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What MTB wheels


ChrisH

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I am a very average middle of the pack MTB rider who is only interested in having fun on my bike. Trashing my steed and body for the sake of gaining 10 places on my race position is not my style at all. Not interested if it aint fun. So....

My bike has standard Scott (off a Scale40) wheels. Apparently I can improve things dramatically by changing them.  What wheels should I be looking for if I want to get better ones, and why would you recommend them? IE What will I get out of it. I am not looking at blowing 10 grand on them either.

ChrisH2007-01-31 09:01:26
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Hey ChrisH,

 

Depends on your budget. I usually recommend a custom built set, but that's for the more expensive side of things. Reason being that for less than the price of say Mavic Crossmax SLs you can get a custom built wheelset using something like DT/Hope/Chris King hubs and any of a number of spoke/rim combos that will actually be lighter, more reliable and easier/cheaper to maintain than the Crossmax wheels.

 

However, I'm not too clued up on the mid to lower segment of the market. Might be better to go for a pre-built wheelset there

 

Mint
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Hey ChrisH' date='

 

Depends on your budget. I usually recommend a custom built set, but that's for the more expensive side of things. Reason being that for less than the price of say Mavic Crossmax SLs you can get a custom built wheelset using something like DT/Hope/Chris King hubs and any of a number of spoke/rim combos that will actually be lighter, more reliable and easier/cheaper to maintain than the Crossmax wheels.

 

However, I'm not too clued up on the mid to lower segment of the market. Might be better to go for a pre-built wheelset there

 

Mint
[/quote']

 

Thanks MintSauce. I am being advised to stay away from Crossmax because of the crappy hubs and a few people around here seem to agree with that..
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what every you buy, don't buy Ritchey wheels. You will have trouble with the freewheel body from the start.

 

I checked out some Shimano wheels as well, but I am not a fan of Shimano.

 

Good luck on the hunt...

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Ringle/Hope/DT Swiss/Chris king hubs are all really good. Hope can be gotten for very little from chain reaction.  Then choose decent rims and spokes and you can get a bargain wheelset for next to thing.  Light, strong, reliable.  get a hold of TitusTi. He knows a thing or two about building wheels.

 

 

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Chrish,

 

I'm gutted, you're almost dead to me......

 

That you dare to ask a bunch of roadies about MTB wheels first.....is.......shocking................appalling.

Have you no dignity man?! Huh?

 

 

Great budget wheels would be anything with Shimano Deore XT hubs (at least), DT Supercomp spokes, and a Mavic X717 rim or X819 if you want to go tubeless.

However for the price of the X819 rim you may prefer to spend about R800 per rim as opposed to R1100-00 and get the NoTubes ZTR355 from Bowmans.

 

This will still set you back about R4k for a complete wheelset.

 

The more expensive the Hub, generally the better the wheelset.

 

Hubs in order of Increasing reference:

 

Shimano Deore XT @R1.8K

Ringle Dirty Flea @R2.5K

Shimano XTR @ R2.7K

DT Swiss Hugi 240s@ R3.7K

 

 

Although Chris Kings are awesome the only guy in the western cape who can service them is William Keith, oh yeah at Lea at Cycle factory. Expect t pay about R6k for the Hubset alone...so I no I don;t prefer those thanks...

 

Hadley XC is also awesome and around DT swiss prices landed but with no service back up..

 

Rims in Order of increasing preference:

 

Sun whose name I forget

Mavic X717

Mavic X819

NoTubes Olympic

NoTubes ZTR 355

 

If the Bontrage Valiants are available they would be tops but I'venot seen them for sale for a long time.

 

Spokes:

 

SApim Cx-ray or DT swiss revolution are best

 

Too pricey then drop down to DT Swiss Super comp.

 

 
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Chrish' date='

 

I'm gutted, you're almost dead to me......

 

That you dare to ask a bunch of roadies about MTB wheels first.....is.......shocking................appalling.

Have you no dignity man?! Huh?

 [/quote']

 

What you talking about? TitusTi is here and he knows everything about this stuff. My mate Lea says so.
ChrisH2007-01-31 11:06:17
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Hey Chris and Tim

 

I have the DT Swiss 240s and ZTR Olympics, and I absolutely LOVE the setup!   Would definitely recommend it.  Incredibly light and it's survived some serious abuse!

 

Nick K

 

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This is the time when everyone starts pulling out of the Epic. Not sure if Latrinus organised us an entry yet... and his 10k's overweight...

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