What a great price for tubelss 6-blot! To each their own but as someone who has cracked name brand carbon rims, damaged aluminum wheels where they wouldn't spin, and had freehub mechanisms fail....walking a mile(s) out of the woods with broken equipment really sucks. I'm always skeptical of way below market price components. Does anyone have experience riding these wheels?

 

Ironically brother I think you just proved that even high-end, name brand parts are susceptible to failure. I definitely understand the skepticism though; I personally don't know much about these wheels either. I just know the brand is extremely popular in China and I've had tons of their aluminum parts and tools, and most have been excellent. Obviously building hubs and wheels is very different than CNC'ing some aluminum.

I'm not an expert, but I think a lot of the price discrepancy is easily explained. Both resources and labor are less expensive in China. These companies are probably quite lean and don't have any marketing budget. There is no middle man (or men). It's basically factory-direct parts with a most likely crap warranty. I would bet that these same factories produce many "brand-name" parts for companies in the west.

At this point I own a frankly embarrassing amount of AliExpress bought parts and tools. And I'd say about 95% of them have blown me away with their quality for the price.

 

Rims made of cheese with hubs of glass would be my guess. Probably ok for casual riding.

 

I paid $307 for carbon fiber Elitewheels last year, they've been ridden hard all year and they're still golden. Incredible wheels for a price most people wouldn't believe.

Also just bought a $152 set of Niner MTB wheels and they ride great, albeit low engagement.

I've purchased tons of ZTTO products and 95% of them have been great. Therefore I'm willing to guinea pig these, and tons of other Chinese components for that matter. Am I expecting uber quality? No, I have reasonable expectations.

 

Do you have good dental insurance?

 

My teeth are pretty ugly as is, could do with a fresh grill

 

ZTTO has always disappointed me.

 

Same. Even their dropper broke on me just using the thing. With all the deals around now and in the coming months (years?), I can't see dropping a decent amount for these.

 

Have friend (Clydesdale, not easy on parts) running these ZTTO rims for 5 months now and has been rock solid. Pulled freehub and didnt like the grease being used, swapped to DT Swiss grease.
He praised them, two others (now a 3rd) already bought a set in my riding group. For the price, will be my backup set of wheels if anything happens to my carbon hoops.

 

You know the market is a mess when this is considered a good deal :/
You can get XT/WTB wheelsets for about the same at bike24.

 

Link?

 

Are they Pawl Hubs or DT style ratchet hubs, Ali often mixes and matches the terms

Edit

I checked my ztto wheels and I have a 27.5 set of DR390's and yes they are DT style, mine came with low engagement rings so I put the 54T rings.

 

Are they Pawl Hubs or DT style ratchet hubs, Ali often mixes and matches the terms

Edit

I checked my ztto wheels and I have a 27.5 set of DR390's and yes they are DT style, mine came with low engagement rings so I put the 54T rings.

How long have you had them? How are they holding up? I'm guessing you used a ZTTO 54t?

 

they are Wheelsets, so you could look up the hub models but I won't be buying sh*tmano ones again

MT410 perhaps....

 

None of those are shimano wheelsets except mt500. MT520 and MT420 are brakes.... Perhaps you bought chinese fakes?

The MT500 is a $150 range wheelset, the cheapest shimano makes. I've seem them under $100 a pair on sale. It uses MT4xx/5xx level hubs (they aren't exactly equivalent). So I'm not sure what the comparison gets you here other than you think the more expensive ZTTO wheels are better? I am not defending the shimano as great wheels here - they are not. Just need to keep the information here correct, cause people may(or may not) buy ZTTO based on what people say here.

 

Numbers fixed

as for the subjective of me and my fat friends destroying Shimano wheels that's just evidence of Shimano wheels not being appropriate for heavy riders. Here in Aus Shimano wheels are FAR more expensive than the ztto's.

durability of the zttos, time will tell

 

Shimano's normal hub axles are definitely on the weaker side of things for sure. I mean that's why the whole aftermarket hub industry was born.
SLX/XT/XTR sylence ups are a different animal. Much better built, however they have their own issues with the drive mechanism (although my SLX is still going strong).

Australia. well, that's your own fault. Yeah depending where you live your perspective will be very different.

 

Where in the world are there $150 wheelsets??

