Next Major upgrade - wheels!

rowlers

After running Reba SL for all of 2 months, the time has come when my fingers tart itching and credit beings to flex!

So the next upgrade I'll be looking at is a set of handbuilt wheels, probably from Merlin, after all the recommendations on here.

After reading all the threads on this (and there are loads!!) its looking like XT hubs, with either XC717 or XM719 hubs. The largest tyre I have in my arsenal is 2.1, Currently running 1.95 Ignitors, so the 717 would suit this. I weigh 12.5 stone and do light XC, road, tracks lanes,whinlatter. The curren;t wheels are (what look like) deore hubs with bontrager ranger rims. So hopefully some weight to be saved! I'll be sticking an XT cassette on as well with the build.

So, am I on the right lines with this:
Handbuilt Wheels - Front Disc
Rim Upgrades: XM719 Black Disc
Spoke Upgrades: DT Comp S/S DB
Hub Upgrades: XT 6 Bolt Disc
Pro 11 Hub Colour: Black
66.00 Remove Update
Handbuilt Wheels - Rear Disc
Spoke Upgrades: DT Comp S/S DB Black
Rim Upgrades: XM719 Black Disc
Hub Upgrades: XT 6 Bolt Disc
Pro 11 Hub Colour: Black

Also wat does this litte lot weigh?

cheers

The Spiderman

My Merlin xt 6 bolt hubs with ACI db spokes and 717s weighs a tad over 1900g.Add about 100g for the pair if you have 719s.
Good wheels,not that light,but tough.
I ride similar to you though ,weigh nearer 14st ,I have on occasions done some daft stuff with them,trying to keep up with mates on full sussers,and they are still true,after a year`s use.

rowlers

well I've weighed my std wheels, with tyres, and the came to 2.5 kgs back and 1.95kgs front. So knock off the tyres at 520g's each leaves approx 3.3kgs

so even on those "not light" wheels are going save me over 1kilo!

toasty

Did you also weigh the cassette (250-400g), innertubes (2x 150-200g), rotors (2x 150-200g) and skewers (100-200g)?



Man, it's been an odd weight related day on the forums today, hehe.

supersonic

xt m775 hubs are lighter than the older xt. I see no reason to get 719 over 717 in this case.

marksteven

phone harry rowland 01843597443 he'l sort you out & he wont rob you always gets atleast 1 mention per issue in cycling plus

artillerydave

I personally like the DT range of Rims, Merlin can knock you up a set of XT hubs on DT4.2 rims, great looking and great performing wheels in my opinion. plenty stong enough too. about £135 all in.

rowlers

Oh no - more options!

Toasty wrote:

Did you also weigh the cassette (250-400g), innertubes (2x 150-200g), rotors (2x 150-200g) and skewers (100-200g)?



Man, it's been an odd weight related day on the forums today, hehe.

That was the complete weight of the wheels. Gives me an idea of how much weight I can save.

So the 717 are "hard" enough for me then! I've emailed merlin for confirmation of the hubs that they use. So we'll see what they come back with. Are the Hope hubs worth it over the XTs? I was looking at spending max of £200, but if there is no benefit of spending this whole budget then I wont!

cheers so far!

supersonic

For your weight, bike and riding, the rim is perfect!

The Hope are a little lighter, and use cartridge bearings, but INHO not wroth the extra.

rowlers

right then, I think I'm sorted!
Last question then is the spokes, are the DT Comp S/S DB, the best bet? Or should I go for the revolutions?

Do the wheels come with new skewers? What should I go for in this dept?

sorry for all the Qs!

supersonic

Revolutions save a chunk of weight but can be overly flexy.

I'd stick with the standard ACI spokes.

Bobhellen

rowlers wrote:

right then, I think I'm sorted!

Do the wheels come with new skewers? What should I go for in this dept?

sorry for all the Qs!

if they are shimano then they should do.

rowlers

cheers again, the ACI spokes save more cash as well!

was looking at the superstar skewers (if the wheels don't come with them), look cool and are light in both weight and cash!

The Spiderman

rowlers wrote:

cheers again, the ACI spokes save more cash as well!

was looking at the superstar skewers (if the wheels don't come with them), look cool and are light in both weight and cash!

All Shimano come with skewers,and are generally regarded as the most effctive skewers you can get.

rowlers

[quote=All Shimano come with skewers,and are generally regarded as the most effctive skewers you can get.[/quote]

yeh it even says this on Merlins website when you look!

The 6bolt hubs they use are M756, can I assume that this is good?

supersonic

Good, but heavier than the newer centrlok ones.

rowlers

so are the centre lock better, I'd need new rotor tho, so it'd be a good time to move up to 180mm on the front

toasty

The difference is very, very minor, a few grams if anything. Centerlock is a nice system but it's not worth getting new rotors in my opinion.

You mentioned you weighed the entire wheel before, did you literally mean including cassette, tubes, skewers, rotors etc? The estimate for the custom builds didn't include that.

well I've weighed my std wheels, with tyres, and the came to 2.5 kgs back and 1.95kgs front. So knock off the tyres at 520g's each leaves approx 3.3kgs

You might discover your current wheel turns out to be around:

front - total 1950g
545g tyre - going by here
80g skewer
175g innertube
160g rotor
990g wheel

rear - 2500g
545g tyre
120g skewer
175g innertube
160g rotor
350g cassette
1150g wheel

That adds up to the quoted numbers above, you certainly won't save a kilo unless you're really using some cheap bits, all the numbers I've guessed at are fairly average numbers I'd imagine you'll save 200-300g or so max.

Edit: I was about to suggest the XT factory set there but realised it's rocketed up to £265 on Merlin now, still, even at that price there isn't much that competes with it for weight.

adb1006

Toasty wrote:

Edit: I was about to suggest the XT factory set there but realised it's rocketed up to £265 on Merlin now, still, even at that price there isn't much that competes with it for weight.

Bloody hell! Glad i got them for £195 a couple of weeks ago when you recommended them to me 8)