mt bike wheel

[ejh]

Looking to upgrade my mountain bike. Thinking about the new shimano XTR or Mavic crossmax SLR. What do you think? thanks. Eric

[gdw]

XTR handbuilt wheels. The hubs are bombproof. You can save some money and pick up a new old stock (NOS) set of the m950 series hubs for less than $100 off of Ebay or from the mail order/internet dealers if you are using V brakes. Have them built up with butted spokes, alloy nipples, and light rims and they will be as light or lighter than the Crossmax's. Standard wheels, especially cup and cone XTR's, built with standard spokes, can be serviced by any dealer while Mavics require special spokes and tools.

If you are going with disks, check out the pre-built DT's being sold on Ebay. They are selling for less than the list price of a 240s hubset.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DT-Swiss-240-XC-26-Mountain-Bike-Disc-Wheelset-New_W0QQitemZ160073205905QQihZ006QQcategoryZ58089Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Magura-MTB-26-Wheel-set-Mavic-XC-717-DT-Swiss-Hugi_W0QQitemZ110078677996QQihZ001QQcategoryZ58089 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Magura-MTB-26-UST-Wheels-Mavic-XM-819-DT-Swiss-Hugi_W0QQitemZ110077357968QQihZ001QQcategoryZ58089 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem