At the time I bought them, I didn't have too many other wheel options so I forked over (a lot less than full retail, mind you) and prayed that they lived up to their ridiculous, ridiculous price. Yes, I know. Wheels are pricey, and you could pretty easily spend this much on putting together your own custom set. But light enough to be called all-mountain and strong enough for Sam Hill to race downhill on them? Sounds good to me.
Selection and First Impressions
As I said above, I didn't have too many wholesale options when I was putting together my bike. It was either Mavic's on an XT/Formula hub or these suckers. So I ponied up and jumped in.
When they arrived I was very impressed with the initial..ummm...impression. The white sparkled. The black spokes sucked light from the air. They came with their own carrying bags for christ sakes! I was impressed.
The wheels themselves are more or less a pretty version of a 340 hub (I think) laced to an EX5.1d rim. However...handbuilt to perfect specs by DT. 32-bladed black anodized spokes. 10mm thru-axle rear hub with a DT ratchet axle. Don't fool yourself. These wheels are nicer than the sum of their parts.
Colour me extremely impressed out of the box.
Installation and Set-up
However...this didn't last long. First up I threw some new rubber onto these wheels and discovered that they're presta only. It took me a while to figure out that this is most likely for running tubeless (kit sold separately). I'm never running tubeless and presta-only rims suck so I drilled them out. I felt badly about this and it seems like a stupid thing to have to do to wheels that cost this much. I also discovered (when I was driving the wheels over my friends place to use his drill) that the bags the wheels come with barely fit wheels with tires on them. I know, they're probably made for a 700c wheel and they never thought about having to squeeze big rubber in, but they should have.
Once the tires and cassette were on it was time to go on the bike. Problem number two. The ratcheting rear axle is a beautiful item. But it's not long enough to fit in my steel dropouts. These aren't pinner little old school dropouts either. They're easily as fat as some aluminum drops out there. But I had to space it on either side with a pair of stainless washers. Not a huge deal, but once again, why is the thread length of this thing so borderline. It's sloppy and I'm not impressed.
Other than that, they're wheels. They fit on my bike and I was ready to ride.
Riding Impressions
I've been riding some heavy, heavy wheels the last few years and it's crazy what a difference a nice light set of wheels makes on a bike. Yes, I know. Light is a relative term. But I haven't run something this light in years and my bike loved me for it. I felt like I was pushing an extra gear or two up Fromme. Wonderful.
Other than that, I noticed nothing. Perhaps this is a good thing. They're plenty stiff and they do their thing. The lockring on the front hub backed off once and drove me crazy for a week as I tried to figure out why my wheel turned so slowly, but other than that, they've been relatively bombproof. I've got a season-and-a-half on them and they still spin absolutely true. Honestly, the tension in them is still perfect and I haven't touched them. And the hubs still spin like new.
However, I have to admit, I'm scared of wrecking these wheels and that results in me babying them a bit. The cost of them is just too crazy to subject them to abuse. Where am I going to find flat bladed spokes? Where am I going to find a replacement white rim? I don't steer around anything when they're on my bike and I've taken them down some pretty nasty stuff. But they come off whenever I go dirt jumping. And I wouldn't dream of shuttling them or doing anything lift-accessed. So factor another 500 bucks into your purchase price for the cheaper wheels you're going to have to buy for all the times you're afraid of wrecking these things.
Conclusion
Light enough to not be an excuse for anybody. Strong enough to get Sam Hill down to the bottom of a DH race run. Expensive enough that you could buy a decent bike for the same price. Beautiful. Strong. Light. Expensive. A wonderful product, but I can't imagine recommending these to anybody that would have to pay full retail.
