Best XC Wheelset for around £200

ads77

Hi All,

I have a trek 6300 with avid 3 disc brakes. It comes with Bontrager Ranger rims and shimano basic hubs (which I have been told are very heavy!). I am looking to get some lighter wheels soon and was wondering if anybody had seen any good deals for a set of rims that would be a big step up from my current ones at around 200 or less.

Cheers.

Ad.

.blitz

IIRC Merlin do XC717s on XT hubs with DB spokes for £180-ish. There's not a great deal of difference in the weight of the hubs but there's a fair chunk of weight to be lost by using a lighter cassette.

Gwaredd

Used Mavic 321's or 717's or WTB Speed disc wheels with Hope Pro 2 hubs go from £120 - £180 on eBay.

eBay link Clicky Here

That's what my £200 would be going on.

peter413

Try this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/KitsConfirm.aspx?ModelID=2577 for 190 quid.

ads77

Thanks chaps.

Will these save me weight? Mavic 717's seem to crop up alot.

Ad.

.blitz

717s are a good choice for XC and lightweight trail riding. XM719s are wider, a little heavier and more suited to a bit of aggro.

You won't notice huge reductions in weight with a £200 pair of wheels but you could fit lightweight rim tapes, tubes and tyres and an XT cassette to make the most of them.

Almightydutch

I'm also after a wheel upgrade to my Spesh FSR XC, would this sort of upgrade be ok or do i really need £250+ to notice some lightness.

Steve_b77

£250 you've got Hope Hoops and that'll meet you're requirements.

Upto £200 personally I'd go for Mavic Cross rides, I have a set of the '09 wheels, ridden them hard for nigh on a year and they've been faultless.

The Spiderman

Your stock wheels are proabably circa 2-2100g a pair
XT withs 717s or Mavic Crossrides are 1900g ish so 100 to 200g saving
Fulcrum 5s are 1800g 200-300g saving
Hope Pro 2 with Stans 355 are 1700g ish. 300-400g saving

By comparison,if we look at tyres:

Say your existing tyres are 600g each swapping to a Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.1 Evo is 470 g a tye so theres a 260g saving to be had for £60.

Swap out your standard tubes which tend to be 160-180g each,for some lightweight 100g jobs and theres another 120-160g saved for around £20

Replace your Deore cassette for an XT for £45 and theres another 150g saving.......

ads77

Thanks Spiderman!

Dandy Dan 69

Hey, I was going to post a topic about Hope Hoops but i'll just put it in here if ads dosen't mind me high jacking his thread.

I'M GOING OUT OF MY MIND!

I'm going to get a pair of Hope's, but for the life of me I can't work out which ones to get.


I've got a 2008 ]Giant Trance 3.

http://www2.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bi ... tions_id=3

The vast majority of the time i'd describe my riding as cross country. For those who know it (which will probably be a few) the Red route would probably be the limit of the sort of riding I do. I don't do the jumps too much, but I would say I attack the downhill bits quite a bit. I'm 6 foot 1 andI weigh about 185ibs. However, I don't just do trail riding and enjoy going off on an explore on not such demanding terrain.

Since I've gone full suss I must admit to being a bit lazy when picking my lines and the rear takes the occasional knock on roots or rocks (For example, I did the red at Innerliethen the other day and the rear took a bit of a clattering on the last couple of sections with quite a few rocks on the trail). Both the Alex rims I have already have slight buckels in them.

I really want to try and save quite a bit of weight with this upgrade, but I don't want to get such a leightweight pair of wheels that I mash them soon.

My first question is Mavic 717 or Dt Swiss 4.1? I've done various trawls through this and other forums and can't make my mind up. Mavic's seem to be popular with riders, but I get the impression bike shops prefer DTs. Also, the Mavics have a higher rating on mtbr.com if that's worth anything?

My second qustrion is would it be sensible to put a sturdier rim on the rear given what i've described? I could go DT 4.1 on the front and 5.2 on the rear? Is that overkill?

The other option is the stans rims, but I've not got much interest in running tubeless and their site says that there are maximum pressure you can run and I tend to run quite high (I don't know what, I just pump them quite hard as I prefer the low rolling resistence as the bike is a bit of a pig on the flat.)

Any suggestions/help much appreciated. It may stop me going insane with thinking about what to do.

Pudseyp

With Spiderman on this..if the wheels work then stick with them, concentrate on the tyres, seatpost and bars...there are more cost effective ways of shedding weight !

supersonic

You can get XT on Stans rims and DB spokes for about 200 at Merlin - a good light wheelset for the money.

Stoo61

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/mountain-and-road-bike-wheels/special-offer-custom-bike-wheels/hope-pro11-mavic-xc717-xm719.html

How does this look?