Which Light MTB Wheels

Looking for some light wheels for my Specialized s/works hardtail
I am 5ft 9″ and 75kg and ride mostly x/c and trial centres

Narrowed it down to this list –

ZTR Olympic Rims / XTR M975 Hubs ( Very Light )
DT 240s hubs with DT 4.2 disc rims (quality stuff )
Specialized Roval Traversee Trail Rims (Good local dealer/cost)
Specialized Roval Controle XC Race Wheelset ( good local dealer/cost)

They vary between 1400g and 1650g in wieght.
Anyone tried any of these what do you think of them ?
Any advice appriciated good or bad.
Thank you

Depends on what you want to spend I guess.

I’d consider:

American classic 130/225 + olympics
or
New Hope XC3 with Stan 355

I’d do a cost/gram graph of each option and choose the best ratio/tipping point!

I have American Classic 130/225 hubs with American classic rims. About 1450g and I use for xc and ‘all mountain’. absolutely rock solid and low maintenance (although the skewers are rubbish).

I have the traversee and some 4.2 rims. The 4.2 rims bend and dent seemingly every time I go out and the traversee’s seem pretty good at the moment. The 4.2’s are on a hardtail and the roval’s are on my Heckler.

rob2 – Looking to spend £350 – £400

boobs – like the traversee they seem a bit stronger than the Controle but they seem scarce/sold out maybe a good thing shows they are popular

i have used stans olympic on xtr m975 hubs for almost a year, very good!! light and strong .. i have used them for everything racing and trail centers etc

June ish only a month or so?

Nicks – They are tempting just a pain and extra cost having to swap to centrelock rotors

boobs – yes not that long really

Anybody thought of Olympic + Hope Pro 2 combo? That is what I was considering so far…

Olympic Rims
Revolution Spokes
Hope Pro2.

The beauty of stan’s rims is you also save 100g off each wheel with not needing an inner tube nor UST tyres.

Have just bought my second set of Olympics for a 2nd wheelset, first set still going strong after a year.

sworks120 – i’d go for new hope xc3 with stan’s 355 from wheelpro. you get £20 off and come in about £360.

How would 2.3 Conti fit on the stans rims ? heard they are not ideal for wider tyres !

sworks120 – I don’t know but I use 2.3 Conti’s (mountain king and speedkings) on my American classics which I think are the same rim width and they are fine. Contis tend to be quite narrow. But someone else on here might have direct experience.

Anthony – that is quite interesting, didn’t realize they can take a normal tyre and work as tubeless! Do you need to get any extras to do that?

Hope 2 / Olympic / Rev spokes combo in Justridingalong.co.uk is £400, while on freeborn its £350 (or £314 but with heavy competition spokes).

DT240s, 717s, DT Revs.

About 1600g, very reliable and durable, hub is a lot quieter than Hope, rims a bit harder than DTs, RWS 9/10mm bolt-through skewers, about £320 or so.

I run 2.4 contis, tubeless, and they’re fine.

JxL Sounds like a nice set up

gingerflash Where did you get that wheelset ?

I see you get a choice of brass or alloy nipples which do you prefer, ie wieght/strenght

JxL, have a look at the justridingalong website to give you a lowdown on Stan’s Rims.

Ally for lightweight (approx 20g less) but may seize long term. Unless your racing or you enjoy rebuilding the wheels yourself, I’d go for brass.

Strength is no different.

Anthony. Thank you i was thinking along these lines, makes good sense

Love my traversees. Spin quicker and seem to be just as robust as my King / Stans Flow set-up.

aye but the beauty of saving 100g`s from a rim doesnt all add up to a good thing for a lot of folk.. and that just happens to be the majority of folk!

Running Pro2s, DT Revs, alloy nipples on Stans Olympics. No problems, run great tubeless, all good!

Vote here for Roval Traverse – unbelievable wheels. But I’m well over 100kg and they’re plenty strong enough even for me, so you could go even lighter.

olympic/xtr here, 80kg, going strong.

I was looking at the Mavic Crossmax SX’s, but am now seriously thinking of the Roval Traversee wheelset. Only thing holding me back is that they’re not UST specific. Not 100% about rim strips.

Have SX’s and Traversees – traversees hold air no probs with the rimstrip and some sealant. As you would expect, sx’s slower but stiffer than traversees. No difference in pick-up though. On SXs worth noting 09’s quite a bit lighter than previous (~200g).

I’ve used pro2 on Olympics for a few years now, I’ve just got the new Hope Hoops with pro 3 on 355 rims and I think these are the better package, the 355 rims are a little wider than Olympics which helps with larger tyres. £385 with rotors inc. you can’t really go wrong.

