Wheels for XC/gravel/bikepacking – anything better than XM481/350s?

Hi all,

Looking for a wheel set for my Specialized Chisel hardtail, to be used for XC, gravel, and bikepacking. Looking, of course, for lightweight but durable enough to hold up on bikepacking trips and maybe a (gentle) lap of Golfie.

Would rather not spend more than £350, happy with used. 

Current favourite is XM 481s on 350 hubs, from WheelProject for £350 posted which I know is a great deal. However, these are close to what I run on my enduro bike (XM1700) and they’ve held up fine so I can’t help but feel these would be overkill on a XC hardtail?

Any other options I should look at?

Thanks, Duane.

XM421 might be better and save some weight?

Xm421s would be better. Built with dt comp race or sapim dlight your looking around 1.75kg. There is also the xr391 but that’s more or a race rim.

How are your stock chisel rims? They are actually pretty light (420g). It’s the hubs that have their own gravity well along with the plain gauge spokes. On the chisel I’ve just got for my daughter I’m rebuilding them onto a set of straight pull 350s. Going to be around 1600g with d-lights.

Thanks both, can’t get the XM421 builds for quite a lot more than the XM481 from Project Wheel.

Nixie – v interesting re rebuilding the stock wheels, hadn’t considered that. Wheels on mine are good, barely used. So would you say the rims are ok? 420g is lighter than even the XM421, how would you rate their durability? I’d be open to running a lightweight insert on the rear.

Thanks,

Duane

Only just acquired the bike so don’t know yet on durability. Daughter is 40kg though so not going to be a tough user ?. They look ok to me and for the hubs I’m using I’m 95% sure I good reuse the same spoke length on xm421s (based on my own measurements of the erd/offset of the specialized rims).

I have some xr391s on my anthem – I weigh one tenth of a ton and they’ve been fine over all sorts. I’ve not put mega miles on them (I ride different bikes), so can’t really speak to long term durability, but it’s doesn’t seem like a weenie rim.

Doesn’t look it either but there will be a reason DT keep 2 very similar rims in the range. I have both 391s and 421s, both build up nicely. With the right hub and cx-rays the 391s have built into a set just over 1500g, not bad for alloy.

xm481’s are what i had on my 130mm hardtail, tough as old boots with my weight, 74ish kgs on them. Sounds overkill for your requirement to me

I’m a bit of a biffer and I’m on 421s / 350s for the same use case. They’ve not missed a beat.

481s would be fine also, and would be more versatile for use on a trail or light Enduro rig, but probably just a bit heavier than you need them to be really.

I doubt you’d be disappointed, or could do much better, than either.

It does depend on how you ride and where you ride.

I ran XR361 on my hardtail, built with fairly standard ACI DB spokes and they held up really well, despite being 360-380g rims, and me at around 90kg and not that careful.

But, it was normal xc/gravel trails, and not bike packing. I’m pretty sure the xr391 will be fine. I have a set of the pinned x392 also, they’re pretty good vfm if you can find them, though as others have said, your stock rims may well be decent enough.