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I've picked up that an important upgrade for most entry to mid-level bikes are new wheels. Trouble is I'm not sure what would constitute an upgrade on my current set (Ryde Rival 21 on Shimano XT hubs). Obviously wider rims would have some advantages, but I guess then the weight's not going to come down that much unless I opt for carbon rims? Going from QR to 15mm would surely give a noticeable improvement, but would also involve a new fork. So I suppose the question might be: do I manage with what I've got for the time being, then upgrade the whole bike in one hit rather than trying to make marginal gains?
In the short term, if I opted for DT Swiss E512 rims on 350 hubs am I likely to be gaining anything significantly better than I already have?
What's your bike, what's your budget and do the current wheels feel heavy and hard to get moving?
Ghost Kato FS7 (2015). £350ish for the new wheels. Not particularly hard to get rolling, but I haven't got anything to compare against.
In my opinion E512 rims on 350 hubs would be a nice enduro wheelset but might even weigh more than your wheels and would probably be a bit burly for that bike.
How do you feel about the bike in general? What do you feel are its weaknesses? Do you get the feeling you're gonna end up upgrading to something else?
Thanks for the tips, sounds like I've gone a bit gnar on the rim selection. So would you say the 350 hubs are be likely to be any more responsive than the XTs or will they all be roughly the same?
I'm happy with the bike, it suits most of my riding. TBH it's biggest weakness thus far has been the rider. Consequently I'm not in a huge rush to upgrade the whole bike, but will probably try a couple of demo days next year to see if there are any bikes that would suit me better.
The other thing on my mind is I'm tempted to buy a second wheel set anyway, just so I don't have to keep swapping tyres every couple of weeks. Then I could have one set with lighter tyres for easier longer distance routes and a heavier duty set for trail centers and gnarly singletrack etc.