27.5+ wheels for my Big Bro

[TheBrownDog]

I am expecting a small amount of relief from the tax man in few weeks and I want to invest it wisely. Which of course means spunking it away on bike stuff.

My Brother Cycles Big Bro is a super bike in 29er mode, but it'd be even better with some light 27.5+ wheels and tyres. Tubeless, natch.

I can do a build but would rather not as it's getting warm and I don't need the agro.

Recommendations?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Off the shelf or custom Tim?

[TheBrownDog]

Don't mind really Stu but budget is around £500 ... which is a lot. I think.

[benp1]

Hunt wheels seem very well regarded

[Bearbonesnorm]

Hunt wheels seem very well regarded

They do but you also hear many folk comment on the fact that they're simply rebranded generic Chinese hubs and rims.

If it were my money, I'd have myself a word with Shona and Rich at Keep Pedalling and see what they could do. My favourite plus rim is the WTB Scraper but I hear good reports about the Halo rims too.

[lune ranger]

I’ve built up a few wheels with Halo rims. Nothing fancy but a good weight and strong.
Probably a good starting point at £500 for a wheelset. Plenty of money left in the budget for hubs and good quality spokes. They do a 35 or 50mm Vapour rim in 650 iirc.
The wheels on my Krampus were Vapour 50’s Tim when we rode together last year.

[TheBrownDog]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've got some Scraper rims on my OO Fatty which seem pretty good but think I will go Halo this time around for something different. Email to keep.pedalling activated.

[samwise]

+1 for the Halo Rims. Got a set running Hope hubs and another on Halo MT hubs.

Both great but prefer the hope hubs for availablity of adpaters etc...!

[Cheeky Monkey]

personally, Hope with whatever of their own brand rims (Fortus) takes your fancy. Bear in mind there are issues with supply of some size rims and even where they have stock the buildshop is pretty busy (a dealer will have access to the B2B pages to give a better update).

[jay91]

Hunt wheels seem very well regarded

They do but you also hear many folk comment on the fact that they're simply rebranded generic Chinese hubs and rims.

If it were my money, I'd have myself a word with Shona and Rich at Keep Pedalling and see what they could do. My favourite plus rim is the WTB Scraper but I hear good reports about the Halo rims too.

I've got a set of halo wheels
The rims are good . I've had a few issues with the superdrive freehub but sorted now

[wriggles]

I believe Halo wheels are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs. Hunt are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs, but hand built and backed up by excellent customer service, so cost a bit more. Not sure which Novatec hubs both use. Both SPA and Cycle clinic do Kinlin rims.

I am a big fan of WTB rims, both the older Scraper and newer KOM Light and Tough. The new KOM rims have more alu around the spoke holes as there were some complaints of eyelets cracking on the Scrapers.

I also have some Kinlin TL-31 29er rims on some wheels and they have been excellent

Hope hubs obvs

[ScotRoutes]

If we're just firing off recommend actions, Scrapers on XT hubs.

[wriggles]

If we're just firing off recommend actions, ....

I dont understand that bit, what do you mean please?

[Tomwoodbury]

I’ve got hope fortus on my Big Bro. Nice wheels but a tad heavy. With your budget I’d go handbuilt - Hope hubs with some lighter rims. I’ve just had a set of gravel wheels built by Spokesman that are absolutely superb FWIW.

[redefined_cycles]

I believe Halo wheels are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs. Hunt are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs, but hand built and backed up by excellent customer service, so cost a bit more. Not sure which Novatec hubs both use. Both SPA and Cycle clinic do Kinlin rims.

I am a big fan of WTB rims, both the older Scraper and newer KOM Light and Tough. The new KOM rims have more alu around the spoke holes as there were some complaints of eyelets cracking on the Scrapers.

I also have some Kinlin TL-31 29er rims on some wheels and they have been excellent

Hope hubs obvs

Kinlin are very very good rims indeed. I have some road-fat and they feel almost the same as the HED-Belgium. Very nice and easy to build aswell as they're built very evenly with no trueness issues in the unbuilt rims. Made in Taiwan too...

[TheBrownDog]

If we're just firing off recommend actions, ....

