Hello

Im looking to buy some light XC race wheels and have about £500 to spend on em. So far Im looking at Mavic Crossmax SL's, DT XR1480s or 240s and possibly XTR hubs on DT rims.

Does anyone have any experience of these or any other recommendations????

Crossmax SLRs are overpriced, heavy, flexy and unreliable.

The DT 240 hubs are great, but the wheelsets aren't light.

I'd look at the selection on Just Riding Along, they've got some really nice builds using Stan's Olympic rims and a variety of hubs, including XTR and 240s.

I've got some Tune King/Kong Superscharf on Olympics with Sapim CX-Ray spokeson my race bike, sub 1400g, and seem plenty stiff and strong enough so far.

Ditto that Stans rims. wwwjustridingalong.co.uk. Jon is a great guy and very helpful. You also get the advantage of running standard tyres tubeless with sealant, thus saving even more weight at the outside of the wheel.

With you on that one. I have Stan's Olympic front and 355 rear on my hardtail with the tubeless strip, very happy with them and as light as you'll get.

Finally got around to setting mine up tubeless on Saturday, went for a Nobby Nic/Racing Ralph combo, as a good all round set up, even if they're not that light. They went straight up with a track pump, no leaks, no problems since, so I'd definitely recommend Schwalbe tyres with the Stans kit too.

Could save a fortune with THESE . I am always impressed by their build quality at BB Co having had 3 wheelsets built by them - Howard really knows his stuff IMHO.

They're not quite in the same league as Stans wheelsets for silly lightweight, but they'll be pretty good, very reliable and mentally good value!

"Crossmax SLRs are overpriced, heavy , flexy and unreliable "

That's a pretty savage statement . Overpriced how much should they cost then ? £500 is ball park for a top end wheelset these days. Heavy , it's all relative and I would agree that you can get lighter but they aren't heavy wheels . Flexy , not that I can notice , quite the opposite actually . Unreliable , I have had a pair for a few years now and have friends with them and I honestly can't recall any problems with them . Also they are tried and tested over a few seasons now and should have any problems ironed out ages ago , also they never seem to go out of true not like the " new kids on the block which only time will tell if they can match the lightweight , stiffness , reliability and drop dead gorgeousness of a pair of Crossmax .

This thread seems to be turning into a good little debate!!

I ended up getting the DT 240s and 4.2d rims, tall and short of it all was that I won a bike worth 500 quid in a comp in the local bike shop. I didn't have any extra to spend and basically had to get whatever I could through them, 'Max SLs were just outside of the price range so they said they could build me a pair of dts, showed em to me - wow they look bling too!! Should be here in a week or so, I'll let you know how I get on with them.

Fwiw, the Notubes Olympic rims are silly light, I'd have gone for a set of those. But I've also been running a set of Bontrager Race X Lite Discs for a couple of years and they've been great despite being shoved on a singlespeed and thrashed mercilessly in the Peak as well as in three or four of the 24-hour events. I've broken around three spokes in that time, mainly - I think - due to weakened spots from rock strikes. Very light for tubeless-compatible wheels and use the DT Swiss 240 hubs with Bontrager stickers on :-)

Crossmaxes? Have a set of XLs, the freehub needs stripping and lubing every few months round here or it develops a horror noise plus once it wears out, you need to buy a complete new freehub unit cos the freehub runs on a pressed-in bushing rather than a replaceable bearing, so you're looking at 50 quid for a replacement if it develops play. Some people have also had issues with the part of the hub the freehub bushing runs on wearing out rendering the rear hub essentially scrap... I like the wheels, but they're not perfect.