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Looking for some new 29er wheels or maybe just rims and looking for the stiffest possible option!
I'm not a big wheel expert but my 3 main questions are:
Is there any alloy rim that can get close to the stiffness of carbon?
If it is to be Carbon i can't afford ENVE's but LB might be an option - If I ordered rims only how much would a reasonable LBS charge to build them on my current hubs?
Will spokes be a major factor in stiffness?
Current set up is Easton ARC27 rims and DT350 hubs, unsure of spokes...
From my understanding there's lots of hi spec alloy rims around for similar prices to lb carbon rims.
Lb offer rims only or fully built wheels on limited hubs, novatech or hope were the hub options when I bought from them.
If you want a particular hubset then you can ship hubs to them for the build or just buy the rims and have them built up locally.
If you do go carbon, it might be worth the weight penalty to go with brass nipples rather than alloy nipples, but that's a whole other discussion.
Spoke count is important, if in doubt just get 32 per wheel. You could go lower if your an expert level whippet who's 9 stone wet through.
I have a set of LB 38mm, Tune King /Kong hubs (15mm/142x12mm), 32 Sapim CX-Ray spokes, built by a skilled wheel builder and they are incredibly stiff.
My wheel builder said this was the stiffest 29er wheelset and he has built close to 59 sets. Interestingly, he said these LB rims were very good at keeping a consistent spoke tension.
[btw, these will be advertised in the sale section very soon]
Any other options worth looking at aside from LB?
My wheel builder said this was the stiffest 29er wheelset and he has built close to 59 sets
54,55,56,57,58?
My wheel builder said this was the stiffest 29er wheelset and he has built close to 59 sets
54,55,56,57,58?
Made me laugh there dirtyrider!
Anyone used the DT ex471 rims in 29er size? look like they could be pretty stiff/strong?
I've got lb 35mm on 32 hole Hope pro 2s with DT supercomps. Cost 600 all in built by lbs, 1700g. Can't imagine wanting anything stiffer for my level of riding, 18 months old now and other than one snapped nipple they've been faultless.
Good spot. Typing on your mobile ends up funny sometimes 🙂
Slight hijack sorry!
Got some AR27 wheels coming, why are you shifting yours mate?
Any reason why you want the stiffest possible ? They might end up heavy and harsh !!!
Lots of Rampage riders used Hope Tech Enduro rims.
LB rims build up very nicely build around 40 pairs of LB rims now for people and quality to weight/price is very high. As to costs around £25 per wheel labour plus spokes is the reasonable going rate.
Halo vapours are a good 29er Alloy rims and what I'm running at mo on white industries M16 hubs built with DT Swiss DB 2-1.8-2.0 in silver they aren't the lightest by a long way but robust and roll very well and track perfectly for my Suffolk/Norfolk trail/adventure pack riding.
I have light bike 38mm rims and very impressed with them so far. I also had a set of Velocity P35 (now called Blunt I think) built by justridningalong and they were equally stiff. The light bikes feel significantly quicker/easier to accelerate though and interestingly the wheel builder seems to have built them up with a noticeably lower spoke tension than JRA did with the velocity wheels. Whatever the impact of that is, they're the nicest set of wheels i've ridden.
Not sure stiffness makes much of a difference though, don't Barel and Voulliouz swear by wheel flex? Either way, biggest impact for me was going to the wider rim over the flow before it. Maybe i'm lazy at leaning the bike over but the tyre profile from the wider rim feels much nicer to ride.
[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/which-29er-rim-1 ]Similar thread here from a couple days ago..[/url]
DT Swiss XM 481 on Pro II front and back come in at £440 from justridingalong.com
The XM 481 rim only weighs 490g and is 30mm internal width!
Best value ali wide rim I've found. I'm ordering these next month.
Thanks Cokie - I actually posted on that thread because I think my current rims are decent.
The reason I am looking for the stiffest is that I am having trouble with tyre rub on the rear. I've scaled down the tyre and it's still there so the next option to look at is wheel flex to see if that's the culprit and if not then then maybe it's frame flex.
Ah, got it!
I've got a similar issue. My Whyte T129 SCR has very tight spacing in the back. A 2.2 Beaver just about squeezes in. I'm running Roam 40 wheels and under really hard cornering the tyre buzzes the chainstay.
Out of curiosity, what bike is it?
It's a Transition Smuggler Cokie. Same as the Whyte in a way that the rear is tight under the chain stay bridge but the problem I'm having seems to be rubbing the stays themselves….
Those rims look pretty beefy and certainly wide enough so can't see the rim deflecting on its own. Who built them? As mentioned above when JustRidingAlong built my various 29er rims the spoke tension was noticeably higher than on my hope hoops with flows and a lot higher than the current LBs. This was with both the p35/Blunt wheels and the Dually. Presumably done to stop the wheel flexing.