What would you recommend?

I Would like Hope hubs if I’m honest.

What’s their Fortus 23 wheelset like, any good ?

Anything else I should be looking at ?

Thanks

I got Hopes on Stans Arch for £530 late last year from PT Cycles for my Stanton Sherpa. Very happy with them. Could have gone a tiny bit lighter with DT rims but they weren’t in stock at the time and I’ll be honest I don’t think I notice the few grams difference.

I wouldn’t be able to look past Hunt XC Wide tbh – 200g lighter than the equivalent Hope Fortus 23 in 29er, and £349.

You could look at the SILT Cross Country Wheelset 1,510g same width as the Hunt XC Wide 1647g but lighter if weights an issue. There £370 vs £359 for the Hunts, not much in it cost wise but the SLIT wheels are lighter.
SILT are based in Belfast NI

I bought some second hand hope hubs and built them up with carbon rims from eBay. If you are not boost you could easily get a pair for sub £500.

I asked my local shop to build them, 3 month wait and £120!

I bought some Stans wheels recently from CRC, I think. £290 for Stans hubs on Crest rims. Light and pretty well finished.

I went Hope Pro4 on Stans Crest from Moonglu (Ripon) however the rear was changed for an Arch recently under warranty as the spoke holes on the Crest started to crack.
Hunt XC Race on order for wife’s bike.

A lot of the weight saving in Hunt Wheels are in the hub, not the rim, so whilst lighter, it’s not as noticeable.

Hunt XC wide (440g £79) / DTXM421 (465g £70) / Stans Arch (453g £65) ~ 900g a pair and ~£130-£160 All 25mm internal, all 28h, all 29er.

Hope Pro 4 hubs are ~480g and £250 per pair

Spokes will be 300-400g dependent on Revs, vs Comps, vs Champs or Sapim equivalent and will be between £30-£100 per set.

Nipples will be ~£2-£20 (brass vs sapim alloy polyax) and 30-80g

Total wheelset weight on Pro 4s will be 1.65 (Hunt rims, Rev Spokes, Polyax nipples) -1.9kg (DT Rims, Champ spokes, brass nips) with costs between £530 (1.65kg) and £400 (1.9kg) without a wheel build cost.

I’d recommend DT hubs too – especially the star ratchet ones.

I think if you look around you might get an XM 1700 wheel set for £500. Or the m1900 are cheaper.

Depends your riding, I’ve had the hunt wide XC and wasn’t impressed, I’d have some built, dt 350 hubs, with either crest/arch/flow rims depending on usage ie XC/trail/enduro, and go with sapim spokes and black brass nipples, you should be able to get those builds to around £500

Ryan builds wheels the XC bomber set

Halo vapour? Hub Sounds as good as hope

Got a set of hunt xc wide in Feb for pounding the south downs. Apart from the front being badly taped they have been great so far. Swapped out a 10 year old set of crest on pro2.