XC717 vs Stan's Crest/Flow

Ghostt

Does anyone know how do these rims compare for strength vs weight? Buying a new wheelset for an All-Mountain build so want something that'll handle a fair bit of abuse, but ideally still lightweight. Thing is, I weigh under 10st with all my riding kit, so I'm thinking the XC717s (although a XC rim) will be plenty strong enough. Any ideas?

Chunkers1980

At that weight, you'll get away fine with an XC rim. I use Olympics and they've been fine even though I weigh over half of you again.

lawman

I would go crests personally, although the mavics are fine, the crests are lighter and stronger, and in my experience build into a similarly stiff wheelset. they can also be easily converted to tubeless. stans have the rim market pretty much sown up imo, their entire range is class-leading.

guity

Stans all the way, Crests should be fine at your weight. I think they (Crests') are lighter than 717s and the option of going tubeless should be enough to persuade you. I assume the 717's would be cheaper because they are about 10 years old but that is the only positive for them imo.

supersonic

717 are stiffer though, and IMO tougher. Also eyeletted.

Both would be good choices, but if riding harder I'd pick an Arch EX from Stans.

.blitz

Ghostt wrote:

Buying a new wheelset for an All-Mountain build so want something that'll handle a fair bit of abuse

Tacoed an XM719 the other week when the rear wheel came off the ground and I went sideways. Just for a moment all of my weight was sideways through the forks & front wheel IYKWIM. The rim wasn't just out-of-true it was well on its way to being '8' shaped.

Ghostt

Cheers for the replys. Should have mentioned I'm buying them as a wheelset from Superstar, despite the mixed reviews etc. I'm on a bit of a tight budget. Going to give the crests a go, they're only £20 more than 717s. Will probably experiment with tubeless too so Stan's will be handy. Time to get ordering, good thing it was payday on Monday!

bluechair84

Superstar build has been fine for me.

jairaj

Another fan of Stan's wheels and of Superstar.

My superstar wheels are coming upto 2 years old and I haven't had to touch them at all. They've stayed straight and the bearings are only now showing signs of wear.

Superstar also have a great after sales service too and have a very competitive crash replacement scheme.

nferrar

Key thing is what size tyres are you intending to run? If over 2.1's then a 717 or crest ID isn't going to give you an ideal tyre profile. If you want to run say a 2.4 front then I'd def go with a Flow personally

pilch

Another vote for superstar, great wheels at a cheap rice, always had excellent customer service with them too, I'd go with the Crests... i'm a few pounds heavier than you, thats what i'm running.

Ghostt

jairaj wrote:

...and have a very competitive crash replacement scheme.

That's good to know! Hopefully won't have to use it though.

nferrar wrote:

Key thing is what size tyres are you intending to run? If over 2.1's then a 717 or crest ID isn't going to give you an ideal tyre profile. If you want to run say a 2.4 front then I'd def go with a Flow personally

Yeah, I was thinking about this looking at the rim profiles last night (yeah I really had nothing better to do!) I'm not going to run anything bigger than a 2.3", being as light as I am (under 10st with gear!) there's no need. Then again, Flow's will cope with extra gnar...Think I'll go for Crests, if I trash them then at least rims are relatively cheap and it'll give me an excuse to learn to build them!

bluechair84

Everytime people start weighing up Crests and Flows, they don't realise there is the middle ground Arch...

widge34

I have the crests and do some pretty knarly stuff at times, I've had no problems with them, although I haven't had them long.