If it was me DT240s + Mavic 819s, maybe not the lightest but wider, strong and gives you the UST option

I have the following wheelsets
1) DT 240s hubs, DT Revolution spokes with Mavic 717 disc rims
2) DT 240s hubs, DT Revolution spokes with ZTR 355 disc rims (Wheelpro Roger Musson hand built)
3) Specialized Roval Controle SL (came with S-Works Epic)

Must say the Specialized Roval Controle SL rim is very similar to the ZTR 355 rim.

When riding I refer do DT 240s hubs, DT Revolution spokes with ZTR 355 disc rims wheelset. All the wheelsets hold air Ok in tubeless setup. I would say the ZTR 355 and the Roval Controle being a wider rim makes the tyre have a flatter profile.

The Wheelpro offer of the new hope xc3 with ZTR 355 rims for around £360 looks a great deal. Especially as the prices are all going up because of the £.

Being only 75kg, why so large a tyre?

I’ve been running a pair of ZTR Olympics laced to AM Classic hubs with revolutions for two years now, no problems at all. Would possibly get hopes next time though, bearing are tiny. Here’s a review of them I wrote a while back: http://douglasfshearer.com/blog/wheel-review-stans-ztr-olympic-rim-american-classic-hubs

I’ve just got a set of Pro3 XC 24 Spoke Stans ZTR355 jobbies and have to say I’m so far impressed. Did Gorrick 100km on them first time out, and they spun up well and took quite a beating with no ill effects.
I’m fairly heavy at 14st as well + they’re on my Orange 5! They’ll only be used as race day marathon/xc wheels though don’t think i’d want to beat them round a trail centre but that may be different if your light on your wheels.

Weighed in at 1508g on my scales so Mavic SLR BEating! Also at £360 inc discs they’re a bargain from Wheelpro.

Bit off topic but how does the Freeborn pricing work (£359 for the Rovals is good but not if you have to buy a frame at the same time to get that price?!)

Thanks for all the replies guy, There are a lot of good options and now i have more ideas to choose from :-0

Kiwi_stu – I use the 2.3 as i find it a bit more comfortable

Coopersport1 – That seems a nice light wheelset.

Had a look at Wheelpro and wondered what is the benefit of – Straight pull spokes ?

I got Mavic XC717 rims with XT Hubs and DT Revolution Spokes custom built by Merlin Cycles.

~£160 – very robust, incredibly light.

XC717 rims = 2x395gr
XT 6-bolt Hubs Front=244gr, rear=430gr
DT Spokes (x64)=283gr

TOTAL WEIGHT= 1747gr (with skewers), 1515gr (no skewers)

Bargain!!!

Had a look at Wheelpro and wondered what is the benefit of – Straight pull spokes ?

theoretically they are slightly stronger, as normal spokes break at the j-bend (if at all) – which a straigh spoke does not have.

Makes **** all difference IMO, it’s just another way of making something “different”, usually to be found on higher end hubs, lower spare availability, more dishing etc etc.

The problem with Straight-Pull spokes is that although they look great, they are notoriously difficult for a wheel-smith to true up as they spin around whilst you’re trying to tighten them. This means that when they do go out of true (which all wheels eventually will), they are very difficult to perfectly true up again

Some very good info on this thread. I’m on my 2nd set of Pro2 and 819’s; been running tubeless for a couple of years now but always UST specific rims and fancy a lighter UST set now. The 819’s took 2 weeks of uplifts with Riviera Bike and I know I don’t need a heavier wheelset for my riding. The question is how light to go? Really like the 09 Crossmax SX’s but they’re ‘only’ really 300g lighter at about 1750g, and now you’ve got me thinking about the Stan’s rims with the strips…Or the Crossmax SLR which has a 20mm front hub now…Anybody got any experience with the SLR’s?

Orange Evo your figures look a little optimistic, are they claimed weights or on the scales?

Your rear hub for example at 430g with QR (your QR’s you list as 232, lets say this is a 100f/132r mix) this means your rear hub is 298g which is lighter than Chris King and XTR.

Yep Shimano hubs are weighed without skewers, you also forgot the weight of nipples which if they are brass will be another 90 grams.

I’ve just built XTR M960 hubs (bargain tastic cheap too) with XC 717’s and Sapim Laser spokes with alloy nipples, quoted manufacturer weights come in at 1570 grams a pair.

I’d like to build DT Swiss ceramics on Stans 355 with Aerolites, which could come in at sub 1300 grams a pair. At a price though.

remember kids rim weight is the most important factor!