All Mountain Wheelsets

Cocktailking

Hi

After some advice on all mountain wheelsets if anyone has bought any, what they like?

Wanted to keep the weight down but still be strong, so was thinking about:

Specialized Roval Traverse
Easton Havoc AM
Hope Hoops AM4
Any other ideas?

Cheers

ride_whenever

axle and budget?

Handbuilts are probably the best way to go, for really light and strong something from justriding along, maybe the industry nine hubs with stans flow or arch rims built up with some decent spokes or a bit cheaper a set of 719 on xt hubs with double butted spokes will be strong and fairly light.

toasty

My Metas wheels died yesterday so I treated myself to a new set, been pondering it for a while. Went for Pro IIs on Stans Flow rims with standard saw rotors in the end.

My logic was, the AM4 wheels seem bizarrely heavy going by the figures on the Hope site, I can only assume that rotor actually adds weight over the norm, rather than taking it away like the XC3's. Straight pull spokes are also a lot more awkward to replace should one explode randomly on a day out. Not to mention the Pro IIs on Flow came to sub £300 even with the 2x Hope saw rotors.

I did consider waiting for Traversees to come into the country, everywhere is sold out atm. I don't think I'd trust 24/28 spokes though, my XT 24/24 wheelset is pretty flexy and I'd certainly not want AM wheels like that.

After my recent stroke of luck with XT hubs I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, one had it's freewheel unscrew itself, seizing the wheel. The other's freewheel has totally knackered internally. Both within a year of being brand new, 2 different bikes.

One option would be getting some from http://www.wheelpro.co.uk, very reknown wheel builder. The Hope sets are pretty much unbeatable value so he gets them in, retentions them himself to his standard and sends them out. Hand built quality with factory prices.

Anonymous

ive got the traversee wheels on my enduro and think they are ace, even with my 19 odd stone bearing down on them, plus they look class, but are v pricey!!

toasty

Do you feel them squirming/flexing around over rough ground just out of interest? It was one of the fears that put me off (and I'm only 14 stone).

We've got a £185 voucher for the Specialized store I'm still sorely tempted for the Zaskar, even though I couldn't afford them until, err, August or something.

Anonymous

Toasty wrote:

Do you feel them squirming/flexing around over rough ground just out of interest? It was one of the fears that put me off (and I'm only 14 stone).

no, not at all to be honest. that said, ive never noticed any wheels as particularly flexy

to be fair though, they feel rock solid. the rim is very wide so there must be some strength there.

Cocktailking

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah was also thinking of building up a set on Pro II's, what are the Stan's Flow rims like, weight, can you use them with tubes as well as tubeless, not all my tyres are tubeless compatible!? The other option I was thinking of was Mavic 819 as can be used tubeless too and lighter than DT 5.1's?

Anyone got experience of DT Revolution (superlight!) spokes are they only for XC Racing or should I stick with DT Competition?

I had a look at the Traverse they are nice but worried about the straight pull issue and they are at the top of my price range!!

My budget is £300-£400!

Toasty my mate has just done in an XT rear hub after 4 months (he's not impressed!!!) had a minor off and now it has movement side to side I'm assuming the bearings have blown!??

toasty

The Stans Flows are more expensive rims than the normal DT Swiss options, they've had tons of good reviews. Weight wise they're also a good 30-50g lighter than 5.1s, putting them in between 4.2s and 5.1s, yet they still manage to come in wider than the 5.1s.

The rims can be run tubed or tubeless, if you want tubeless you need to tape them up with some Stan's yellow tape, by default they're just set up for tubes. It seemed like a no brainer, I've not heard a bad word about them.

I'd expect the wheelset to be about 1950g, I'll say when they come in very tough and easy to repair wheelset though.

Traversee's are lovely, miles lighter. The hubs are similar to 240s which come in about £350 alone for the pair, super comp spokes are another £70 or so. Really top end bits all round. I'd probably have considered some if Freeborn had them in stock now for £350 like they did last year.

toasty

Cocktailking wrote:

Toasty my mate has just done in an XT rear hub after 4 months (he's not impressed!!!) had a minor off and now it has movement side to side I'm assuming the bearings have blown!??

He might just have to tighten the cones up a bit and stick some grease in there. With a 17mm cone spanner and an allen key you can strip it down fully.

