There always seems to be someone on here flogging the wheels off their brand new Giant.
As I might be in the market for a Giant soon just wondered if I need to factor new wheels into the budget.
Are the ones on an x1 better than an x4?
Nah they're good, assuming we're talking dirt not road as I know nothing about road. They're slightly heavy, but sealed cartridge bearings. 400-450g a pair heavier than Pro2/Crest overall.
Are the ones on an x1 better than an x4?
You would hope so, do they have different names? If so, yes.
The Giant wheels that came on my Defy are decent mid-range hoops and are doing a sterling job on my winter bike.
Ones on my Anthem have been fantastic so far. Apparently heavier than ones that cost more money...
They seem fine, just heavy.
Not normally too bothered about weight, upgrade stuff according to natural lifespan, but the X2s on my anthem 29er were laggardly. Getting shut of them became a priority.
Mine are my "trail centre" wheels, permantly mounted with rugged tyres for a Anthem 29er. With only 100mm suspension they've been battered.
Yes they are heavy, they've been reliable, and the mount up tubeless Ok, and are much cheaper than using my lightweight race tyres in a rock garden after a few beers.
Not sure with MTBs but with road bikes even the top end bikes (well not the £5K+ ones) have cheap wheels as the manufacturers seem to assume that they will be swapped out ASAP so why put decent wheels on them?
My Spesh Roubaix came with cheap stock Shimano wheels despite it being a £2K bike. I upgraded them to a mid-range wheel-set when the rims wore out.
With the number of Giant bikes sold I'd say that the numbers of OEM wheels for sale is actually quite small, it just appears that something is amiss.
Giant OEM wheels are actually pretty decent for their price - hubs made by DT Swiss (maybe not all).
Think they're being "swapped out" a lot simply because the Giant road bikes seem to be big sellers amongst aspirational sportive riders who convince themselves they need new wheels.
The wheels which came on my Giant Defy 1 were OK, however I managed to knock the tension out of them twice (100KG rider - no finesse) so recently splashed out on some Architype rims/Hope hubs.. I'm not convinced the Architypes were the greatest choice, as we've had some issues truing them up - although this might be due to a crap initial build - they've been OK since the wizards at my LBS looked at them.
However, my Giant wheels have been fine since I lent them to a mate, who is probably nearer 70kg.
So in short, Giant wheels may not be great for fat, clumsy blokes.
On my TCXAdv I have some std Giant wheels on it and TBH they've been bomb proof over the year I've owned it. They've taken a right hammering offroad and the bike went in recently for a service and they didn't need to do anything on the wheels at all, no spoke tightening/dishing nothing.. and I've done nearly 3500 miles on it.. Ok they're not the lightest but at 1700g's that's not too bad. I've looked at getting some new Mav's on that have just been released, the carbon jobbies, but I'm only going to save a couple of hundred grams.. seems hardly worth it apart from the appearance/bling factor.
So, I think the wheels are pretty darn good for 98% of riders.
The ones specced on the lower spec Reigns are great.....as downhill wheels....they weigh 2200g. Going to knock 700g just off my wheels by going to some LB carbon rims at DT swiss 240s!