DT Swiss Wheels: Off-the-peg vs Custom?

Have a look on slam 69 site. They are doing Hope pro 4s with ex 511 with 15% off today £488 for F&R

I picked up the older 240's last month for £270/pair. Biketart had one rear microspline boost and I got the front off Pinkbike. Rims I went XM481f and EX471r for around £75 an end and I think my LBS will do spokes and build for around £100 the pair, so £520 all in.

I suspect if you aren't in a rush you could get the 350's on Dt Rims for sub £500.

Personally I’d go handbuilt with j bend spokes. Easier to get replacements if you break one and on an mtb I’d prefer to run 32 spokes for the very small weight penalty.

Functionally the 240 and 350 are the same - just I think the 240 has more weight machined out of it. Can’t go wrong with either - and Fitwheels are ok - a mate had wheels built by them a few years ago and they’ve been perfect (xm481 on 350s).

Also worth keeping a close eye on fleabay as I picked up some EXC1200 for a really good price and in excellent order for much cheapness last summer :/

Depends on your need / timing.

James

I know you weren't asking for recommendations for other wheels... but I was about to purchase the same builds as you before I took a punt on Hunt's TrailWide set (£300 for a set atm). Just as light as XM481/350 combo, but way cheaper. I'm so impressed by them - even after a very hard day at Dyfi bike park last weekend.

I kept an eye on ebay and got some DT 370 + 36t LN ratchet XD freehub with Raceface ARC30 rims taken off a new Santa Cruz build for £300 directly from a shop. So if you're less fussy about the exact hub/rim then there are bargains to be found.

Only downside is they're 28h. I've no qualms over their strength but it's an irritation when it eventually comes to rebuilding them as I've always found it a PITA to build lightweight 28 rims (Stans in particular IME don't allow you enough spoke tension to build a stiff enough wheel). In retrospect I'd have waited for a pair of 32h to come up (or there's the guy in Poland who does 350's for ~£400).

If you want an actual bargain though, just buy some Novatec hubs, spokes and rims of your choice and build them yourself. Because lets be honest, in use there is no difference between hubs. No one make a 64t Novatec hub slip, so a 36t DT ratchet is just academically better. And any questions on bearing durability are equally academic, the originals lasted > 1 year of hard riding, and the ceraminc/stainless hybrid replacements have yet to need replacing (and cost less than one tyre to do the whole bike with them). There's a threshold price for hubs below which yes they're a bit fragile and rubbish, but >£100/pair all it really seems to buy is bling and durability/performance well beyond what's necessary.

just buy some Bitex hubs, spokes and rims of your choice and build them yourself.

If you use (I.e. spend a lot) on Wiggle, they currently have a -17% discount on Hope Wheels.

So you can get a pair of Hope Fortus 30 SC Pro 5 hub wheels for £415.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/hope-fortus-30-sc-pro-5-rear-wheel-centre-lock
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/hope-fortus-30-sc-pro-5-front-wheel-centre-lock

Lighter & cheaper.... https://siltmtb.com/collections/discontinued-models/products/all-mountain-27-5?variant=42171215052853

just buy some Bitex hubs, spokes and rims of your choice and build them yourself.

Or Chosen, or KT, novatec just seem easier to find freehubs, end caps, etc if it's ever necessary.

I've owned three DT Swiss factory wheel builds over the years in various 350 / 240 hub flavours. All 28H / straightpull XC-light trail variety. Totally bombproof and all got sold on with the bikes they were fitted to, still straight and true and still on the original bearings after many thousands of miles of riding.

I've just had a Pro 4 front, boost with torque caps, built on to an XM 481, 32 DB spokes with brass nipples. On the digital kitchen scales, with no tape or valve, that was 973g. Not superlight by any stretch, but should be sturdy.

That doesn't help sourcing, but gives an idea of real life weights.

973g! I'd be pissed if the rear came up that heavy with a 29er rim.

I did think it was kinda "heavy", but where is the weight, its a stock rim, stock hub and decent spokes? I did weigh it as I'm sometimes sceptical of published weights. Faulty scales?

It is a 27.5

sure they used DB spokes?

Er no, maybe not now the weight is being queried. What would be the premium, weight wise, between light and heavy x 32? Or, how much too heavy are these?

Bit of googling

Rim - 490g
BD Spokes - 191g
Hub (non-torque) - 188g
Nipples - 32g

Total - 901g

So 73 g out of google figures, which could be torque caps? It's not miles out..

Absolutely nothing wrong with 28h by the way, it's not 2010. I'm still mostly on 32 but purely because that's the standard and where the most choice is and because all my hubs are older, if I was starting from scratch just about every wheel I own would be 28 except for the light ones Saving the weight of 4 spokes is pretty much always better than shaving grams out of the rim.

