[Closed] Just riding Along wheels any experience of them

Good wheelbuilds. Last set (pacenti CL25 on xt hubs with sapim race spokes) came pre-taped with a much more durable tape than the usual stans too. Recommended.  Not had the britex hub though.

My Big Top has a pair of Stans Flows on American Classic hubs, lovely wheels and never needed touching since I've owned it.

Yep had two sets off them previously although it was a good couple of years ago (maybe 4 years ago) and they were bob on both customer service wise and the builds were spot on and never needed anything doing with them.

I have a set of Hope/Arch wheels that are 5 years old and not missed a beat.

no wheels to report on but met the guys at a show and was impressed by their sincere politeness.

I've had a few wheels from them and they've taken a beating on trail hardtails; Canfield Yelli Screamy and 2Souls QH. For reference I'm 100kg and a bit of an oaf when it comes to line choice. Two sets were built with Hope hubs and the last set on the Bitex. Nothing negative to say about the Bitex, performed as well as the Hope with riding through all weathers. It is a shame they have gone the route they have, albeit I suspect they didn't have much choice in the matter. As I say, nothing wrong with the Bitex but sometimes you just want something different. All their wheels came with a noticeably higher spoke tension than other wheels I've had built up which I suspect goes someway to their durability.

(I missed out the word "their" as in "pair of their Stans.. blah blah", if that wasn't obvious!)

Wish I'd got some instead of those el-cheapo planet x slightly-bent-spokes ones.

I’ve had a set of Snowpigs and a set of their old custom builds, both from before they moved to York and dropped a lot of stuff like full custom. Assuming their build quality hasn’t dropped I’d be perfectly happy to recommend.  I’m very happy with my own handbuilding but I’m avoiding ripping the non Boost hubs out of the customs as I don’t want to spoil the ‘magic’ even though I have no plans for non-Boost bikes going forward - make of that what you will!

I bought a pair of Stan's ZTE 35 rims built onto Pro 2 hubs in 2008. Much used and abused but never needed tensioning. I destroyed one in a big crash a year ago, but the other one is still going strong (and true)

I have a pair of their carbon trail dogs with bites hubs and they're great. No complaints from me and the customer service is excellent. Was a bit easier when they were just over the hill from me but you can't have it all I suppose.

My missus has a set of their JRA Traildogs on her hardtail.  She's had them about a year and had no problems.  I got some Hope Pro 4 Enduro at about the same time she got those which have done a similar mileage in the same conditions.  The Hope have needed new bearings in the freehub, but the JRA are still fine.

I bought some custom road wheels off them a few years ago and had no problems at all with the wheels - they're been awesome.

I went to buy off them again but they'd changed they're business model and were no longer doing custom builds. Shame, but I guess it wasn't working for them.

They were great when they built my Hope 4's laced to WTB Rims 2 years back. 2500 miles and still like new.

What's the deal with the Bitex hubs though these days? And are they any good? I'd not heard of them before. Are they no longer building with Hope as an option?

Got a Flow 29 on Pro 2 front, ridden in the Alps and a few times at BPW, as well as general trail riding. Just worked out from I got it in 2012! Still straight and true 🙂

From experience of running a Bitex hub I suspect they are no better or worse than Hope I have. They are however a lot cheaper. I assume they make huge volumes which are rebranded for the OEM market. That said I still buy Hope as I like supporting the UK manufacturers and I have no complaints against their product.

i had a set of i9 wheels, that lasted forever. Jon who runs the place seems a great guy and is always helpful

Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole after my experience with them.

Ordered wheels, supposedly parts all in stock, chased up 3 weeks later, no reply. Left it another week then chased them up again "oh we have been waiting for the hub, just arrived today blah bollocks blah". Chased them up again two weeks later, "oh we will despatch them today". They turned up 8 days after that, having not been actually despatched till 3 days after they said "today".

Then I found they had built them with the wrong hub axle, so contacted them about it and they said they would send the parts so I could swap them out myself (hope hubs) they never did, I ended up having to buy them elsewhere.

Bunch of ****ing amateurish clowns playing at running a business.

Same here - wouldn't use again - different reasons.

Front wheel buckled after a few months so much it couldn't be straightened with spoke tensions. Had to buy a new rim and get it re-built. Made sure I then had the rear properly tensioned.

