29” wheels recommendations

Rail5

Member
Dec 12, 2019
46
14
Yorkshire
Looking to upgrade my standard wheels, any advice or recommendations I currently have 148 boost on the rear and 110 boost up front.

Thanks
 

Hamina

E*POWAH Master
Mar 22, 2020
500
396
FIN
My current wheelset on my low budget Trek Rail 5 2020 is Alex MD35. I'm running Cushcores and some Minions at1,2bar (17.404528528psi for the ones not using Système international d'unités).

My poor trying-to-be-fast riding skills and the local trails seems to arrange several hits for the rims. I don't want to ruin them or end up to a repairing loop. I would also like to keep the current wheelset in such a condition, that in the future I could put them back when selling the bike and that gives me good reason to buy new fancy wheelset.

The rear hub (Bontrager of actually Formula) has as already 2mm play in cassette and it's just a question of time when it reaches the end of life. It's unrepairable and you can only replace the old low quality part with new low quality part. Guarantee case or not - doesn't matter. In addition I don't see it reasonable to just change the hub.

So I've narrowed my options to following ones:

Rims
  • DT Swiss FR560
  • DT Swiss EX511
  • Stan's Notubes Baron MK3

Hubs
  • DT Swiss 350 (54T)
  • Hope Pro 4
Other
  • 32 spokes (maybe more is better?)
  • Weight doesn't matter
  • Budget 400-600 euros
  • Material alloy, no carbon (out of budget)

What else I should be looking for? Open for questions, ideas and opinions.
 
Last edited:

UVRail

Member
Sep 13, 2020
34
8
London
I’ve just ordered Raceface Turbine Rs for my Rail 5, along with Maxxis DHF / DHR 2 tyres... am hoping for a major improvement!
 

BrentD

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2020
168
134
New Zealand
DT Swiss HX-531. It is basically an EX-511 which spent a few weeks at the gym bulking up. Same excellent profile and shape just a thicker extrusion and more metal where the spoke nipples enter to deal with the extra loads of e-bikes.
 

jbrown15

Well-known member
May 27, 2020
792
656
Chilliwack, Canada
I’ve just ordered Raceface Turbine Rs for my Rail 5, along with Maxxis DHF / DHR 2 tyres... am hoping for a major improvement!

I was considering the RaceFace Turbine prebuilt wheels, but ruled them out when I realized that they were only available with a 28 spoke hud. Plus I’m not a huge fan for straight pull spoke/hubs.

I did still end up using RaceFace Vault hubs though as they are a nice beefy looking hub that’s actually pretty quiet with great hub engagement. Went with Stan’s Flow MK3 rims as I didn’t have the budget at the moment for We Are One carbon rims.....lol

3C8A89DA-61E2-4335-889B-C16A2B7A2872.jpeg
46495B76-91BF-4490-A5DB-80B7E62ED743.jpeg
 
Last edited:

UVRail

Member
Sep 13, 2020
34
8
London
I was considering the RaceFace Turbine prebuilt wheels, but ruled them out when I realized that they were only available with a 28 spoke hud. Plus I’m not a huge fan for straight pull spoke/hubs.

I did still end up using RaceFace Vault hubs though as they are a nice beefy looking hub that’s actually pretty quiet with great hub engagement. Went with Stan’s Flow MK3 rims as I didn’t have the budget at the moment for We Are One carbon rims.....lol

View attachment 42186 View attachment 42187
Very nice. I really struggled ordering anything new - parts seemed to be in short supply all over. So I had to buy separate Turbine R rim and the Vault hub for the front. I've got a wheel builder lined up to put together the front (rear is factory built). I'm slightly unclear on the whole straight pull spokes though.. generally I would expect a straight pull hub to look something like the Shimano hub in the photo. But the Vault doesn't - it looks much more like a regular hub for J-Bend spokes. So I'm a bit confused as to whether the RaceFace are actually straight pull or not... any ideas?

straight pull.png
 

jbrown15

Well-known member
May 27, 2020
792
656
Chilliwack, Canada
Very nice. I really struggled ordering anything new - parts seemed to be in short supply all over. So I had to buy separate Turbine R rim and the Vault hub for the front. I've got a wheel builder lined up to put together the front (rear is factory built). I'm slightly unclear on the whole straight pull spokes though.. generally I would expect a straight pull hub to look something like the Shimano hub in the photo. But the Vault doesn't - it looks much more like a regular hub for J-Bend spokes. So I'm a bit confused as to whether the RaceFace are actually straight pull or not... any ideas?

View attachment 42349

do you have the part number for the hub? J-bend’s part number will start with a J.

7B48EB8C-F66D-44FE-B482-183197826355.jpeg
09105AEB-9F11-4B31-8A6E-EBB20078941D.jpeg
 

UVRail

Member
Sep 13, 2020
34
8
London
do you have the part number for the hub? J-bend’s part number will start with a J.

View attachment 42353 View attachment 42354

hi

yes, the hub is the Race Face Vault J Bend Front Hub 15x110mm BST - 414J - 28H Black

 

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