Budget 29er wheelset

amack23

Hi, I was looking for a 29er wheelset around £100 and came across these at merlin http://www.merlincycles.com/pair-deore- ... 74866.html

Would they be a solid buy? And I'm guessing they'd weigh slightly over 2kg

The Rookie

Erm, a fair bit more than slightly over, about 2.3Kg would be my guess

Rims are 525g, plain guage spokes so about 150g/w, nipples about 30g/w, front hub 304g, rear hub512g

benpinnick

yeah - these are using the same hubs, rouhgly similar spokes and a lighter rim - 2300g http://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-mt1 ... 77646.html

Suprisingly solid wheels though! The MT 55s are around the 2kg mark for your kind of money. Ive been knocking about on a set for a while now and they've been perfect, if a little narrow for my liking

amack23

Not such the bargain I first thought then. May have to up the budget slightly. Already have a hefty steel frame, would like to keep the wheels to 2kg or just under and have the option of running tubeless

peter413

WTB Frequency rims are cheap at CRC (£22.50 for i19's and £30.50 for i23's). Shouldn't be too difficult to build them up with some cheap hubs for under £100.

I built a pair of i19's into a 2090g wheelset using plain gauge spokes, cheapy Formula front hub and OEM Shimano RM35 rear hub. Basically really heavy hubs and spokes compared to others.

£30 will get you enough double butted ACI spokes for both wheels. That leaves you about £30 for some hubs. That should just get you some M525 hubs. They're heavy, especially the rear, but reliable and can take a beating. Spending a bit more will get you lighter hubs. SLX or XT should be a lot lighter for not much more.

amack23

Had a look on crc. Going by the stated weights, frequency rims on slx hubs, 1493g and just over £90..... That looks pretty good. Which spokes should I be looking at? and brass nipples?

peter413

Quoted weights are way off. The rims are 463g each.

ACI spokes are cheap. I usually use Sapim Race but they're more expensive.

The Rookie

peter413 wrote:

Quoted weights are way off. The rims are 463g each.

The quoted weight for a 26er rim is 470g, the quoted weight for a 29er is 525g.
from here http://www.wheelbuilder.com/stans-notub ... w-rim.html but Stans themselves quote even heavier
http://www.notubes.com/Flow-EX-Rims-C123.aspx

Are you really saying the 29er quoted weight is out by that much? Or have you mixed up the sizes? Stans rims usually come out a little under quoted (the right way round) but I can't see them being that far out!

peter413

The Rookie wrote:

peter413 wrote:

Quoted weights are way off. The rims are 463g each.

The quoted weight for a 26er rim is 470g, the quoted weight for a 29er is 525g.
from here http://www.wheelbuilder.com/stans-notub ... w-rim.html but Stans themselves quote even heavier
http://www.notubes.com/Flow-EX-Rims-C123.aspx

Are you really saying the 29er quoted weight is out by that much? Or have you mixed up the sizes? Stans rims usually come out a little under quoted (the right way round) but I can't see them being that far out!

I was talking about the Frequency i19's.

The Rookie

Well glad you made that clear!

This says not
http://bikescale.com/index.php?d=artyku ... 6&art=3836
so does
http://forums.mtbr.com/wheels-tires/wtb ... 62468.html

peter413

I was replying to the previous post which mentioned the Frequency rim claimed weight so it was pretty clear I think.

Both of those are the older rim using a different alloy. The rims on CRC are 2014. The exact same ones which I have and both weighed 463g.

amack23

Ok, so looking at i19 rims and xt hubs with dt Swiss competition spokes and brass nipples. Coming in at under £130. How do I work out the spoke length?

peter413

You'll need to use a spoke calculator. You'll need the rim ERD and the correct hub dimensions.

The Rookie

MEASURE the ERD, do not use manufacturers data, it is very often wrong!

DT Swiss' own spoke calculator is very good and you can take a nice screenshot of the data for posterity!