Advice on e-bike wheelset, Boost spacing

[Tommasini53]

I'm looking to replace/upgrade the wheels on my wife's Specialized Creo (all-road, e-bike) and seeking forumites' opinions on several issues. Her usual riding is with small groups on mild gravel and mixed surfaces; she seems to like the 35mm tire size.

The rear hub is 148x12, and the front hub is 110mmx12mm, which I assume is Boost width. I'm open to forumite suggestions as I'm unfamiliar with what is available in Boost spacing.

I'm looking for higher quality but not pinnacle-level components…something equal to Chorus or Ultegra-level quality. My initial thoughts are mid-level DT hubs and HED alloy rims. Thoughts?

Also, it appears that DT offers hubs with straight-pull and traditional j-bend spoking. Are there any benefits to straight-pull? Thanks in advance.

[Alistair]

So, that’s “road boost” (12x110 vs the 15x110 that’s typical on mountain bikes). AFAIK, Specialized is the only big brand to use it, and only on their e-bikes.

If Industry Nine is in-budget, that’s a good option. Pick any of their boost mountain wheels and ask for the road end caps. They don’t list them that way, but the caps are the same. Added bonus - some of the models allow customized spoke colors. Their alloy wheels tend to be light and high quality and not too insanely expensive.

Straight vs J-bend, I’m sure there are technical benefits to either, but in practice, I doubt anybody could tell riding the bike. J-bend are probably easier to get replacements, but if you don’t break wheels regularly, that’s not a big deal.

[EB]

You can get 12x110 front “road boost” hubs from White Industries in center lock or 6 bolt. Astral Cycling will build you nice carbon or alloy rim wheels with those hubs.

Very likely you could also swap out endcaps on a DT boost front hub to achieve the same thing.

Why this “standard” exists and why they didn’t just use the existing 15x110 front boost standard I have no frickin idea.

[eddief]

Do you want less weight? Other than that what might your wife notice? My guess is you'll spend $1500 for a new set and what will be the benefit? You could get an XD driver and then at least benefit from a 10 tooth cog and more high gear on current wheels. Give the motor a little more juice in ECO mode and she'll overcome any speed benefit she'd get from "better" wheels.