Superstar wheels choice.

paulski1966

Looking at getting a new set of wheel for my steel 456 from Superstar for trail riding.

Narrowed down to Stans Crest (little worried about strength but light), Pacenti TL28s (Also a little worried about strength, but nice and light) or Silver Alex Supras (A bit blingy in the Silver though).
I'm about 15st in kit, so fairly heavy.

I know there is the Stans Flow - which I would go for but they have sold out of the black and cannot stand white wheels - I know its a tarts excuse, but there you go.

What would you guys go for.

bluechair84

I've both crests and flows. The flows are a superstar build on their evo hub and the crests on Hope ProII. I'm pretty light, but I'm very much and off-the-brakes rider. So, even the crests on the trail bike are given a tough life. Of course, any recomendations are entirely subjective and my 'gnarly' could be your smooth and boring sand track. But the crests have done very well through boulder fields and nasty descents. The flows are on the DH bike and resist the occassions when I hang up on drops and doubles (20+ footers). The crests are a strong rim for trail bikes. No doubts there. The flows remember are Stans DH rim.

felix.london

what's your budget?

Neal_

I've got their AM490 rims on Switch hubs and they've been great although they are quite heavy at 2.1kg and the bearings needed replacing after 6 months but have been great since on EZO bearings.

I'm planning on sticking the AM490 wheels on a hack bike and getting a set of Pacenti TL28 rims on Tesla hubs (£260) as they're same internal width (23mm) but loads lighter and better hubs with great SKF bearings. Wide rims are great for increased tyre volume, stability and traction so I wouldn't go narrower now which rules out the Crest as they're 21mm.

I'm guessing your budget is about £200 but if it were me I'd find an extra £60 and get Pacenti TL28 rims on Tesla hubs

jairaj

How heavy are you? and do you ride particularly aggressively? The Crests might be OK for you or how about the Arch EX? (no point going for the old Arch)

I have Crest rims on Superstar Evo hubs with Sapim double butted spokes. I weight 90Kg with all kit on and I've given my wheels a fair bashing over the few years I've had the wheel set. Ploughed through rock gardens on trips away in the Lakes and Peak district. Welsh trail centres and natural routes. Lots of small to medium sized drops, sometimes to flat. Technically I'm a bit too heavy for the Crests but they have been fine.

paulski1966

Cheers for the replies everyone.

what's your budget?

Around £200.

How heavy are you?

About 15 stone in kit.

and do you ride particularly aggressively?

Not massively no, been riding about a year so starting to ride faster and harder, but I'm 36 so don't see myself hucking off huge drops anytime soon. The idea with this bike is something pretty solid and simple but keeping an eye on weight as its a steel frame and i don't want a barge of a bike.

I'm planning on sticking the AM490 wheels on a hack bike and getting a set of Pacenti TL28 rims on Tesla hubs (£260) as they're same internal width (23mm) but loads lighter and better hubs with great SKF bearings. Wide rims are great for increased tyre volume, stability and traction so I wouldn't go narrower now which rules out the Crest as they're 21mm.

That was the main thing that appealed about the Pacentis - wider rim and eyelets so hopefully a bit harder going then the Crests but still light.

ianm7222

Same here I had superstar evo hubs with Crest rims on my Giant Anthem and now have Flow rims on my Cube Stereo.

The crests rims are incredibly light and also very stiff for XC rims, they replaced Mavic Crossride wheels, and transformed the bike. They take quite a battering too, I used them at Style Cop frequently (Cannock DH)

The Flow wheels (in white with white hubs) look amazing - they replaced sun ringle wheels and - have very wide rims and can take upto a 3.7" tyre, so it provides a wide base for the tyre which will roll less than if fitted with a narrow rim the width indicates their intended purpose. Similarly they transformed the bike in all situations.

I bought white, as i hate colourmatching everything that is anodised - who cares if collar and cuffs don't match when you having fun! Also the wheels contrast better on photos when in the air! :-)

The hubs are great and I've had no issues as yet.

I'm around 15.5 stone without kit!

sprite1275

I was in the same boat. My budget for wheels was £150 but i pushed for a set of the superstars and got the Flow in the end.
Really didnt want white and nearly kept pulling the trigger on a set of the black crest with red hubs but the strength part kept holding me back. I know that crest would suit my needs but i wanted these wheels to last me for atleast 5 or so years, so after going into my kitchen and holding a tub of coco powder which was 250g (difference in weight between the two) the weight penalty seemed worth the extra strength. After that i sat down with a cup of coco and bought the flows

If the flows were available in black i would of bought straight away but ended up reading every review & post about crests under the sun and the strength thing always comes up. Im well Chuffed with my white flows now and reckon they look pretty snazzy. Got a couple of pics in the carerra thread if you want to see what there like.

paulski1966

Yeah - I'm in the same place - if they were available in black I would have bought the flows by now.

