Stan's ZTR rims

dixonpj
dixonpj Posts: 75
edited March 2008 in MTB buying advice
What's the consensus on the various ZTR series rims? Reviews suggest they're exceptionally light, tough and air-tight, but two things bother me. First, the conventional spoke drillings, which mean rim tape is necessary to make them air tight. Given Stan's status as pioneers in tubeless technology, it seems perverse and a little primitive not to have followed Shimano and Mavic in attaching the spokes to elevated sections on the rim. Anyone know why they haven't?

Second, the decals - especially compared to Shimano XTR, which are smart, minimalist and laser embossed - look crude and amateurish. Are they any better in the flesh? I know function should take precedence over aesthetics, but I'm concerned that laced to a set of Tune King and Kong hubs, they're just going to look cheap. Any thoughts?

Comments

  • seen them and yes to be honest they do look cheap in the flesh, I think the conventional drilling has been done for weight saving.
  • rob cole
    rob cole Posts: 706
    we (freeborn) are the original Stans importer and have been selling their tubeless kits and rims for years...

    the rims have proven to be very tough, yet a good light weight and resistant to denting, the beadlock design of the cross section also makes inflating a stans setup much easier and make the tire less prone to roll under hard cornering

    the rims are drilled conventionally to allow wheelbuilders to use the highest quality butted spokes from DT Swiss, Sapim and Wheelsmith, and to allow easy replacement of broken or damaged spokes with conventional spokes, and there is a weight saving over a UST system

    one issue with bespoke systems like Mavic is you get locked into buying their replacement nipples or spokes (i.e. Deemax spokes are £2 each and often not available at all bike shops), if you've ever built a Mavic UST wheel its a considerable hassle to lace (2 sets of nipples)....takes way more time than building a conventional wheel

    building a Stans rim is the same as a conventional rim build, you can save weight using DT Swiss Revolution or other light double butted spokes and its really not a hassle to quickly install the yellow rim tape or run a roll of electrical tape round twice before mounting the Stans rim strip

    perhaps primitive but actually more practical and simple

    the stickers perhaps look cheap, but the rims are produced in much smaller quantities than Mavic or Sun and so they would rather save money on stickers than charging the customers more
    I use Stans on my freeride bike and have never had any problems with it
    check out my riding - www.robcole.co.uk Banshee Factory Team rider, Da Kine UK Team rider, www.freeborn.co.uk www.eshershore.com
  • roger-wp
    roger-wp Posts: 32
    I build lots of ZTR wheels and I've never had any issues with them. I mainly build for discerning customers many of which are racers and serious riders and if there were a problem I'd have known about it. In the USA the ZTR rims are hugely popular.

    There's little scope for re-inventing the wheel although the likes of Shimano and Mavic would like you to believe otherwise. The Stans approach just works (extremely well). The rims are light and strong and they run tubeless with the addition of 5g of Stan's Yellow tape and a tubeless valve.

    I think the rims look nice in semi-gloss black. I'm just building an Olympic with black Revolution, silver aluminium nipples onto Hope Pro2 Gunsmoke and it looks real nice. When I used to ride I normally took the stickers off whatever rims I was using making them look real mean and keeping people guessing!

    --
    Roger
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    As for re-inventing the wheel, how about the new CB wheels!
  • dixonpj
    dixonpj Posts: 75
    These?

    http://content.mtbr.com/TRP_14_317_4crx.aspx

    Any news on release date/price/weight/functionality? I think it's a fairly safe assumption they'll be tubeless compatible as standard. To my eyes, the rim profile looks a lot like Stan's (without the conventional spoke drilling, obviously).
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    Yeah, i like the nipples in the middle of the spoke, i hope they come in different colours like hope parts, oh and aren't rubbish.