New wheelset help needed!

Hi,

I want to buy a new "road wheelset" for my gravel bike which currently runs 650b wheels and has 50mm tyres on.
The idea being to swap out the wheels depending on what terrain I'm planning on riding on, bigger wheels thinners tyres for road, smaller wheels fat tyres for gravel/off road....
I thought if I buy a set of 700c/29er wheels, buy a second cassette that is the same as is on the bike currently, match the disc brake rotors and axle type and I'd be away.
Looking around on the internet for wheel sets that match all of the specs that I have currently is proving really challenging.

Of the the sets I've looked at either the axle type is wrong, the dimensions of the axle are wrong, the hub type is not compatible etc.
I'm sure it can't be this hard to buy some suitable wheels, so I'm convinced be searching for the wrong thing at this point.

I need some advice please if possible, on where to look and what to search for in terms of criteria.

My bike is a Vitus Substance VRS 2019, and the spec of the 650b wheelset is:

Cassette - SRAM XG 1150 11-42T 11 speed (no issue finding that online)
Hub rear - Alex Bear Pawls XD Driver (assuming a compatible XD driver body can be bought separately if not installed on the wheel already?)
Hub front - Alex Bear Pawls (as above)
Axle R (thru axle) - 161mm /12mm thread/ thread pitch M12*P1.5 (cannot find any wheelsets that quote these axle figures)
Axle F (thru axle) - 120mm /14mm thread / thread pitch M12*P1.5 (cannot find any wheelsets that quote these axle figures)
Rotors - 6 bolt SRAM centreline 160

It's likely that the tyres I'll be running will by no smaller than 35mm wide, which is why I've also been looking at 29" MTB wheels, as I understand these rims are slightly wider than road specific rims.
If anyone can help point me in the direction of a 700c/29" wheel set that is likely to be compatible with the specs above then I'd be really grateful at this point

Thanks

Matt

Comments

  • me-109
    me-109 Posts: 1,915
    The through-axle thread and pitch is misleading because that is in 5he frame and irrelevant to the hub. The 12/14mm size is what you need. You will find it difficult to find 6-bolt disc hubs that are also through axle; Centerlock appears to have been adopted broadly but you'll need a second set of discs anyway (these just might cost more).

    Do you need the same spread of gears for the road? Could you cope with just a 36T first gear? That might open more options on cassettes. Also I think XG permits use of a 10T highest gear that you are not using now so maybe a standard Shimano/SRAM freehub would be fine, especially with an 11-36 cassette. Not sure if 11s 11-42 available that would work, as that might be into differences between road and mtb freehubs.