Wheel Upgrade

hainman

So im looking at upgrading my wheels from stock Giant hubs on dt swiss 456d rims to Hope hubs but unsure what rims to go for,Merlin are doing some wheel deals at the mo but dont want to buy the wrong ones,mostly ride natural rocky,rooty stuff with 3ft ish drops plus trail centres,I ride a giant reign 2,

Cheers

Craig

rapid_donkey

How much do you weigh? If I remember correctly, the mavic xm719 is one of merlins options, they are good strong rims. Ive been using them for over a year of trail centre and peaks abuse and theyve been fine.

hainman

im probably 11-11 1/2 fully loaded,been suggested to me about the ZTR rims.

lawman

Pro2's or Superstar Tesla's on Arch Ex's.

jonnyashworth

Personally I would go down the route of a stans flow rim. They are light, strong, pretty wide, and easy to setup tubeless. With regards the hubs...... The new hope pro 2 evo looks lovely with its straight pull spoke setup. I ride the old Hope pro 3 AM hubs and they are great but the new Pro 2 EVO is 6 bolt so you can use your existing rotors or a nice set of floating rotors.

Other than that... the superstar telsa hubs look good and are cracking value.

dhooper7

Stan's Flow EX

supersonic

What do you want from the upgrade? More strength, stiffness, lighter weight or all three?

njee20

I'd go Crests rather than Flows or Flow Ex, the latter particularly are a big, burly rim - designed for DH stuff really, rather than XC. Depends if you want strength or lightweight though.

cycleclinic

Velocity Blunt SL is a light 29er rim or wait until Febuary when Ryde are releasing there new 29er rims. These are light and alot stiffer than the current super light Edge MC1 rims. They will be called Trace Enduro or Trace trail (there are two) Stan's are fine especially if you want to run tubless.

lostboysaint

Stans Flow or Mavic EN521.

njee20

thecycleclinic wrote:

Velocity Blunt SL is a light 29er rim or wait until Febuary when Ryde are releasing there new 29er rims. These are light and alot stiffer than the current super light Edge MC1 rims. They will be called Trace Enduro or Trace trail (there are two) Stan's are fine especially if you want to run tubless.

We've pretty much all assumed 26", some clarity from the OP required...?

tarbot18

If your not intending to go tubeless dont go down the stans route absolute pig to change a puncture or swap tyres plus the crests arent very strong for drops etc i managed to wreck a rim on my 29er .
Ive changed to hope pro2 s on mavic xm319 rims good strong lightish wheels.

njee20

Depends entirely on your tyres. Stan's rims are significantly lighter than Mavics, which IMO are very outdated. I'd not use Mavic rims again in a hurry, tubes or not.

Strength will depend significantly on your abilities - landing smoothly you'll be fine on the lighter rims. Equally landing badly could pringle a tougher rim. If you're not hard on kit (and value weight) then I'd say the Crest will be adequate, if neither of those apply then perhaps consider the Arch Ex/Flow.

hainman

Yes,26" wheels,if i can shave some weight then great but strenght would be a good starting point,been pointed in direction of the hope hub with stans or arch rims from merlin but im going to pop up to Wheelcraft tomorrow and see the Master builder Big Al and see what he says,plus its local so if any probs he would be able to sort there and then instead of having to send them back,
Cheers for your help though guys,

cwmboyo

if you want a good bargain get superstar with a good Mavic rim, hubs suppose to be easy to service and just as good or even better than Hope.

or you can grab a nice set of Mavic crossmax

supersonic

I'd keep what you have to be honest.

hainman

Cheers Supersonic,Just wasnt sure if they were any good not to fussed about tubeless so no need for anything to fancy,

lawman

Imo you should always have the best wheels you can afford. The stock Giant wheels will likely be pretty heavy and upgrading them would make a big difference. I've used Stan's crests for the last two and half years and they have been practically faultless, I weigh about the same as you and have a similar kind of bike and it's only really recently I've started doing uplifts and DH trails on them that they've really complained, in the time I've had them I've only touched them with a spoke key once after putting a nice ding in the rim at Antor Stiniog, but that's really pushing them abit far far beyond what they're intended for. If you're smooth and not going to abuse them too much, they'd suit you very well and would drop a lot of weight from your current setup. Superstar have a great deal on with their Switch hubs on Crest's for £180 atm, absolute bargain for a very good, reliable and light wheelset

hainman

so i went to get my wheel trues earlier by the master Big Al at wheelcraft and he said ride what i have till they die and go see him and he will build me a bombproof set of wheel,Nice to see someone who isnt in it to rip people off,just likes to give out free knowledge