Will these wheels work on my 29er?
February 6th, 2007 by Tim GrahlOK…I had to give the 29er thing a try. I’m a 6 ft 185lb power rider, and all my friends say my style was made for the 29er. So now that we finally have winter in New England, I scrapped together a low cost test 29er rig(see pics). I used the $200 NYCbike crosspeedII frame with floating drop and spare parts from the basement and other bikes. Haven’t ridden it yet so my question is:
I used some old road wheels CXP33/Ultegra (rear) and CXP22/Ultegra (front) and mounted 2.1″ IRC mythos XC 29er tires. Will these wheels hold up? If I like it I may even race it. Just wondering if people typically use road wheels, and if with the fatter tires, they will be enough to hold up to the roots and rock gardens of New England riding.
- Dave
What is RSS?
Get our articles in your inbox:
Theres very little difference from what you got and a cross wheel, in fact with fatter tire will probably protect the rim a little. I say youll be fine.
I’d agree with Matty. The only caveat is that you won’t be able to run your tire pressures down much lower than 30 psi without getting some roll over in the tire casing on that narrow rim.
Great looking budget 29″er. I hope you have some fun on it!
I’ve heard mixed stories also. I’m leaning to the people that say it will be fine. Some say you need a mininum of 32 spokes, recommend 36. Those make for some heavy wheels.
Gary Fisher used road wheels on his early creations.
PS: I’ve only been on two rides with mine, I using Cane Creek Stratos Road wheelset. Cane Creek also makes some 29er wheels (disc only). I don’t think I made a bad choice (I hope).
Thanks for the advice…
The wheels are 32 spoke and I usually run 30-35 psi in my 26″ tires…so this is great news. Can’t wait to try it now.
- Dave
Hello Dave.
On my Zion 29er I use both Mavic CXP 22 rims 32 spokes laced 3
with DISC hubs that make more stress on the wheels than cantilever brakes . Is 3 months that I have it and have around 1800 km.
At 40 psi with Maxxis Ignitor and IRC tires (2.1) no any problems. This rims seems to be very strong and I use the bike in hard XC with lot of rocks and roots, singletrack up and down the hills we have here in Italy Alps near Torino. 2 photo of my bike is in the photo section of this site at the end if you want to take a look.
Have fun ! CIAO.
Agree with most everyone else. A 3x wheel like that will work fine. I’ve been able to run my cross wheels and touring wheels on the 29er set up. Unless you’re a brutal rider, those wheels should hold up pretty well (Until the sidewalls wear thin from braking you big strong man you)
dude i am riding a 18 year old turing bike with origanal 27 inch wheels for cyclocross and a lot of single track and jumping hurtals and they are still alive i think your wheels will work great just keep them in true.
It should be fine. I’ve been riding ~400g Open Pros for over a year here in the rocky southwest without any problems. A high flange hub wouldn’t hurt, but then it never does. No roll-offs, even with 2.3in WTBs. The wheelset (handbuilt) has needed virtually no attention. The CXP33s should be a bit sturdier.