Not too many rims seem to have the following specifications.

26"
36H
rim brake
double-walled
double-eyeletted

Looking for rim recommendations and your experience.
Thanks

Mavic Ex 721 EX 721 | Mavic all of the above except the double eyelet.
their CD finished one came as standard on my 04 Koga-Miyata WTR.. it really is a cut no corners rim.

Over 20 years ago I used Mavic's Mod 4 in 700c , which was a wide tandem version of the MA 40/E2/Mod3..

under spoke nip tension, the inner ferrule squeezes the 2 walls together , and pushes the sidewall out, where every spoke is ,

making a slight BUMP, in the braking track which people dont like the looks of ,

so they stopped doing that , on rims, mostly .

I like that the 721 has that flat channel , which a stiff rim-strip-ring snaps into..

I re-laced my front wheel to add a Disc dynohub, and they are rigid and round.

^ That's a thoughtful post--thanks.
The minimum tire size for EX721 is 2.3" and that limits the choice.
What tire and size do you use?

That kind of makes me wonder why it's ok for a 20mm wide rim to carry a 23mm tire but a 28mm rim can't take a 35mm-45mm(1.75") tire?

I'm in a similar position as well considering an EX721

btw I've used Mavics equivalent of a 721 years ago with a 1.75" tire with no issues.

My favorite is Velocity Dyad/Aeroheat (same extrusion), but it does not use eyelets. It is very strong.

I also like the Alex Adventurer which fully meets your requirements - it is stock on Surly LHT. I have built several wheels with Sun CR-18 rims which have proven to be very reliable.

Ryde Zac 19 seems to meet your needs.

According to Tire Dimensions | Schwalbe North America that Mavic 721 ought to handle tire widths down to 35 mm and up to 62... though maybe 55 or so would be a safer upper limit.

According to Mavic
EX 721 | Mavic
it is 2.3" to 3", i.e., 58 to 76mm

Who do I trust?

Yeah what Mavic says is a bit shocking to me!

Here is a bit of insight maybe:

Inner-rim width and affect on handling

There is some talk there about changing trends in the downhill world. Anyway it is a grand fun research topic, rim width vs tire width!

One thing to watch out for in puzzling through these issues: there are two ways to measure the width of a rim. The outer width and the inner width. Usually the inner width is 5 or 6 mm smaller than the outer width. E.g. look at the diagram on the ZAC 19:

Products | Ryde

as he said there is inner width and outer... the inner is what really matters... on my 29er MTB I had a 22.8mm wide rim (18.3mm inner) and ran it with 2.25" wide tires with no issue... I've also run 28mm wide rims (23mm internal) with a 32c tire, the rim is tubeless ready with a great bead lock which made pulling a 32c tire off difficult (also a pain to seat the bead)... but I think the compatible/acceptable tire to rim width ideas are a bit on the conservative side.

Bike Came with Continental Travel Contacts on it 559-47,
stayed with that when I fitted Schwalbe Marathon Plus.


want to run a narrower tire ?.. 1.5"? suppose you May want a narrower rim them ..
But, its only a 1/4" narrower ..

As far as Mavic goes, they have a product filter on that page say what tire you like and theres rim suggestions.

MTB rims | Mavic

I did go through that before posting here. Not many options.

Having a hard time finding this rim with double eyelets and reasonable shipping.
Have two options: single-eyelet + reasonable shipping, double-eyelets + shipping twice the cost of the rim

I use Salsa Gordo rims on one of my bikes, 26 inch, 36H.

There was a discrepancey between the diameter printed on the rim and on their website, I do not recall which was correct. I contacted Salsa to find out which diameter to use for my spoke calculations. That was about four or five years ago.

SJS carries them, but not sure about their shipping....

Rigida Zac 19 R DE Rim - £19.99

After deducting VAT, it is 16.67 pounds per rim.
Shipping is 55 for the first rim and about 15 for each additional rim!!
Germany has the most reasonable international shipping rates.
US used to have low international shipping rates but now is pretty high.

Country of origin is the one that charges the shipping ,, the US would be assessing Import duties

UK, within the EU as I understand is different , leaving the EU a VAT refund can be issued.

A friend met on a Ferry trip from England to Norway got the bike purchase papers stamped
at the departure port,
to get their VAT back . I dont think they would get it back, if they went to another EU country .



overthinking on parts picks is a popular thing to do , here..

why the double eyelet requirement? It would help if you state the size of tires you intend on using. Personally I don't see the utility in using very wide tires with very narrow rims on any bike but especially loaded ones. I don't see any problem using a 45mm wide tire on a 28mm wide rim.

All of the above.
Had them all.
Velocity Dyad/Aeroheat my favs.

Salsa stopped making rims.


Double eyelets --- stronger wheels.
Tire size: 1.5" to 2.25", with 1.75" to 2" most probably.

Rims have changed for the stupid. The way it used to work was you could have really light rims, that felt so called lively, you had to use enough spokes, and you had to crank up the tension to near collapse. And the limiting factor was that without double eyelets they were likely to break. Today, those rims are gone. Even ones sharing the same numbers and having double eyelets, normally have fatter sections. The new profiles are stiffer therefore they need less spokes or less spoke tension to make sound wheels. When I have checked on wheel tensions for these rims, the numbers coming back are always fairly modest. I still have a pair of MA2s in 26" with 36 holes. Problem is, I can't come up with a worthy enough use. Occasionally they show up on ebay. I bought mine from Nashbar for nothing, I wish I had known enough to buy them all. The were made up for Bontrager, and were an attempt at something better than those railway track sections early mountain bikes were equipped with. They were designed for 2.1" tires, and those rims are really narrow, like 20mm. I run Aeroheat, or Alex DH series. Downhill rims are normally a pretty good fit. The DHs I am familiar with ae DH20 are these the new version, DH19? Alexrims - cycling wheels

Thanks--will check them.

Maybe for very light rims where the bed for the nipple is too thin but not heavier rims. Your application and tire size isn't ultralight so it's kind of an irrelevant criteria. There's a reason a lot of rims don't have ferrules, they aren't necessary for a particular design.

If these are very heavy load carrying wheels I'd go straight to wider rims like the Rhynolite or 721 not because the narrower rims can't take the weight but that the heavier rim will have a bit more sidewall to grind away and the tire sidewalls will squirm less under a heavy load.

With 36spokes in 26" any mid/heavy weight rim, single or no ferrules will be extremely strong.
I see the dividing line between the need for a rim better suited to 1.5" tires or a rim suited to extreme utility bike loads where you're going to be grinding through rims on long descents regularly. If you aren't stuck in either of those then all of the rims mentioned above will work fine.

These days, often the rims with the best overall reputation do not have double eyelets. If you ask for rims with the best rep for long term use on touring, Velocity are going to get included, and they have singles. Tech has moved on. Here are a few that might work with double eyelets. I haven't heard of some of these, which raises the question of whether one goes for the eyelets, or the rep. Xtreme 26" SARI M-17 MTB rim offers at the cycling shop Rose Bikes UK Xtreme 26" M-ZX 19 MTB rim offers at the cycling shop Rose Bikes UK