 

Bike24 as mentioned, although also as mentioned most options are not in stock right now and they don't ship shimano or mavic to the usa. Merlin is another good option although there is nothing too interesting on there right now. Red zone 7 set for $160.. Fulcrum Red Zone 7 Boost MTB Wheelset - 27.5" | Merlin Cycles

 

This would be a fairer comparison to the Fulcrum wheelset - $162 before coupon, with discounts you could probably get to $160 shipped tax included. If two pairs were bought, then maybe $150 a pair.

 

Just bought a set of these to put some XC tires on as a second wheelset, worth the extra $60 over the ZTTO probably for the DT Swiss 370 LN ratchet hubs.
e11even Alloy Boost Wheelset - 29in - Components

 

My wheelset cost me USD $182.32/AUD $281 in August and the 54t ratchet rings another USD $33.74/AUD $52

 

Just for interest, I looked up the cheapest 27.5 wheelset from Merlin

 

Just for interest, I looked up the cheapest 27.5 wheelset from Merlin

Oh god that shipping. It's only 40 to canada (used to be free!).

Well that settles it, Aus sucks

 

Oh Aus sucks in many ways, IF i won lotto I would move to the US in a flash!

 

might want to skip that plan for a few years :x

 

nope, it still better than here, we are racing down the 1984 path.

 

Just to stay on track

Related Question? How long is the distance before you approve of a wheelset? or would you put it down to hours of use?

Personally, IF it gets to 3000 km's without issues I would be happy to recommend a set eg Hope Pro 4's

 

I think there's 2 categories. 1 is basic performance (do they work, not break, buckle, spokes come loose, etc). You can usually figure that out after just a little bit of riding.

But then there's long term. Wheels are expected to last 10000+km. Short of an accident they really should never die. So you kinda just need to keep riding them and see if anything happens.

Example: my SLX m7100 "sylence". I don't know the exact km anymore, but it's several thousand and they are great.. but we KNOW that they are prone to failure. We also know from many other people the raceface ARC rims are also prone to dings and dents. So while my experience is perfect, it is not something I could necessarily recommend, especially the hub which is really just a time bomb.

There are enough negative experiences in this thread alone on the ZTTO (and lots of broken clutch stories on the hubs online) that I would put your experience in the same category as my SLX. They might be perfect forever, or you might just have been lucky so far. Too early to tell.

In contrast, I also have hope pro 4's and while I don't even have 1000km on them, there are so few reports of random failures that I 100% recommend them.

My DT pawl hub road wheels are in the middle. The freehub seal is crap and it "catches" pawls sometimes under load and you get a ping when they settle into the teeth. But as long as you keep an eye on the clutch and lube it regularly, its just fine. So.. Recommend, but not as strongly as the hope.

Weirdly with all my DT stuff, I don't have a ratchet version. My friend has one from the 90s still going strong though.

 

Down to 185-25 - 160 plus tax

 

That's frustrating lol. I messaged the store and asked if they would refund me the difference.

 

They wouldn't refund me any cash, said that Aliexpress controls the pricing. Sounds like bullshit to me but idk.

Anyways received the wheels today. The brushed rims have great finishing, the hubs looks excellent and spin nicely too. There were a few nicks and scuffs but nothing major. Only immediate downside is that they're very heavy. We'll see how they hold up as I start them on easier trails and work into harder stuff as I build trust in them. But with 32 spokes I'm pretty confident they'll be robust, at least more so than the 28H Niners I was running before. These are weights with some Bucklos valves.

 

Were they advertised as being that heavy? Tank wheels

 

Ad said 2055g (no valves), so 2220g with valves is a bit higher than stated

Cheap-Light-Strong - Pick 2

I always pick Cheap and Strong (and Heavy)

I'm just stoked to have 36t ratchet PURPLE hubs on a budget

 

Ah, that's not too horrible. I was thinking they may have been advertised as being light weight.

Most "name brand" wheels also lie about the weight. It's a time honoured tradition.

For comparison my 29er DT m1900 30mm wheels were in the 2000g range.

 

Thanks for reporting. I held off on these. I was hoping to get a weight reduction vs my current set of wheels, but this would have been a reduction much at all I guess. They look great though, enjoy!

 

How does it hold till now? I’m into getting a DR390 myself

 

They're holding up well. The hub skipped once yesterday but it's pretty rare. That being said I imagine thw ratchet will be the failure point in the future.

 

My dr390's are doing fine, but I am changing the XD driver for an HG, so I'll see how the internals look soon.