Gravel Bike Rim Recommendations Please!

[Retiredtester]

Apologies if this has already been done to death - a superficial search didn't turn anything up...

I'm after a pair of cheapish 700c/29er tubeless ready rims to build into a set of sturdy wheels for my gravel/crosser thing. I'm hoping to do a bit of off road lightweight touring/bikepacking on it, and it will be used mainly off road (trails/paths rather than hardcore rocky stuff), so I'm after something strong. The widest tyres I can fit on my bike are 40c, so I'm looking for something with an internal rim width of 21-23mm. Something like the WTB KoM i21 is what I'm after, but they seem very hard to get hold of and quite expensive. Maybe the DT Swiss M442 or the 21mm or 23mm Superstar T-Ready? Seem to be lots of conflicting opinions on the Stans rims, and most of them are out of my price range. Any experiences, suggestions or recommendations extremely welcome, especially in the sub £40 ballpark!

Thanks in advance

[lune ranger]

Just bought a Halo Evaura rim.
Cost about £50 and is quite wide. Sits very well with a 40mm tyre on my CX/gravel bike.
Did a trip last weekend with two long road days and two off road days fully loaded.
It's built a nice wheel.
Evaura is for rim brakes. The Devaura is a disk version.

[Bearbonesnorm]

How about some WTB Speed Disc i23 for £20 an end http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/RIWTBSDI23 ... sc-i23-rim

Or Pancenti CL25 ... very nice rim http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/RIPACL25/pacenti-cl25-rim

Or some WTB ST i23? http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/RIWTBST/wtb-st-tcs--rim

[Retiredtester]

Thanks folks - I really appreciate the help. swaying towards the pacenti at the mo. Would probably prefer the sl25 over the cl25 (based on reviews), but px only have them in a 28 and they're silly money elsewhere.

[jameso]

WTB. Frequency for toughness, KOMs for general use. Prefer them to Stans, way better than Pacentis ime, cheaper than DT and the WTB TCS system works well with all tyres I've tried (Maxxis, Schwalbe and WTB).

My Pacentis split - built to an average tension by a good builder and they failed in under a year (~6,000 miles?). They're light but that's because they're extruded so thin-walled and that's most likely why they fail. It's a known thing with them. The Pacentis set up with tubed or TLR tyres easier than Stans though. WTB's kit is solid, I'm a big fan.

[Adventurer]

Have you thought of 650b over a 700c rim?

However if it’s 700c the new mavic open pro look nice or maybe a wheel build with DCR wheels. That’s were I am getting my new wheels built.

[Retiredtester]

Interesting comments re the pacentis. I've experienced similar problems with kinlin rims and am keen to avoid a repeat. I'm quite heavy (14 stone) and pretty unforgiving on kit, so it sounds as though the Wtb may be a better bet.

Thanks for the open pro suggestion, but I lost faith with them a few years ago after a succession of them cracking round the eyelets. I also want a wider rim to suit a 37c tyre. I used dcr once years ago when he was operating out of a basement flat in Hove, but I've done a reasonable amount of wheel building since and am keen to carry on learning. The 650b is another interesting suggestion, but I don't have huge clearance on my frame (38-40c max with 700c) and figured I might not be able to get sufficiently narrow 650b tyres?

[Retiredtester]

19mm 700c Wtb frequency currently 19.99 at crc! The 23mm version are 34.99. Reckon it'd be OK running 38s tubeless on a 19mm rim? Happy to pay the extra for the 23s if they're likely to be a better bet.

[ScotRoutes]

I've recently used some Superstar T-ready EX23 in 650B size for my tourer/gravel bike thing. They built up easily enough and tubeless was the cleanest/simplest I've ever done. I took the rim decals off as they were a bit gaudy. I'm currently running them with 47mm WTB Byways.

[Gari]

PlanetX have WTB i25 for around £20 each. Plenty in stock when I ordered last week.

[jameso]

Reckon it'd be OK running 38s tubeless on a 19mm rim?

No problem at all, ideal in fact. 2:1 tyre to rim ratio is about right for all but 2.6 to plus tyres. You can go a bit wider on the rim for MTB tyres but there's little reason to on a narrower tyre that'll have 40-50 PSI in it (or more).

[fatbikephil]

I went with these - http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/wtb- ... prod139449

[Retiredtester]

I went with these - http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/wtb- ... prod139449

Me too - finally bit the bullet and went for them. Going to build them up with DT Competitions on an SP dynamo hub & cheapo planet x sram xd rear hub. My thoughts & photos to follow in due course if anyone's interested!

Huge thanks to all who offered advice - very much appreciated.