XC Wheels - Whyte 901

Tufty

I bought a Whyte 901 for my trail riding lifestyle but I have recently started to do a little XC racing on the side.
I am not very competitive but am hoping to improve in the near future.
I would like to try and make my bike a little more competitive itself but am struggling to find an area for improvement as its new and also everything works well. I have, however, considered investing in a set of wheels for race day that could be a bit lighter than my current trail set. I am not a light rider and relish technical trails and can brute my way through a lot of sections.
What would people recommend? I have been looking at several but am afraid I might go too light and just fold them under me (I weigh about 13-14 stone) Do I even need to change the wheels? Is there somewhere else my money could be better spent?
Any help would be appreciated. I have been looking around but just get confused

cooldad

And your current wheels are?

Tufty

http://whyte.bike/gb/models/trail/trail-hardtail-27-5-650b/901-2/

Just the standard wheels. Hubs are an alloy cup and cone affair from Whyte. Can be a bit of a nightmare to maintain but I am keeping on top of them and the rims are Whyte Trail 21 Offset Disc rim, 32 Hole

cooldad

Until you know what they weigh etc, you have no idea if you are buying lighter.

Tufty

Rear is 2020g and then its tyre at 680g (Maxxis Ardent race)
Front is 1300g and then the tyre at 700g (Maxxis Ardent)

So these would probably be a good upgrade without going for the SL http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/p/20471/mavic-crossmax-xl-pro-ltd-650b-wheelset

Chunkers1980

Seems like a lot of dosh for 200gs

Antm81

Do those weights include rotors or the cassette?

The crossmax isn't an XC wheelset plus Mavics use of proprietary parts make maintenance harder which puts me off.

Tufty

You make an interesting point. Yes my wheels were weighed with rotors and cassette so now the figures don't seem to radically different.
Any ideas how I can make my bike more competitive? I'm working pretty hard to drag myself from last position so it would be nice to get some help from my bike.

Antm81

Reducing the rotational mass is like you are trying to do would be good. You'll need to strip down your current wheelset to get a better idea on what you can save. Depending on conditions and how light you want to go, a lighter set of tyres may help.

For around the same weight as the crossmax you could look at the hope tech xc wheelset at about £340, hope hubs are easy to maintain plus no special spokes etc meaning parts are readily available. Not sure on weight but hope hubs with stans crest rims may be an option too.

Ferrals

I am/was in exaclty the same position. Bought a whyte 901 2014 model last Feb, quickly realised my main interest was xc racing and it wasnt the perfect choice for that.

One thing I've changed is spacing the travel down to 120mm to steepen the head angle a fraction as I found it too slack for xc. and it dropped the front end a touch (also put a flat bat on it to get front end lower again (I am short)

I've shaved a fair bit of weight off, got it to just over 10kg. Things I've done are:
Go 1 by 10: saves weight and I find it faster too
seatpost: the stock seatpost is about 380g (kitchen scales), i bought a thompson @ 190g
seatclamp: the stock QR is 70g, if you don't change your seatpost much you can get a bolt on clamp @ 5.5g from xcracer.com
stock saddle is heavy too.

re. wheels:
£675 can get a really nice set of wheels. might be better getting a custon built wheelset. My hubs died last november so I got a set from JRA. DT swiss 350 hubs (with ratchet upgrade) and ryde trace XC rims. THink they were about £400 quid. went tubeless with racing ralph / rocket ron combo. Shaved a significant amount off the wheels - pushing 1kg from memory

Tufty

Thanks for the assistance. I wanted to make the wheels lighter because this will have the biggest effect overall on the bike. I will look into getting something put together then compare it against some of the pre builts on the market. Looks like tubeless can save me some weight too.
I have been resisting the 1x set ups because when I trail ride I do love the granny ring for some of the ridiculous climbs I have to tackle. But maybe its the future

The Rookie

Changing the tyres will have a bigger effect for less money, and you'll drop rolling resistance as well, best bang for buck would be tyres and lighter weight tubes.

Wheel wise, you can go Hope and Crest as a good solid option, or look at getting some proper lightweights made up, if you're having a second set of wheels then I'd go tubeless, if your changing tyres a lot you may not want to. If you are having a second set of wheels then consider some lightweight discs as well such as Ashima or Alligator (can be had for around a fiver used), or the full braking surface A2Z are a good compromise if running one set of wheels.

1x10 with an expander, will save you about 350g and not loose you much in the way of gearing.

Tufty

You know when I was 16 I could have picked the parts for a set of wheels out of my head and priced them up. Now I just trawl around blindly guessing. I will speak to the chaps at my lbs