DT Swiss or DT Cheese?

ashleymp777

Is it me or are DT Swiss rims made of cheese?

I had a new bike built a couple of months ago and spec'd it with DT Swiss 4.2 rims. After every ride I noticed another dent/bend in them. Now I'm not a particularly heavy rider and I do my best to pick the cleanest, smoothest line, so I'm not hard on the wheels.

I'm told by the shop who built it that DT Swiss rims are manufactured so that if you do hit a root/rut etc. hard the rim will bend rather cause a snake bite. Which is news to me as iwouldn't have asked for them otherwise.

Has anyone else had this experience with them? I'm certainly going to be getting rid of them for a better alternative.

benpinnick

Ive been running 4.2s for a year or so, and have no problems. Ridden them all over the south / Wales. The story about rims being designed to bend sounds fairly tenuous to me. What pressure are you running in your tyres?

NatoED

i got DT 540 and no problem even after jumping with them . thinking of going down to 420's to save more weight on my XC bike.

njee20

DT rims are notoriously easy to bend, calling it a design feature is twaddle though! Stan's rims for XC (and other disciplines) all the way.

sniper68

I'm 14 stone and abused a pair of DT4.2 for 2 years in the Peak/Lake District,Wales and Scotland riding mainly technical rocky stuff and apart from scratches etc they're fine.I had to have the rear trued once.
I've replaced them with the EX500s but they're in the garage as spares.
From personal experience I don't think they're easy to bend at all.

peter413

I had a set of X455 rims on Deore hubs and they were great. I went through a stage when I kept knocking them out of true but I also went and broke plenty of other things during that time but since then, I haven't had to touch them, I only don't use them because the rims are too narrow for the tyres I use (2.5's) and the rear hub exploded.

So no, I wouldn't say all DT rims are cheese since I'm not exactly light and I have shown weakness in supposedly stronger wheels. Goes to show that a good build is the best thing for a strong wheel

Where are my stabilisers?

I've got 5.1's and I've had problems with the rear since day one with spokes coming loose. I don't know if it's a one off or not, but I ride the same on different wheels and have never had a problem, so I probably wont buy DT Swiss again.

Steve_b77

I've got a set of Hope hoops with DT5.1's and they're as true and straight as the day I got them, also ding free.

My mate has a set of Hope hoops with DT4.2's on them and he's not exactly a careful rider, after 2 years of constant hammering on both an Inbred and an Orange 5 they too are ding free.

There must be some clumsy a$$ riders out there IMHO

Raymondavalon

Steve_b77 wrote:

There must be some clumsy a$$ riders out there IMHO

Amen....

V5ade

I've got a pair of 2 year old Hope hoops with 4.2's and they are still straight and true, however the DT420 rims that came on my 2010 Stumpy are long dead! They were rubbish. I wonder if there is a different grade for OEM and retail?

bike-a-swan

3.5ish years and counting for my rear dt4.2 rim. I am on my third front rim in the dame time, but I challenge anything to survive what I did to those- bent the wheels rather than the rims...

I've had a few dents here and there, but nothing excessive.

Anonymous

I'm told by the shop who built it that DT Swiss rims are manufactured so that if you do hit a root/rut etc. hard the rim will bend rather cause a snake bite. Which is news to me as iwouldn't have asked for them otherwise.

That sounds like complete bollocks to me. I'd rather have to replace a inner tube than a rim, and even then I'm sure the rim isn't softer than a inner tube so you'd get a pinch flat anyway.

When buying my wheels I stayed away from DT Swiss rims after hearing similar stories to yours.

I got stand Arch in the end and running tubeless pinch flats aren't a problem. They are also tough as hell, blowing the tyre completely off the rim once only left a slight scratch in the rim where it hit the tarmac, certainly no dent.

peter413

RichardSwt wrote:

blowing the tyre completely off the rim once only left a slight scratch in the rim where it hit the tarmac, certainly no dent.

And thats not a reason to stay away from them :shock:

Anonymous

peter413 wrote:

RichardSwt wrote:

blowing the tyre completely off the rim once only left a slight scratch in the rim where it hit the tarmac, certainly no dent.

And thats not a reason to stay away from them :shock:

Was my own fault, was running a too soft tyre at far too high pressure. I landed very squiffy from a jump and BANG, made quite a pop.

cat_with_no_tail

Yep, I had the EX1750s which are billed as an "enduro" wheelset, and they were covered in dings in no time at all.

To be fair though, although the rims dented very easily, they never even went so much as a fraction of a mm out of true in over a year of hard use including DH races. So they are very well put together.

DT hubs remain the best hubs I've ever used. But I think that next time I'll stick some different rims. Maybe stans.

Mark_K

Nearly 2 years on my 4.2 rims on DT240 hubs and not had to touch them once ! I'm 12.5 stone and they are on my EX9 so they have been all over wales and other trail centers and i'm not the most gracefull rider imo ! Great wheel set i'd buy again !

ashleymp777

So strange how there's a mix of people who's DT rims have been absolutely fine and others who have suffered like me.

I've now arranaged to have a look at some Stans rims with the view to having them put on very soon.

joshtp

420's are quite light rims.... But I think they are a little cheesy anyways....


I'm gonna go Stans in the future....

Steve_b77

Yep, I had the EX1750s which are billed as an "enduro" wheelset, and they were covered in dings in no time at all.

To be fair though, although the rims dented very easily, they never even went so much as a fraction of a mm out of true in over a year of hard use including DH races.

There's your problem, Enduro Wheels used for DH racing, wonder why they got a bit dented