Mountain Biking - wheel build for 5'6" 105lb climber?

My daughter is finishing up her first racing season in our regional high school mountain bike league. She rides a stock Myka HT Elite (http://www.specialized.com/cz/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=40592) -- basically the nicer Specialized M4 frame with "starter" components.

With her height and weight (about 5'6", 105lbs), it's no surprise that she's taking to climbing. :D



We like to build our own wheels at our house. Considering that at her size and weight she's unlikely to break anything, what would you MTB gurus recommend for a wheel build? We're looking at...

o a generally-conventional wheel: aluminium rim, double-butted spokes, etc.
o lighter weight, no interest in aero
o disk hubs
o rim for tubed tires
o cheap (har, har, ok, quality comes at a price... well we can dream.)

Thanks for your thoughts!

-Greg

cheap built set of light hand wheels is really really hard to do b/c of the hub pricing

mavic xc717 rims laced with dt competition butted spokes and alloy nipples to the lightest hubs your willing to buy, unfortunatley unless your willing to deal with centerlock that becomes a problem

the cheapest high end hubs are the hope hubs, and they are not cheap by any stretch, the next down in a 6 bolt disc is the older style xt, the new style xt is lighter but not as light as the hopes, has a stiffer oversized alloy axle, and a 36 click engagment (old xt is 18 click) but the new xt (775) only comes in centerlock, you could go centerlock rotors, or get adapters, either way i just wish it came 6 bolt.

if you are gonna build with old style xt, you may be better of just buying a prebuilt wheel, normally i push the 32 spoke 3 cross for mtn biking, but for climbin and at her weight... you can get a mutch lighter wheel for less money that way, somthin like the mavic crosstrail is nice, the big issue is that if you bend/break the rim you cant get aftermarket rims in a 24hole, ur lbs i think can get the rim from mavic but its expensive and annoying.

omg i'm jealous that the local highschool in your area has a mountain biking league!

oh, and how cheap is "cheap?" Are we talking under 400, under 600, under 800?

omg i'm jealous that the local high school in your area has a mountain biking league!

no crap. how long have they had a MTB team/ league?

AC hubs x stans ztr race rims

bearings in american classics wear out stupid fast, and the hubs arn't much cheaper than hope hubs which are way more durable, and use a 4 pawl instead of a 3 pawl system, the AC hubs are light, but u'll spend alot in bearing replacements

mavic xc717 rims laced with dt competition butted spokes and alloy nipples to the lightest hubs your willing to buy, unfortunatley unless your willing to deal with centerlock that becomes a problem

Thanks for the input.

What are the issues with centerlock disks? (Sorry -- I'm a roadie, new to all of this MTB stuff!:twitchy:)

Thanks!

-Greg

oh, and how cheap is "cheap?" Are we talking under 400, under 600, under 800?

Fair enough. :)

Yeah, ok... under 400 would be really groovy. However, value is important; when spending a little bit more can make for big improvements, then I'm for spending a bit more. :D

-Greg

no crap. how long have they had a MTB team/ league?

Since 2001 (http://norcalmtb.org/about/index.htm).

Five races per season, about 360 kids have been showing up to each race this year. :thumb:

-Greg

you may be better of just buying a prebuilt wheel, normally i push the 32 spoke 3 cross for mtn biking, but for climbin and at her weight... you can get a mutch lighter wheel for less money that way, somthin like the mavic crosstrail is nice...

Whoa ok I see your point sirtigersalot -- the Crosstrail disk wheelset is about $475 at Jenson. Mavic specs it at 1810 grams per pair / front 840 grams / rear 970 grams.

Yeah, I kept wondering where all the rims were with drillings fewer than 32. Guess they tend to appear mostly on prebuilts.

Thanks again for your wisdom, oh MTB gurus! :D

-Greg

Thanks for the input.

What are the issues with centerlock disks? (Sorry -- I'm a roadie, new to all of this MTB stuff!:twitchy:)

Thanks!

-Greg

they are just this BS that shimano pulled, came out with there own disc standard, works just fine, but you are very limited in your selection of rotors, and the nice ones are very expensive, basically the rotor slides ont the hub which is splined and basically a cassette lockring gets screwed on with a cassette tool to clamp the rotor on, dt swiss makes an adapter for it, but its this thing with aluminium pins, they say its good to a 203mm rotor, the problem solvers one is only good to 160mm i think (so just shows how week it is)

it just annoys me that if i want to build a wheel on those hubs i'd hvae to get a lame adapter that i'm to sketched out by to run in the front, or get new rotors (all but the xt and up are ugly) and i'd prolly end up having to run diff rotors front and rear which yeah yeah shouldnt' care about looks but... it just bothers me,

If not for the rotor issue the new xt 775 hubs would prolly be the best hubs for the money on the market, at pretty light, (rear: 100g lighter than xt 6 bolt 756 hub, and 100g heavier than hope give or take) and almost 1/3 the cost of a hope hub, with a 36 point engagment (10degree) vs hopes 24 point (15degree)

Cool. Thanks again for all of the advice!

-Greg