XC MTB 29 inch wheels for a gravel bike build

[leicaman]

Hi all
I've just ordered the niner rlt steel and am looking at what wheels to put on it. I have been looking at 29" XC MTB wheels. Chain reaction does the Hope pro 4 laced to mavic xc421 rims. Does anyone use 29" MTB wheels for their gravel/adventure bikes? I was also looking at the Mason Hunt gravel wheels which work out a little more expensive. Any advice would be welcome.

Cheers

Mark

[mattr]

My wife was running Stans Crest 29ers for two seasons.

Have recently switched to grails for no reason other than that i had a spare pair of hubs kicking around.
The crests worked nicely, they were also the tightest fit i have ever experienced, i came within about 3 minutes of using levers to fit the tyre!
The grails, by comparison, took about 5 minutes the pair to get fitted, seated, inflated and sealed.

[MikeD]

Yes but I wouldn't use hookless rims.

[leicaman]

@miked I don't know much about hookless rims. Any reason why you wouldn't use them? I'm thinking of putting schwalbe g-one evolution microskin in 38c

[MikeD]

@miked I don't know much about hookless rims. Any reason why you wouldn't use them? I'm thinking of putting schwalbe g-one evolution microskin in 38c

The hook is necessary to hold the tires on at higher pressure. Fat, low pressure mtb tires are ok but higher pressure, narrower gravel bike tires... There isn't enough safely margin, in my experience.


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[leicaman]

@MikeD thanks for the info. What tyre / hookless rim combo did you have problems with ? Tyre blown off the rim?
I'm going to be running 38mm tyres at pretty low pressures , most probably under 40psi so I think it should be ok.
Interestingly, the Hunt CX / gravel wheels seem to have hookless rims and they are rated to quite high pressures with narrow tyres.

[mattr]

We ran tubeless using converted, folding bead, open tubular type 33s at between 20 and 40 psi on the Crests and Grails which both have very small hooks IIRC. Not quite true hookless, they do on the other hand have *very* low sidewalls.

No issues at all. (Obviously, as we are still running them).

I very much doubt you'll have an issue, if you are using tubes (?) you should reduce any minuscule risk even further.

[MikeD]

We ran tubeless using converted, folding bead, open tubular type 33s at between 20 and 40 psi on the Crests and Grails which both have very small hooks IIRC. Not quite true hookless, they do on the other hand have *very* low sidewalls.

No issues at all. (Obviously, as we are still running them).

I very much doubt you'll have an issue, if you are using tubes (?) you should reduce any minuscule risk even further.

20-40? That's low pressure. I'm thinking 50-70 psi for narrow gravel tires. What kind of safety margin is this if you inflate your tires to 40 psi, and they blow off at 50? Continental rates their road tires at DOUBLE the pressure, meaning that they don't blow off the rims until double the max pressure rating stamped on the sidewalls. That's with hook beaded rims though.

I don't know of any road rims that are hookless. That should tell you something. (Someone is sure to come out of the woodwork and mention one though )

I don't get this love affair that people have with hookless rims. Carbon mountain bike rims with low pressure mountain bike tires yes; otherwise no.

[CallumRD1]

ENVE SES 4.5 AR is a hookless and tubeless ready road rim.

[mattr]

70 is into the bottom end of large volume road tyre pressures (I've run large 28s at that)
Why on earth would you want to run something in the mid 30s or above(!) at that high a pressure?

Our use of 20 psi was for racing muddy cx. 40 ish is for gravel trails/hardpack

[MikeD]

70 is into the bottom end of large volume road tyre pressures (I've run large 28s at that)
Why on earth would you want to run something in the mid 30s or above(!) at that high a pressure?

Our use of 20 psi was for racing muddy cx. 40 ish is for gravel trails/hardpack

The Schwalbe Marathon 700x47 tires I'm running say "for use on crocheted type rims only."


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[MikeD]

ENVE SES 4.5 AR is a hookless and tubeless ready road rim.

From Bicycling: According to Enve’s product data sheet, the wheels are aerodynamically optimized for 28c tires. The product data sheet also states, “We recommend the use of tubeless-type road tires only. If using a tube-type tire, there is a max pressure rating of 80 psi.”

Very few people are using tubeless road tires because basically they suck. 80 psi is too low for me.

[mattr]

The Schwalbe Marathon 700x47 tires I'm running say "for use on crocheted type rims only."

And? Tyres say lots of things. Have you looked at the recommended pressures on most tyres. I can't think of a huge number that i even run at the minimum recommended pressure. Then you get into what they say for the recommended rim width for various tyre widths. That's even funnier.

A 47mm road tyre wouldn't need much more than about 40 psi. Hookless (or nearly hookless!) would be fine for that.

[MikeD]

The Schwalbe Marathon 700x47 tires I'm running say "for use on crocheted type rims only."

And? Tyres say lots of things. Have you looked at the recommended pressures on most tyres. I can't think of a huge number that i even run at the minimum recommended pressure. Then you get into what they say for the recommended rim width for various tyre widths. That's even funnier.

A 47mm road tyre wouldn't need much more than about 40 psi. Hookless (or nearly hookless!) would be fine for that.

Mattr, why do you use hookless rims? What are the advantages for gravel or road use over hooked rims?

[Lelandjt]

For carbon MTB rims you need to ask the manufacturer the max pressure rating. Whether it's because they're hookless or due to the thickness of the rim bed most don't authorize over 40psi.