I dont understand that bit, what do you mean please?

I think Colin just means he'd recommend Scrapers and XT hubs. Both worthy considerations and thanks for the suggestion. XT hubs will outlast pretty much anything with occasional attention.

I've swapped notes with Rich at Keep Pedalling (if their wheels are as good as their responsiveness, they will be very good indeed) and have actually gone for Halo Vapour 50s for something different and Hope Pro4s as I'm a maintenance-a-phobe and like the clickety noise to alert wildlife and ramblers.

Sadly the lead time is a bit of a brick - could be 6 weeks. But should still have them for the bulk of the summer.

Next it will be a question of tyres ... again.

[BigdummySteve]

https://www.lightbicycle.com/Carbon-bea ... tible.html

You know you want to

[substandard]

If it was my money I’d go with the following

Hall vapour 35 or 50 depending on your preference, )35 will take a 2.8 no problem. These rims are such great value and run tubeless real easy with just a track pump to seat the bead. I think both are kinlin rims but Unsure of the model. Good value too and look the part with stealth black graphics. Lighter than a scraper as well iirc.

I’d then spec them with some decent hubs such as hopes that are well sealed. Should easily get them in on that sort of budget

Wouldn’t touch hunt again with a bargepole personally, crappy novatec hubs on the road set I had were utter utter pants.

[ScotRoutes]

If we're just firing off recommend actions, ....

I dont understand that bit, what do you mean please?

Oops. Typo.

recommend actions = recommendations.

[wriggles]

If we're just firing off recommend actions, ....

I dont understand that bit, what do you mean please?

Oops. Typo.

recommend actions = recommendations.

[wriggles]

....

I've swapped notes with Rich at Keep Pedalling (if their wheels are as good as their responsiveness, they will be very good indeed) and have actually gone for Halo Vapour 50s for something different and Hope Pro4s as I'm a maintenance-a-phobe and like the clickety noise to alert wildlife and ramblers.

Sadly the lead time is a bit of a brick - could be 6 weeks. But should still have them for the bulk of the summer.

Next it will be a question of tyres ... again.

Spot on choice IMO

Wiggle have WTB Rangers, Bridgers and Trail Bosses silly cheap at the moment. There were some Chronicles on ebay. I am a fan of the Ranger for fast rolling. Think all the WTB 3" tyres size up slightly small compared to the Chronicle though.

[jameso]

I believe Halo wheels are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs. Hunt are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs, but hand built and backed up by excellent customer service, so cost a bit more

FWIW I have some Halo hubs and my experience of their customer service and tech support was excellent. The hubs are based a different manufacturer's hubs with some modifications. I rate that manufacturer more highly than Novatec, have bought a lot of hubs from them for Pinnacle before costs forced us onto Novatec. Novatec are simply ubiquitous rather than great hubs imho. I rate my Halo Spin Dr hubs higher than my Hopes in all honesty, though I do have more Hope hubs across various bikes. and I expect Halo source from a few manufacturers across their price range.

[wriggles]

I believe Halo wheels are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs. Hunt are rebranded Kinlin rims and Novatec hubs, but hand built and backed up by excellent customer service, so cost a bit more

FWIW I have some Halo hubs and my experience of their customer service and tech support was excellent. The hubs are based a different manufacturer's hubs with some modifications. I rate that manufacturer more highly than Novatec, have bought a lot of hubs from them for Pinnacle before costs forced us onto Novatec. Novatec are simply ubiquitous rather than great hubs imho. I rate my Halo Spin Dr hubs higher than my Hopes in all honesty, though I do have more Hope hubs across various bikes. and I expect Halo source from a few manufacturers across their price range.

The last factory Halo wheel I had (27.5 plus) was built on a Novatec hub. The previous one (700c) on a Jalco hub. I dont have any real experience of them because I only use Hope hubs on all bikes (except the Phil woods on my Steamroller) for ease of maintenance and cheap adapters meaning can easily move between bikes

[jameso]

^ they've changed supplier perhaps then, my mistake. We were considering using Halo hubs as OE at one point since the UK spares and tech support was better than Taiwan-direct brands and us/Evans holding spares.