You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Before I go for my default Hope/Stans combo. Any recommendations for fairly robust wheels? Duties include day rides by a talentless oik in the mountainous terrain. I tend not to leave the ground intentionally and if I do the wheels aren't usually the first thing to hit the ground.
£3-400 mark.
I'm becoming a big fan of WTB rims. Light weight for their width (and it's all about the width now).
Picked up a pair of DT Swiss Spline wheels for about £230. They come with tubeless tape and valves as well, which is nice. Initial impressions are good.
I just bought a pair from jra which use the wtb i29 rims. In your price range and you can customise colour to a degree as well.
I hunted far and wide for anything other than Hope/Stans, and at the 11th hour came across Easton Heists (same rim as the Arcs) at CRC with a huge discount .
I went for 27s (they offer 24mm / 27mm / 30mm internal width) and they give my Ardents a great shape.
Spare spokes included (one length fits both sides of hub), plus spare end caps for QR or Thru axle duty.
Under £200 for the pair at discounted rate, lighter than Hope/Stans, taped and ready to run tubeless, and look the absolute tits.
I did have to splash an extra £50 for the Shimano freehub (was £99, rip-off!), but at least I have the XD driver spare for when I ever make the switch to 12sp.
Pretty sure they had some boost sizes left last week...
If you do happen to go for them, they are also selling full replacement graphics sets for £2.99 (were £25!)
I did see those Easton wheels, only 24mm left which is a bit narrower than I'd have liked.
I found the ARC rims and WTB rims to be heavy compared with stans (on a mid sized rim)
27mm id ARC rim is 515g. Stans arch (26mm id) 453g. 25mm id WTB KOM rim is 465g