i'm looking to buy a new set of wheels for my rockhopper (bad crash at the weekend). i'm interested in the mavic crosslands and wondered if they are any good. they are £140 the pair. any comments

According to mbr they are preety good for the money i think

cheers anyone got first hand experience with them.

My advice with wheels is always to get decent handbuilt ones. Crossmax/land/whatever look great but can't be easily repaired if a spoke goes. They need to go back to Mavic in France IIRC.

The best wheelset I ever had (which got stolen - grrrr) was Hope XC hubs, built with DT revolution spokes to Mavic X317 rims. They cost about £165 and didn't go out of true or need any attention for 3 years until some witless jobless scum nicked my bike.

I'd advise you to check out Merlin Cycles (12th on the list on the left) as they have a good reputation for well built wheels at very good prices.

Also, Merlin, wouldn't ride anything but Mavic's, dunno about the CrossMax's though so ??

Always go with a good pair of handbuilt, they're normally cheaper, lighter, stronger and can be repaired/bodged at the trail side if a spoke goes.

Hope XC's on 317's been riding a pair from Chain Reaction for over 3 years and they're only need re-trueing once.

Handbuilt, with Mavic rims, definately. And cheaper than a factory set of wheels.


Less pimpy, but there is more to life than pimp.....

Aren't mavic wheelsets handbuilt, i'm preety sure crossmax's are? But i take your point about repairabilty!

Sorry to be pedantic

I don't want to put you off but I have had major problems with mine. Both the front and rear hubs have cracked (spoke slot on front hub and disc mount flange on rear). The front one was done under warranty and the rear is in the shop now. Fingers crossed for a warranty replacement...
Also the freehub retaining nut and the locknuts on the axles kept on coming undone until I put some threadlock on them - not so serious but still annoying.

If I could start again I'd go for a set of Hope ProIIs with mavic rims.

"Crossmax/land/whatever look great but can't be easily repaired if a spoke goes. They need to go back to Mavic in France IIRC."

Not the case anymore. All parts are available for home repair and they are no more difficult to repair than any other low spoke count wheel. Use them for what they're intended for and you shouldn't have any problems.

..my old Bonty Superstocks on the commuter are a nightmare to repair..cant find spokes the right length or buy bits for the hubs. I'd go for normal wheels if I were you..

I'm sure I did the sums last time this came up, and XT/DB spokes/717s were lighter (despite the XT hubs being utter boat anchors), cheaper and easier to get parts for. Although Crosslands are just regular wheels, really. There's nowt much special about them.

Wher can I get the bits for home repair?

CHeers

Phil

Think Chicken & Sons are the importers. I blew up my crossmax and bought a new rim and spokes from them (not cheap though).
I had some crossrides for about 5 years and they never needed truing and apart from the old style freewheel wearing out I had no problems. My mates just bough some of the new crossrides (took my advice about UST being a nightmare to run with conventional tube/tyre combos) and they're pimp as fook.

Any decent LBS will have (or get) spares for Mavic.