Best all round MTB rim DT Swiss EX471?
Discussion
So I need to rebuild my wheels, my old rims are Easton / Raceface ARC27's. What I thought great about them, weight, easy tubeless setup, reliable tubeless setup no burping etc, looked good. However they are made of chocolate or some similar material. The rims are covered in big dents, the rear has one where the rims bent right up to the spoke bed. The fronts not as bad but it's still had the bead seat folded over. Amazingly they still hold air tubeless and run perfectly true, but I think once the tyres off it'll be hell to get it to seal again.
I'm thinking DT Swiss EX471 as a replacement, they seem to get great reviews and get used for everything from Enduro to Rampage, they look at be a touch heavier than the Eastons and a touch narrower, neither of which I'm bothered about. Not that cheap a rim at £74 each but equally seem some what better value than Light Bicycle Carbon jobs at the cheap end of carbon. I'm slightly concerned they don't have a bead hook on the flat part of the rim the bead sits on so a bit concerned they maybe more likely to burp than the Eastons, anyone any experience? Another nice thing is prowheelbuilder and DT Swiss calculators say I can re use my spokes as same lengths required so easy to swap taping the new to the old and swapping spokes.
I'm thinking DT Swiss EX471 as a replacement, they seem to get great reviews and get used for everything from Enduro to Rampage, they look at be a touch heavier than the Eastons and a touch narrower, neither of which I'm bothered about. Not that cheap a rim at £74 each but equally seem some what better value than Light Bicycle Carbon jobs at the cheap end of carbon. I'm slightly concerned they don't have a bead hook on the flat part of the rim the bead sits on so a bit concerned they maybe more likely to burp than the Eastons, anyone any experience? Another nice thing is prowheelbuilder and DT Swiss calculators say I can re use my spokes as same lengths required so easy to swap taping the new to the old and swapping spokes.
I don't ride anywhere particularly rocky, but my ARC30s seem to be the only intact ones on the universe!
Might be my racing weasel physique.
Anyways, any reason you're not considering Stan's Flows?
Other than that the DTs would seem the obvious choice. Is the width an issue for you?
What pressures do you run, and where do you ride?
Might be my racing weasel physique.
Anyways, any reason you're not considering Stan's Flows?
Other than that the DTs would seem the obvious choice. Is the width an issue for you?
What pressures do you run, and where do you ride?
I don't know if you can get them still but my money would go into Mavic 719 UST and Hope hubs. Have this set up on my Orange 5 for nearly 5 years and have just had to replace the rim as I wasn't told when I got the bike the UST nipples should be unscrewed every 2 years so the different metals of the rim and UST bit don't fuse together. The rim was still straight and I'm nearly 19 stone.
My new bike has ARC 30's so I'm now a bit worried by the other comments on them.
My new bike has ARC 30's so I'm now a bit worried by the other comments on them.
If you want something a bit different, I've got two sets of Pacenti TL 28 rims, one in 26" and the other 27.5".
Both have been flawless, happily running tubeless without burping, stay perfectly true (although that could be something to do with the outstanding builder - me! - with the vast experience of having now built two entire sets of wheels!) and put up with 115kg of me hammering them over trails.
Both have been flawless, happily running tubeless without burping, stay perfectly true (although that could be something to do with the outstanding builder - me! - with the vast experience of having now built two entire sets of wheels!) and put up with 115kg of me hammering them over trails.
Cheers for the feed back I will take a look at suggestions. Stans - they are on the radar but seem to have mixed reviews many aware by them but others curse them saying the are designed to give the ability to run tubeless on tyres not designed to do so by being slightly over sized. So when paired with proper tubeless tyres which most are these days are not so fun to seat etc.
My Easton ARC experiences are a familiar story, just google. They are an exceptionally soft rim.
My ridings mixed, roots, rocks, XC one day downhill courses the next. I started the damage at Aston Hill racing in March and completed the destruction of the ARCs in the hills out of Malaga SRAM test track etc running super gravity casing Rock Razor and Magic Mary's on my trail bike (NS Snabb T), 28psi rear, 26psi front and I'm a smooth rider and not heavy at 72kg. For the record they are the 1st rims I've bent in 30 years of mountain bike riding and racing. I've an ancient set of rim brake Mavic EX721s for example that got abused for years now on the mrs bike for example that don't have a mark on them.
My Easton ARC experiences are a familiar story, just google. They are an exceptionally soft rim.
My ridings mixed, roots, rocks, XC one day downhill courses the next. I started the damage at Aston Hill racing in March and completed the destruction of the ARCs in the hills out of Malaga SRAM test track etc running super gravity casing Rock Razor and Magic Mary's on my trail bike (NS Snabb T), 28psi rear, 26psi front and I'm a smooth rider and not heavy at 72kg. For the record they are the 1st rims I've bent in 30 years of mountain bike riding and racing. I've an ancient set of rim brake Mavic EX721s for example that got abused for years now on the mrs bike for example that don't have a mark on them.
I race on Pacenti CL25s, with a rigid fork, I'm 80kg and I haven't done a thing to them since I built them two years ago. Easy to set up tubeless, easy to build, not to hard on the pocket, as Planet X do them as a special off every so often, and a lightweight rim to boot. Liked them so much I built another pair, just so I could have a choice of tyres on race day...
gazza285 said:
I race on Pacenti CL25s, with a rigid fork, I'm 80kg and I haven't done a thing to them since I built them two years ago. Easy to set up tubeless, easy to build, not to hard on the pocket, as Planet X do them as a special off every so often, and a lightweight rim to boot. Liked them so much I built another pair, just so I could have a choice of tyres on race day...
I'm glad I'm not the only one who has even heard of them! 
Worth adding is that when I was first looking at them and had a question about taping them, I fired off an email expecting a reply some time in the afternoon when the US woke up, only to get a reply from Kirk Pacenti, the owner of the company about 5 minutes later, clearly just checking the customer services inbox on his way to bed around midnight!
Definitely not just a faceless corporation, which is nice.
I've got a set of these hoops - http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/RIPADL31/pacenti-dl31-...
Running tubeless with DT spokes and Hope hubs.
I'm currently at 22 stone, and the wheels have done over 1000 miles over a mixture of surfaces, so they are pretty strong indeed.
Running tubeless with DT spokes and Hope hubs.
I'm currently at 22 stone, and the wheels have done over 1000 miles over a mixture of surfaces, so they are pretty strong indeed.
Sadly I'd avoid the latest rims from Mavic, haven't tried them all of course but I ditched my beloved EN521s when I "went 650b" a year ago, replaced them with EN423 which was the go-to Endruo rim they had at the time. Where the 521 were bulletproof, the 423s seem to be made out of cheese, they're lighter but I've had to bin two rears and I've just dinged the 3rd. Their only saving grace is that they don't make them anymore so when I pension this one off I'll have to change the pair.
They make better, fancier Endruo spec rims now and they're all a bit wider - but the cross sections look thinner if anything.
I don't know if it's the fact Endruo has become a competitively raced category now so they’re chasing lower weights or I'm a luddite with tubes who gets pinch flats that aren't supposed to happen these days, but I doubt I'd buy Mavic for a while.
They make better, fancier Endruo spec rims now and they're all a bit wider - but the cross sections look thinner if anything.
I don't know if it's the fact Endruo has become a competitively raced category now so they’re chasing lower weights or I'm a luddite with tubes who gets pinch flats that aren't supposed to happen these days, but I doubt I'd buy Mavic for a while.
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