Took a little while, but the rims I’ve ordered from Light Bicycle are shipping soon. They sent over some pics.
A 650b set for my gravel bike, to be used with cushcore XC and 650bx47 Maxxis Ramblers.
and
A 700c road set, tubeless with 28mm GP5000 S TR.
Looks fantastic!
I think I’ve settled on parts for a budget race wheel build. I’m nervous to pull the trigger though.
Does anyone have any pictures of wheels built up with DT 240 and/or 350 hubs?
I’m trying to work out whether I can abide the red on a set of 240’s (and whether I can possibly justify the cost). My two thoughts here are my bike is a sort of black on black, with an oil slick type of sheen in different sunlight. Secondly, if I’m going to spend the money anywhere, it should possibly be on hubs considering they’ll be the part that could come with me the longest…?
350 in 15/110 and 12/148MS should be around 390-400g
240 about 340g
I have weareone rims built up on 240s. Front is the new 240, rear is the previous gen. If I could go back in time, I would have done 350. But that’s because it’s a 34 lb enduro bike, not really worth the extra $.
I’m outta town right now but can send photos when I’m back next week.
I know what you mean about the justification, my bike is my XC race bike but is a 12 and a half kg all day trail ripper. Kind of seems crazy, but I figure hubs of that quality can come with me if I do get wheels or other parts in the future to get it into the 11’s.
I’m going to go Stan’s Crest MK4 rims I think. Which are obviously well below the 240 in terms of spec. But with some average spokes I’ll lose nearly 200g from my wheelset and conceivably with fancy spokes and carbon rims I could get into the low 1300g territory.
Pictures and any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Spend the saved money on better rims (I have Stans rims, and they’re my go to alloy rim of choice, but am going to order some carbon Nextie’s in the next few weeks for a carbon wide XC set I’m building). I guess that’s it, if my budget is fixed/caped, then I’d do:
-DT350 center lock hubs with $250 nextie carbon rims (I actually prefer the original star ratchet due to nearly 30 years of reliability over the new system which has had teething issues)
rather than
-DT240 center lock hubs with $129 Stans rims
And if you’re set on the Stan’s rims, then I’d do DT350 hubs with $129 rims and spend the saved $250-300 on a cheap motel and gas to have a training weekend somewhere inspiring this Spring.
Thanks heaps for the input. I definitely know what you mean as it’s exactly something I’ve been weighing.
The whole idea started with me thinking I’d get some BTLOS rims and lace them to existing hubs. The problem is with shipping BTLOS or Nextie are going to cost me $8-900 with the current exchange rate, whereas I can get the Stan’s for ~$300 locally.
I was planning on ZTTO M1 hubs but think I’d rather spend the money on genuine hubs to last, the difference between 350 and 240 hubs is significantly less than the difference between Stan’s and cheap Chinese rims.
Definitely food for thought, and the updated 350 are really, really nice!
I still like the idea of the Shimano (near silent) hubs, but can’t get on board with the cup and cone.
Does anyone have strong opinions/additional thoughts on Straight Pull vs J-Bend?
I agree with this. I got a new set of DT 350 (the new ones that come with the 36t ratchet) for $250 + tax. The savings in going for ZTTO or any of the star ratchet clones just isn’t worth it for me. Are the clones so close that you can fit genuine DT end caps, axles, star ratchet if the knock offs are an issue? I really like how my DT hubs are so common, and pretty much any bike shop would have free hubs, bearings, tools etc for them.
Given the pricing you’re talking about, I’d do Stans with DT350 too. In fact I’m building an Arch Mk3 with DT350 CL rear 32 hole when I get a chance (everything is sitting next to the stand, just have had zero time the past month). The next set after that though, are going to be Nextie 30mm internal rims, just for weight and bling.
I’ve only ever built J-bend spokes. I read about the advantages of straight pull, but I’m not suffering with J-bend, so the advantages aren’t something I’m looking for. So I continue to build J-bend spoke hubs. Sticking to what I know.
Who is going to build your wheels (or DIY?), and do they have a preference?
I’ve got a mate who is going to help me, but it’s really motivated by the opportunity to do something I always wanted to do (admittedly with Tri wheels back in the day). He prefers J-Bend all day.
Do you recommend centrelock? I wasn’t sure if I should go 6 bolt for the option of running “lightweight” rotors like Galfer or similar in the future? I usually just go Shimano
I didn’t have a huge preference in rotor style, and had 6 bolt for years. Recently I ended up with some center lock ones, and they’re pretty nice. And then I had a boost 350 center lock and a 6 bolt one at the same time, and the CL was 40 grams lighter. Now I dont remember which freehub they had on. So I need to remove freehubs and end caps to see for sure what the actual difference is.
But, I was so impressed that I ordered a CL set of 350’s for my Nextie build.
So in summary, either work, but center lock maybe weighs less … but I’m not sure, and haven’t weighed the rotors yet.
For sure though, I’m avoiding all the DT clone hubs that have popped up since the star ratchet patent expired.
And the only reason I have two DT240’s, is because I got them almost free by buying a used pair of 26” wheels and taking them apart to keep just the rear hub.
I’m looking at ordering some hubs, and potentially the cheapest way to get spokes might be to order them at the same time.
I’ve run the hub dimensions and rim dimensions (as listed online) through various calculators. Is there a safe way to go here (i.e. just order plenty long), or which calculator is the most reliable?
I have always used loenard.io/edd and haven’t had any fit issues. They certainly are all close. A couple things jump to mind. First, the fractional part is insignificant and you can round up/down because it really is so small. The next thing is that off the shelf spokes usually come in 2mm increments of even lengths and odd lengths are often custom cut at extra cost. My opinion is go with the closest even length spoke within 1mm.
Do you think I could order 60x 298mm spokes and file 1mm off the end of the ones that need closer to 296mm?
My experience has been that there is lots of thread available and 1mm is approx 3/64". The only, albeit slight, risk is that there isn’t enough thread to fully tension a spoke if a spoke is too long. In all likelihood it will be OK in any double wall rim. You may not even have to trim them at all. What I would probably do (disclaimer about you do you) that myself would actually lace it up and start tensioning it before going through the effort of trimming them. It might end up a bit of to unlace them and redo it they end up too long but if it is that close then maybe the initial spoke length calc was off. Pro-tip: if you have to shorten them, thread a nipple onto the spoke before filing/grinding as it will clear the thread as you unscrew it rather than try to try and thread it on with a mushed up end.
Perfect thanks!
I’m going full send on hubs and spokes 
Stan’s rims aren’t in stock until April anyway.
There’s some nice European aluminium rims by a company called Duke which gives me the width I was originally looking for. They don’t save me any weight though so hard to get sub 1500g.
I like the idea though. I know Stan’s are great quality rims and I had terrific results with my Arch MK3 rims.
Just FYI for anyone who is doing some building. I’ve been put on to a company called Slik Graphics
They do graphics for forks, rims, and some hubs. The current graphic is the previous gen DT 240s and 350, but I’ve asked if they’ll do some updates ones. Solves some colour clashing potential for some.
Ordered coloured nipples but wish I’d gone black. Guess I’ll have lots of spares.
Great work! I bought a spoke tension gauge from AliExpress. It’d be nice to be able to measure it’s accuracy. I figured I’d compare it to my mates ParkTool one, then it’s just about making sure the spokes are even as opposed to precisely the right “number” on the gauge.
