Spare money for new shiny shiny!

Right,

I have managed to squirell away enough money from my little clearout to buy some rims for my wheel build. I am a fussy beggar though and cant totally decide on which one to go for, I am not all that clued up on rims and what benefits different joints etc have.

Thus far, this is looking to be a winner:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=71062

But its a Mavic and everyone has Mavics. Nowt wrong with them, but could I get better for the money? Requirements are 32 hole, rim brake compatible and black. Oh, and ideally no more than ~£40 per rim.

Any suggestions? I like the look of DT Swiss rims and ZTR seem nice, although I couldnt see many rim brake compatible ones. Are there better places to buy rims from other than CRC?

My trigger finger is twitching on the 'buy' button!

DT swiss rims are made of cheese. THey really are soft, and dent really easily. I know. I have two sets of 4;1 Ds.
Stans 355/olympic, on the other hand are tough as old boots! I had a pair on my old Vicious , and didn't think they'd last long at all, what with only weighing 355gm. I gave them some stick. They just laughed at me.
Are they better than Mavics? I don't know, but DT rims aren't nearly as good.

Well then, thats DT Swiss off the cards then! I shall have to have a butchers at these Stans rims then. Dont recall seeing them on CRC though, where else is good?

I would look at Wiggle, but their site doesnt load on our work computers. Probably something to do with the fact that our web browser has to be IE6 to work with some of our underpinning Oracle systems :roll:

having previously been in the trade for 12 years every time i was sorting wheelbuilds for people i recommended mavic, sometimes the people would stray from the recommendation, which is fine as i can understand wanting to be different but the other brands never seemed to last as long, and those same people would pop back in and say hmm . . . rebuild them with mavic.

personally i wouldn't use DT, Stans, soft cheesy rubbish, i don't think Sun are particularly nice to build as they seem to be a bit out before a spoke goes near them.

i actually think the Halo rims are pretty good just not to my taste visually.

mavic may be the boring choice but i still think it's the best choice.

Thanks for the info chaps. So, lets say I was going to get Mavic rims. What benefits would I get from this rim:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=71062

That makes it worth the extra money over this one which is half the price:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=71059

I really know diddly sh*t about rims to be honest! So other than the different construction and the blurb saying its the rim of choice for a high end build (welded and milled joins etc), does it really out perform the cheaper one? I do think it looks a bit nicer though.

IIRC...

XC317 are 17mm internal bead width and pinned at the joint

XM719 are 19mm internal bead width and pinned & welded at the join

With respect to your links the 317 are rim brake rims & the 719's are disc only rims

Agree with JB666 about Mavic rims

Not tried enough of the other brands to have a well informed opinion as our customers usually go with Mavic

I have XC317's on my KHS, very tidy rims for rim brakes

XC717's on the Clockwork, again excellent rims

Also had XC317 disc rims on my 1st Orange 5, again damn good rims (until some git robbed the bike with the wheels on)

The 719 is just a tad wider than the 717 and aimed at the more All Mountain/trail rider, but you can use them for XC riding & they will take a wider tyre then a 717 so if it's a hardtail you can get more comfort with the wider tyre set up

Ive been riding Stans crests (not rim brake) on my rigid RC300 and so far they have been superb and they have been ridden fast and hard through the urban jungle daily for 18 months. Most my wheelsets require at least a tweak every now and then but these rims have held totally true throughout. Especially amazing when considering the minuscule weight.

Andy B":2d0ppc9a said:

With respect to your links the 317 are rim brake rims & the 719's are disc only rims

Click to expand...

Well spotted! Link changed accordingly. I meant to post the link to the rim brake 719's

I just cant decide whether the extra £20 per rim is justified. I shall read your comments with more detail later and make up my mind.

And yes, it is for a hardtail (Saracen in my sig) so a wider and more forgiving tyre would be nice!

I want to get this wheel build under way, but if I can save a few quid without making a noticably inferior wheelset then I will have to think carefully about which one I choose. That said, I am easliy swayed by the hype and the 719 rims do look tasty :roll:

Wider? I have an unused set of AlexRims DX-32 in black. Those are 32mm wide ... on the inside.
They're not light, but are generally considered strong and durable. And you can fit a massive tyre on those. They make a 2.2" look skinny.

I wouldn't buy Mavic rims not at least the 717 XC as all 3 of them have a rattle due to a piece of metal in side the rim coming loose and moving about. :twisted: :twisted:

Sunn Ringle much better IMO