Are Your Wheels Strong Enough For You? | Choosing The Right MTB Wheelset

There are many factors which come into play when choosing a wheelset for your mountain bike. What are you riding? How are you riding it? How heavy are you? Do you mind pushing a little extra weight on your bike? There are plenty of options out there to choose from and with details as minor as materials and spokes having a big influence on the characteristics of the wheels, how do you make the correct choice to suit you? Doddy has assembled a collection of mountain bikes and wheelsets to help explain!

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Of course, there is plenty you can do besides just wheels! With lots of tyre tech on offer and the choice of running an insert, you can tailor the wheelset you have to your riding style with a bit of work. However, if you're in the market, wheels are one of the most important things to get right!

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[bitumen]

If you are not a racer, good alu 30mm rim is enough for trail, AM, enduro...

[janeblogs]

Another infomercial for a new sponsor.
Talk about pinned vs welded, spoke count. This is meant to be "tech"

[chrisandrews]

26" would allow wheels to be lighter and stronger than the equivalent 27.5/29". Bring back 26" at least in the rear

[snowmanism]

Great Video Doddy. I feel like I learned a lot with this one. Being on the heavy side I feel I am more equipped now to choose the proper wheels and tires. Thank you

[tim__sadler]

Another top overview! - I'd love to give some lighter Carbon Enduro wheels a go - but until then my DT EX511 (30mm) are pretty much perfect for most riding I do.

[crankshoptv]

"Being realistic about what type of rider you are" - Very wise words for ANY bike related purchase Doddy.

[JanPippel]

That’s exactly my kind of thing…
I‘m riding a titanium trail Hardtail in a…let’s say a bit harder down country style. Wheels i‘m using are handmade with Newmen SL carbon rims (28hole) with 30mm id, TrailMech XC hubs from ukraine and Sapim Laser spokes. Wheels are around 1450g in 29“. Tires are Onza Porcupines in 2.40 front and back with trail casing (850g each), i’ve installed a Cushcore Trail in the rear wheel. Pretty happy with this choice so far… 👍

[kisilvan]

Really good vid. As a tall heavier rider since the 80s I've always struggled to find a wheel that didn't go out of true and usually go for a stronger heavier wheel in alloy due to cost. Currently run Hunt enduro wide on trail bike and Hunt trail wide on XC bike lol. Thanks Doddy, great having someone in the know with a similar body size.

[madjh]

Strong? Yes, but light weight enought? Never 😅. Even the carbon ones are too heavy, it is difficult to find a pair in 1kg or even in 1.4kg. I still remember that ones with sould kozak hubs and very light weight rims (ZTR something) in 26, less than a Kg. Now I ride 27.5 (will never go to 29" again) and mine are 1, 485kg and are the cross max SL .. SL? Going custom will be the solution. Of course i´m a XC- all mountain rider. Not enduro etc

[jklmnop]

Great video Doddy. I have an Ibis Ripmo AF that came with the Ibis Blackbird 35mm internal rims. Here in Phoenix, AZ everything is a rock garden and I have never had any issues - and no tire inserts. For XC, I feel like running a lightweight tire with an insert defeats the purpose but maybe the insert weight is negligible.

[ExcelInstructor]

Finaly #Doddy Quality #DoddyQuality video! was waiting for this for ages.
Doddy please go back on doing more videos like this1.

[sanctusrimoradv]

This has fast become one of my favorite channels. I'm on the larger side of things at around 240 lbs (110kg?). I'm not a big jumper, or dropper (well not on purpose anyway). But I'm also not the most graceful of riders. So I go for overbuilt every time. I'm running I9's Grade 300 on my Levo and their Enduro 305 V3's on my Ripmo. 90% of my riding is typical trail/AM.

[tomquimby]

After seeing carbon wheels shatter I will only consider weight certified alloys. Frame and components also weight certified alloy. I spent sometime challenging UK wheel suppliers for certification and rated weight for their wheels. Only Hope could offer a real response. I ended up with DT Swiss wheels (non UK) as their weight limit was higher at 150 Kg.

[WorkLessRideMore]

I love that my ripmo af came with 35 mm internal width rims.

[ryanmichels]

My ebike came with a set of ethirteen dh wheels. If they were made of butter I swear they’d be more durable and tougher. Absolute garbage. This is a cool vid but would be nice to cross reference to other more common brands like dt for example since I don’t have any idea about ethirteen wheels and don’t care to know based on how bad my experience was.

[JS-upff]

Here I am with my Berg carbon 30mm ID rims and Extralite hubs (1150grams for the set) on my Stumpjumper.
Such a capable combination and mix of performance vs endurance.
Have them running now with Maxxis Ardent front and Maxxis Ikon back but when I go do more dedicated trail riding I switch it to Hans Dampf front and Nobby Nic back.

[AccuMation]

A Good Pair of Light Wheels? Not for heavy riders. Nor brutal riders. Bought a light rear wheel. Not really worth-it due to only a few grams being removed. however the thinner, less material making the wheel lightweight, has a severe penalty for heavy riders. Both of the light wheels had the nipples breaking through the rim. And the spoke tension was so freakn' tight that upon hitting a tree rut, I could hear the ping sound metal makes when breaking from the hub. If ya weigh under 180 pounds, and can afford-it, lightweight gram weenie components are okay. I also found that wide rims are a no-go for heavy riders. Try to stick with 26-30mm internal width rims. Narrower, is stronger for heavy riders.

[orfeas]

I am looking for a budget pair of wheels for my hardtail which i use for XC. I found Shimano WH-MT500 (24 spokes).. My weight is about 90kg. Do you believe that i' ll have problems, or 24 spokes wheels have about the same rigidity with my old no-name 32 spoke wheel which held well?

[iploplo]

Hey for mix of downcountry and traill to not oem scott 970 but oem wheelset is it better to upgrade to dt swiss e1900 or m1900 or maybe smthn different, i wegiht only 72kg if that can help..
Thanks guys !

[fredman]

What about rim width and it's ability to affect tire roll?