The DT wheelsets quite often have nice hubs with weight chiselled off to suit the built- you end up with what's basically a 240 or a 350 but slightly optimised. Which sounds great til it goes wrong and you have a 24h/28h straightpull hubset instead of an easier to reuse hub with proper spokes. So that's a plus and a minus. They also do the other thing, which is to make something that looks really good, but actually has stealthy downgrades and the hub is one of their cheapo ones and the spokes are comps where at the price or spec you might expect really nice ones. Which are still good parts, they're just not what should be in a wheel at that price.

Trouble is, their best hubs are basically the best you can buy. But they're so damn expensive. They'll last forever, or until some bastard invents 14.2mm rear axles... But you pay for it today, and the best hubs from competitors are also really, really good and can be much cheaper.

And the used option which used to be imo absolutely the best way to build a wheel- buy some old EX1750s for £100, throw the rim in the bin- got nicely nuked by boost. Almost as if that was what boost's for, isn't it? It certainly made brilliant cheap old kit obsolete far better than it added performance. Though even now, though, an old hub + adaptors can be a really good option.

I reused the hubs on my old EX1501 wheelset. No issues

So 73 g out of google figures, which could be torque caps? It’s not miles out..

Rim tape?

973g! I’d be pissed if the rear came up that heavy with a 29er rim.

Realistically though, sub 1kg rear wheels require some compromises these days. 1900g wheelsets mean 850-875g front and 1025-1050g rear wheels. And going lighter than that pretty much means carbon. Or weighing them in the kitchen without rim tape and valves rather than the real world.

And I say that as the owner of some 1300g aluminum wheels (including the QR's and tape) that everyone doubts the weight of!

Light Bicycles make great custom wheels for a great prices. I’ve a pair of enduros, DT Swiss hubs and UST rims.

Realistically though, sub 1kg rear wheels require some compromises these days.

Yeah that's fair. Current set I'm building is looking around 969g ,(28H 240 exp straight pull on ex481, alloy nips). Could get closer to 900g using race comp instead of normal comps however not sure that compromise is one I want on a bigger wheelset. The other set I
I've just built is 935g measured for the rear (350, 28H, Xm421, race comp, alloy nips). That hub is a bit heavier though.

I've got some fitwheels ex511/350s and an really happy with them. They've been flawless for the 2 years since I got them, in stark contrast to the very soft Hunts they replaced.

Weight wise my 29er rear wheel came in at 950g including tape and valve:
Stan's Arch MK4 (i28mm),
Bitex 211 with Shimano 11spd freehub,
Sapim CX Ray spokes and brass nipples.

Absolutely nothing wrong with 28h by the way, it’s not 2010. I’m still mostly on 32 but purely because that’s the standard and where the most choice is and because all my hubs are older, if I was starting from scratch just about every wheel I own would be 28 except for the light ones Saving the weight of 4 spokes is pretty much always better than shaving grams out of the rim.

Why would anyone want to save the weight of 4 spokes anywhere on an EX511?

Also have some Fitwheels, mine are 350 nubs with XM841 rims. Over two years old and still straight as. Front bearings just starting to grind but I’ll take that, certainly compared to the Hunt wheels I’ve previously had that were poor quality.

Will there be Tax/Duty etc if ordering a pair of wheels from Fitwheels?
Seems their in Poland

What size are you needing?

I’ve got a pair of hand built DT Swiss 481 (or 471, I can never remember) on Pro 4 hubs with about six months use going spare. Non boost hubs original,y but with Hopes official spacer kit on the front. All dished properly and the back just needs a spacer to be Boost.

Not a clue what they’re worth, they were built to solve a specific problem for me to allow a new Boost fork on an older non Boost frame.

hainman
Free Member
Will there be Tax/Duty etc if ordering a pair of wheels from Fitwheels?

There will be. Even after factoring that in you can still get a very good deal, and some lucky buggers (not me) managed to even skip past the tax man on the way into the country!

Stealth ad

I have a pair of new 29 DT Swiss EX511 rims built on DT Swiss350 boost hubs that were a spare pair for my daughters race bike but were never needed and have never been fitted. They have a XD driver. Looking for £400 + postage

Some good info here, cheers. Im thinking perhaps I should save money and go for 350 hubs, and roll the Brexit dice with Poland.

Tracey those would be perfect. Do you do them in 27.5 please? D’Oh.

Jamesmio- not looking for non Boost I’m afraid.

DT240s on EX511 from https://www.fun-works.com/ came in cheaper than the equivalent DT Swiss wheelset this time last year, even after tax and duty.

Buy a wheel set if you're getting a sale bargain but custom build with J bend spokes if you're paying full price.

No worries chap (they're technically half boost until I buy the spacer for the rear). 27.5's as well.... 😉