than my mk1 Flow (cracked at the valve hole after a couple of years) and Ex (flatspotted to the point it couldn’t hold a tyre on)

That’s not a fair comparison because at today’s prices I think you can buy about 3 Flows for one LB, so you could argue that the LB has to be 3 times more durable- and it definitely is not.

I looked at LB rims Northwind but your right the cost and for me hassle meant I couldn’t be bothered.  I had broken a LB 650b rim previously (cracked at spoke nipple) the cost vs accessibility suits me.  To be honest I’m fed up with broken stuff of late, having a bad time of it of late.

Interesting then – I have Novatech hubs on my road wheelset for the Tripster – not exactly demanding but not had a squeak out of them.

£400 for carbon plus wheels would be lovely, even if I have to tension and true a bit.

Aye the newer rims are more expensive but my last pair of 30mm hookless were just over £325 delivered, including duty and tax, built onto existing Hope Pro2 hubs off my old wheels so it was a relatively cheap wheelset all things considered. My first pair of 30mm rims, bought more than 4 years ago were £20 less, but the rims were cheaper back then and the exchange rate was better.

I got tired of replacing stan flows (which I think are awesome rims). When my last set failed I managed to get some SC wheels cheap and oh my they are good. They stay dagger straight, track well and give confidence. I abuse mine on the trail bike and they haven’t loosened a spoke. I don’t think I’d ever pay full whack for them as it’s a lot of cash but there are benefits for a more maintenance free wheelset and confidence that they will stay round.

That being said they are slightly heavier than my stans which are now my 2nd set of wheels with light tyres for more pedalling duties. But if I’m just going up the Golfie or in Morzine then the carbons will stay on permanently with butchers on.

I don’t really do proper DH or enduro, but I did have a proper brown pants moment going down a rubble strewn bridle path

Probably sums up the vast majority of STW’ers in one brief sentence 🙂