Also the freehub body bearings failed after 5 months - Hope Pro4 - had to buy new ones, they weren't interested in even selling me replacements at cost, sent them pictures and all, claimed I might have jet washed them - which I hadn't and how does that explain any water getting to the INSIDE bearing, has it magically travelled through the outer one ?.

Unhelpful clowns, fitted the replacements which are still fine 18 months later. Should have been warrantied as bearings defective.

claimed I might have jet washed them – which I hadn’t and how does that explain any water getting to the INSIDE bearing, has it magically travelled through the outer one ?.

I'm confused .So how are you saying it got there? That it was there since it was built?

I've had a set of their jawbones on the road bike for a few years now. Bust one in a crash and found the original order and repair service to be really good. Wheel builds were good and the hubs have held up well

Well alot more replies than i was expecting!!!

Mmm still undecided hope enduro's are cheaper and as some say UK made but there much heavier than stans Arch with britex hub. How are the latest 27.5 stans arch like for getting tyres on and off still a Ba"%$£d?

I've known John on and off since they lived in the Surrey Hills. Bought loads of bits from them over the years and have a couple of sets of road wheels from them (pacenti rims, bitex hubs) which have been faultless.

He builds wheels super tight, and talking to him a while back when I was collecting stuff, he said he was having a lot of issues with the bearings falling out of Hope hubs due to sloppy tolerancing and the spoke tension stretching the shells a gnats too far.

I think he is a wee bit "on the spectrum ", so while I've never had a problem, I can well believe that if you manage to rub him up the wrong way, it'll cause a bigger issue than it should.

On the whole though, pissed off they've moved to York, as it was a nice ride to collect bits from him in Oughtibridge

<<edit>> you'll get a much better build from JRA than Hope. I've seen a good few Hope Hoops go squiffy after a short period of time

I've been happy with my Stans flow mk3 on bitex hubs and sapim spokes. They have done me well since I got them in August.

Also been buying wheels from Jon since they were in Dorking and always has great service and no issues with their builds.

Currently on their 29er Arch/Bitex set which seem very nice and lots of hub adapatability options.

So ive narrowed my search down to two wheel sets from JRA: Stans Arch build or a WTB i29 build.

Im just trying to figure out which is better or suitable for my frame (Width/clearance).  ??

Thoughts people??

On some of the reviews above, the thing to note is they changed from being a general wheel builder to specialising in their own hubs & wheels and otherwise a limited selection of other brands to build from.

I dropped them as wheel builder in favour of PT Cycles who offer what I want (DT hubs and rims in the main), as JRA doesn't any more.

Still, the service was fine enough when I used them and the Stans rims on DT hubs at the time were/are bomb proof. Just pretty long queue for builds.

Personally, I've found the WTB rims to be easily damaged, so i'd go for the Stans.

Ali rims come in either 6000 series or 7000 series.

Pretty much anything in 6000 series will be softer.

In this regard, I doubt wtb will be any different than stans.

Had Arch MK3's on Pro 4's for 18 months and they have been faultless, didn't have them built by JRA but from what I've heard they know how to build a set of wheels so I wouldn't be worried. The Arch MK3's are really nice rims, tough, easy to set up tubeless and every Maxxis tyre I've fitted has gone on with minimal fuss, think I've had to resort to a tyre lever once, though that was probably due to me being a rush than anything to do with the rim/tyre. Can't fault them really they are just good, solid and light rims, mine came to just over 1.7kg for the pair, so a lot, lot lighter than Hope's own Enduro wheels, which are just narrow, heavy, a pain in the arse to setup and the rims aren't even that tough. The WTB's are also pretty heavy unless you go for the KOM's but again, I've heard reports they are pretty soft. Generally I'd say if you go for Stan's or DT rims with Hope or DT hubs you won't go too far wrong!

UPDATE!

So i order the stans arch rim and will hopefully be with me for the bank holiday 😉 Just got to choose some new tyres!!!

Any ideas, bridleways (road sections in between), few trail centres (Dalby, sherwood pines Guisburn) a year but mostly in the flat/wolds in East yorkshire. Initial thoughts area Maxxis F HR11 R Ardent. I curretnly run Spesh F GC R Fast track but find the GC a little wallowey. I have been running fast track for yrs!!