Think I'm going to go for the Pacentis, seem a touch stronger then the crests, black and light. Hell if the worst comes to the absolute worse and i smash the rims into a mess I'll take advantage of the Superstar rebuild and pay for the flow rims.

rockmonkeysc

I would go for Mavic XM719's. Lighter than Stans Flows, more than strong enough for aggressive xc & all mountain riding and wide enough for 2.5" tyres. I have had a set for over a year on Superstar hubs. I was 17 stone when I first got them and I'm a fairly aggressive rider and mine are still pretty true with no dents or flat spots.

paulski1966

I would go for Mavic XM719's. Lighter than Stans Flows, more than strong enough for aggressive xc & all mountain riding and wide enough for 2.5" tyres. I have had a set for over a year on Superstar hubs. I was 17 stone when I first got them and I'm a fairly aggressive rider and mine are still pretty true with no dents or flat spots.

Well that's bloody confused things . Didn't even consider the Mavics tbh, think it was because they didn't shoew the weights - do you know what they like for going tubeless - are they like the stan's and pacenti's where they only need the rim tape or do they need a rim strip.

jumbo67

I'm about 75kg and have a set of Crests/switch evo on my steel On-One 456. I'd say I've given them a pretty hard time, blasting at speed through rock gardens, medium drops, medium size jumps and a few runs round my local dirt jump park. The front is perfect and the rear is good too, but I did have to tweak the spokes up a couple of times on the rear after the first couple of harsh rides. Nothing serious, just a quick 5 minute job. Since that they have been great, no issues at all and converting to tubeless with normal tyres was a breeze. I am a bit lighter than you so bear that in mind.

kja

I went for the XM719 rims with Switch hubs on my new Soul build. Had them a few weeks now and am very happy. Set them up 'ghetto' tubeless with split bmx tubes and they are fine. Much less faff than stans tape and valves etc.

jairaj

What?! How is ghetto tubeless easier than the stans system? With Stans you put some rim tape then a valve then put the tyre on with a splash of sealant? It's way more reliable and predictable than a makeshift system like ghetto tubeless.

step83

Ive a set of crests with the switch evo hubs. Im 85Kg and the bike in total is 13.2Kg Ive had no problems at all running them around. My usual trick of bouncing the front up an down to shake off some mud caused no issues. Ive gone tubless using the Stans kit. KJA I cant see why you went ghetto took me about 20 minutes to set it up tubeless.

kja

Been running ghetto for about 3 years now. Never ever had an issue. This is the third set of rims I've done it on. Takes about 10mins per wheel, if that, and is significantly cheaper than the stans kit.

jumbo67

When I went tubeless with the crests I got a roll of Gorilla tape from Homebase £2.99 made a single wrap round the rim with a few inches overlap. I cut out the valves from 2 old tubes (free) screwed the valves into the rim. Next mounted the tyres on the rim and pumped a like a mad thing until tyres popped on. Finally I popped the tyre off about 6 inches, poured the sealant in pumped the tyres up shook them, stuck them on the bike and have been running them no issues since December! Easy and cheap! £2.99 + sealant. That's not more expensive than ghetto is it? Even using the stans kit it would only cost the price of yellow tape and a couple of valves, less than £20

Anyway this is in danger of going off topic to an argument of which is better. Each to their own an all.

rapid_donkey

Last year I was looking at a Superstar wheelset and was split between the Mavic XM719 and the Crest Flows.

At the time I weighed about 85 kg's, and with the way I love smashing down berms and descents, I decided to go for the XM719 after reading the reviews online.

Im down to 80 Kg now, still thrash the bike about, and so far the wheels have been brilliant. They still run straight and true and made a noticeable difference to the bike when I fitted them. Superstar bearings seem to be quite pump, I have had the front wheel bearings replaced already. But a small price to pay when you consider the price of Superstars wheelsets.

If you go with the Stans, they actually list the Crest as a XC rim and Flow as an XC/AM rim. I would go for the Flows purely so you know you can get gnarly with it and not have to worry about damaging them.

http://www.notubes.com/ZTR-Rims-C18.aspx

Neal_

It's not just about the rim strength but the rim inner width. Mavic XM719 are 19mm inner width, Pacenti TL28 are 23mm inner width, get the TL28