[donnieboy]

Curious if anyone has seen a nice 32hole 29er wheelset preferably eyeletted for a 270lb guy with 9/10mm QR dropouts under 500ish dollars.
If so it could save me from ordering separate beefy eyeletted mavic rims and brass nipples, spokes, hubs etc. Cheers. :madman:

 

[NYrr496]

It seems like you don't really need eyelets anymore. The alloys are better.
I've been anywhere from 250 to 288 and have been on a few sets of wheels with and without eyelets. No problems with any of them.
What kind of riding you doing? Hardtail, rigid or FS?
Pair of Stan's Flow EX rims, A Hope Pro2 front hub for the convertible feature, a Shimano M529 on the rear and DTSwiss Comps with brass nipples. You won't hurt those wheels.

 

[donnieboy]

Strictly speaking the same rims one with eyelets and one without, the eyeletted is stronger. Either can have either alloys. But I'm glad you made that point because a rim NEED not have eyelets to be strong, as there are other ways to accomplish strength such as width, thickness, welding etc. I'm somewhat open to hearing about really strong rims without eyeletts too, provided they can support the weight. I'll look into the part specs. Thanks.
---
Found out the Flow rims have a "thick" spoke bed, weigh 545 grams and have an outer width of 29.1mm. It makes sense that weight spread accross a wider area would help load stresses. Wide and reinforced for the Flows. Check. 100 bucks a pop+, still need spokes and hubs...should be able to do that with a reasonable pair of hubs and DT comps for one example. Will look into hubs now to see what the kit might look like overall. Looks like CRC has flows/hope combo for just under 600; so I'll keep looking.

 

[Flyin_W]

Would not call myself a guru of any kind, yet agree with NYr that today eyelets are not the end all in durability.
Welded seams are a better indication of strength. Other than Mavic, the eyeletted rims from Sun & Alex are decent, but*.
Pretty hard to beat Hope hubs for durability, and $$ especially when found on sale @ CRC or Wiggle.

As a Clyde, I prefer fat tires (2.3 - 2.4) and wider rims, so I 2nd the Flows, and am looking at WTB i25's.
* are not the best option if he's interested in going tubeless, plus I have an earned dislike for Mavic.

 

[NYrr496]

Are you building the wheels yourself or are you buying them built?
I ask because I usually can buy Flows for 89 each, a Hope front for 100, The Shimano 529 hub I mentioned for 45 and spokes for around 100.
That's 423 in parts. I usually get 45 each to build a wheel with local delivery included.
That's a pretty nice wheelset for around 500 bucks. Only drawback is the shimano rear hub is not convertible.

 

[dustyduke22]

I build a pair of MTX33 rims with Hope Hubs for a 260lb rider earlier this year. They are not the lightest rim on the planet, but they can survive just about anything. For what its worth, he did say that they were the most laterally stiff wheel he had ridden to date. When riders weight 250+ you get more performance out of a beefier heavier rim due to stiffness and power transfer. Unless you want to go Carbon, then thats another story...Strong, Light, Stiff and expensive!

For that setup, it was only cost him about $570 to have me build them for him.

 

[lie]

I think i've narrowed down which wheel I want to get for the Fit in the future. I understand widths and offsets, but the one thing that has always.