Mine's completely dead sadly, the freehub body has completely died meaning it can't freewheel at all. My other XT hub (on a different bike) managed to unscrew it's freewheel, squishing the bearings. I managed to fix it, it's not very reassuring though. 2 out of 2 have bitten the dust.

Kiwi Kranker

I have just had a set of Halo Freedoms built using DT spokes and the Halo Supa Drive rear hub and spin doctor front.

These fit your budget at around £350ish from your LBS or about £280 hand built from an online store. The pick up of the rear hub is nothing short of superb (fastest I have ever ridden) and the wheels are stiff and from all accounts bomb proof. I have only had them 3-4 weeks but I am stoked with them.

The weight is middle of the range I think mine came in at around 1900g-ish (Supa Drive rear hub saves a bit) for the pair and they are nice and wide at 28mm. I use them on both my main bikes as the front hub is a doddle to change from QR to a 20mm.

Oh and both hubs use cartridge bearings so no messing around with cones etc

Well worth a look at

toasty

Kiwi Kranker wrote:

The weight is middle of the range I think mine came in at around 1900g-ish (Supa Drive rear hub saves a bit) for the pair and they are nice and wide at 28mm. I use them on both my main bikes as the front hub is a doddle to change from QR to a 20mm.

Really? Maybe I'm over estimating a bit with mine. The Flows rims are 150g lighter for the pair (28mm too). Pro II hubs are lighter at both ends as well.

Anonymous

Toasty wrote:

I'd expect the wheelset to be about 1950g, I'll say when they come in very tough and easy to repair wheelset though.

Traversee's are lovely, miles lighter. The hubs are similar to 240s which come in about £350 alone for the pair, super comp spokes are another £70 or so. Really top end bits all round. I'd probably have considered some if Freeborn had them in stock now for £350 like they did last year.

i got my traversee for about 360 and that was a bit of a bargain, i must have got one of the last sets in the country so was very lucky.

i ran pro2 on xm819 with db dt spokes and they weighed in at about 1950. all of the supposed wheel weights banded about tend to be bollock5 as adding up individual weights never seems to be accurate once you actually get the wheel in front of you. there was suggestion my pro2 wheelset would be closer to 1800g.

toasty

sheepsteeth wrote:

i ran pro2 on xm819 with db dt spokes and they weighed in at about 1950. all of the supposed wheel weights banded about tend to be bollock5 as adding up individual weights never seems to be accurate once you actually get the wheel in front of you. there was suggestion my pro2 wheelset would be closer to 1800g.

Yeah, I'm not going by claimed weights. 5.1Ds on Pro IIs on the scales are about 2050g. The Flows are about 50g lighter per end, literal on the scales weights (470g vs 520g). XM819s are about the same weight as Flows (without yellow tape).

Kiwi Kranker

Toasty wrote:

Kiwi Kranker wrote:

The weight is middle of the range I think mine came in at around 1900g-ish (Supa Drive rear hub saves a bit) for the pair and they are nice and wide at 28mm. I use them on both my main bikes as the front hub is a doddle to change from QR to a 20mm.

Really? Maybe I'm over estimating a bit with mine. The Flows rims are 150g lighter for the pair (28mm too). Pro II hubs are lighter at both ends as well.

I cant be sure with mine as me trying to weigh them is a bithit and miss with what I have at home. I know the come to about 2100g with a full spin doctor build and Halos choice of spokes according to the propoganda from them. Most likely is that even with the rear hub and lighter spokes mine will be above 2kg when weighed porperly

Cocktailking

Toasty wrote:

Yeah, I'm not going by claimed weights. 5.1Ds on Pro IIs on the scales are about 2050g. The Flows are about 50g lighter per end, literal on the scales weights (470g vs 520g). XM819s are about the same weight as Flows (without yellow tape).

Toasty when your wheels turn up would you be able to let me know the weights, I would be interested to know before I make a purchasing decision!!

toasty

Will do They've quoted 10 working days for delivery though, hopefully here before the weekend of the 16/17th.

toasty

Pro IIs + Stan's Flow rims + DT Comp Spokes:

F: 876g
R: 1006g

Sub 1900g actually on the scales, nice Over 150g lighter than 5.1D!

163g (180mm) + 135g (160mm) saw rotors + bolts, come in lighter than the XT centerlocks too actually (by about 20g). Combined with the 120g saved on the cassette, healthy chunk of weight lost here!

Clickity, clickity, clickity, clickity, ARGH.