Best AM Wheels?

I'm in pretty much the same boat!

Im going for a Hadley rear hub (72 engagement points so its got a quick pickup) and its a quality hub. About £160 from balle racing I think
Other high engagement hubs include chris king, Industry Nine, and Stealth hubs that are instant. All a little bit pricey though, which is why im going with Hadley.

Front Hub im going with a Hope Pro 2.

9mm bolt on front, 10mm bolt on rear

For rims i'll probobly go with the DT Swiss EX 5.1, or possibly the Stans Flow.
The DT rims can be built with higher spoke tention so should stay tru-er for longer, but are a softer alloy than the stans flow, so they'll dent easier. But a lot of people reckon the impact that dents the DT rim would crack the stans rim anyway.
DT Swiss competition spokes, with brass nipples.

DT advertises the comp spokes in black, silver, red or white, I cant seem to get hold of any red ones, anybody got an idea where to get them?
And the hadley and pro 2 both com in a colour range :thumbsup:

Azonic Outlaws - More than you need for AM but great none the less.

Dirt Cheap, 36 Spokes, Great engagement, not terribly heavy.

They're going for about $220USD on ebay.


Weights and comparisons to the competition.

Azonic Outlaws
Front: 1118 Grams
Rear: 1328 Grams

Mavic DEEMAX
Front: 1120 Grams
Rear: 1330 Grams

DT Swiss FR 2350
Front: 1070 Grams
Rear: 1180 Grams

Sun/Ringle Single Track
Front: 1100 Grams
Rear: 1220 Grams

The Specialized Roval Traversee is my favorite lightweight AM wheelset . It's basically DT 240S hubs with Supercomp spokes and a lightweight 26mm wide rim. The whole thing including tubeless rim strips comes in at 1580g! Engagement on the stock hubs isn't impressive at 18pt, but DT recently came out with a 36pt star ratchet that doesn't cost much and can be swapped in a matter of minutes. I beat the crap out of mine for about year on 5+ ft drops without even getting them out of true, so they obviously don't lack strength despite their weight. The only real downside to the Traversees is flex. they are plenty strong enough to be ridden hard, but they will flex some on really rough terrain. That's the tradeoff for the light weight.

I eventually managed to destroy my Traversees in a crash. I think just about any wheelset short of full-on DH equipment would have been damaged in that wreck though. The front was bent at least 40 degrees from straight, and a bunch of spokes snapped. I still haven't figured out how I walked away from that one with no serious injury... Anyways, I'd rebuild my Traversees without a second thought as my "nice wheels", if I had the $$ for 2 wheelsets now.

I'm a big fan of the Hope Hoops wheels from Chain Reaction Cycles for something inexpensive, strong, stiff, and still reasonably light. I replaced my Traversees with a set of Stans Flows on Pro II hubs, and I've been pretty happy with them. I had to true the rear slightly once in the 6 months I've had them which is pretty good for how I ride. The weight on my set is just under 1900g, and I have yet to notice any flex from them. I chose the Flow rims because I like tubeless. Any of their other AM-oriented choices should work just as well. It's hard to go wrong with a quality set of wheel that costs under $400. The hubs alone can cost almost that at many shops.

One of my riding buddies, one of the few who is harder on equipment than me, has the Mavic Crossmax SX. He's used that wheelsince last spring and its still fine even after a few days of riding lift access terrain. The rear hub needs a bit more maintenace than most, but nothing a rider with basic tools and some mechanical aptitude can't tackle.

There are lots of other good choices. Those are just the wheels I have some experience with and really like.

d.n.s said:

cross question: what is the average AM wheelset weight for 20mm thru axle front and QR rear?

Click to expand...

Most are in the 1700-2100g range. Some are a bit more, some a bit less. Heavier wheels are typically stronger, but not always. Lighter wheels are almost always on the higher end of the price range. 20mm hubs don't weigh significantly more than QR hubs, and many newer wheelsets can be switched with adapters.