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Son just trashed Sram roam wheel & needs to get replacements.
He's looking at the Hope Enduro pro 4?'s. Anyone have experience of them?
He's a good competitive enduro rider - so needs something that will stand up to that usage.
Coming from a family that went to a lot of downhill races - with a brother who was sponsored and competitive in the Junior and Youth cats - you will destroy rims on a fairly regular basis when racing competitively. They become wear items like tyres.
Learn to rebuild wheels, get a few spare rims and be prepared to rebuild your wheels every so often. Pro 4 hubs would be a good start as the hubs are great quality and suited to long term use with lots of different rims.
Whilst there is some variability in rim strength between manufacturers, it's generally a function of width vs weight. The heavier the rim, the more durable it will be and less competitive the bike will be.
Cheers for that.
Had a hope enduro pro 4 wheel running on the rear for half a year now, various races and a trip to antur stiniog later and the rim is fine. Hub may have some play though.
But, the hubs are incredibly easy to rebuild, spare parts are easy to come by as well. Never had an issue with Hope hubs personally.
I'd look at a custom build using the Hopes on either a DT EX 471 or 511 rim. They withstand the worst abuse, and will save you in the long run as the Enduro rim is not the toughest available.
EX471's
Had them built in February by Julies Cycles in Leicester (very good wheel builder). They've not need any attention at all, despite being abused on a regular basis (Bringewood, Bucknell, Antur Stiniong, Revolution Bike Park, BPW, Megavalanche, Morzine).
Have heard rim strikes numerous times and there are no dings (plenty of scrape marks though!). If I was riding Mavic or Stan's or Hope would have replaced the rims by now.
Cheers - he is prob going down route of custom build. He was going to get Stans Arch, but DT xm 481 rims are on offer by the wheel builder - any comments on those?
If he's riding enduro/dh, would strongly advise to go down the EX471 route, its what they are intended for. The XM481 is billed an an all mountain/trail rim.
My pro 4 is going back to Hope this week, as all the bearings have seized after 5 months.
Enduro rim seems good, more dent resistant than the Pacenti TL28 I had before and destroyed. Still got a few dings in in though (on a Trek Remedy as a do it all/mini dh bike). What Tom said sounds about right- for me I'm ok with a new rim every year or two for the weight saving etc of a full dh rim.
Buckled the whole wheel in a crash last week, but it was a big crash- think the bike landed sideways on a rock buckling the wheel and bending the rotor. Was still surprised as it thought it would have been fine!
I've ridden the hope tech enduro rims for ~10 months. They were great, until last week when I flattened one side of the bead walls. That was when I was running the rear at 28 PSI.
They were great until then! Now I question everything and every review I read on gear.
I've not found any rim stronger than the ex471, they are by far the strongest rims I've used, nothing comes close to fending off dings like the ex471 they are a superb rim
Thanks for all that - he has ordered Hope hubs & DT rims now.