CyclingDeal 29" Clincher Rim or Tubeless Ready Wheel Set - WTB Mountain Bike Bicycle Novatec Hubs & Tires 8 to 11 Speed Wheelset

Could these things really be much faster than my ball bearing wheels? They sure seem that way.I went tubeless right away. Tire beads seated pretty easily with some windex, air pressure and attention to the bead line. No tire wobble.The wheels are nice and true.Spoke tension felt about right but I had a little spoke noise on my first couple of rides. That seems to have disappeared.

Overall, this was a great deal on some wheels. WTB i25 rims are excellent hoops and I've been using Novatec hubs for years. This is the first pair of pre-built wheels I've bought in a long time as I normally build my own, but this was less expensive than buying the parts this time. The wheels appear to be well tensioned, true and round upon arrival. Here is what you should know... The rear hub axle was grossly over-tightened from the factory. A quick disassembly and adjustment yielded a smooth feeling set of bearings (while your in there, do some preventative additional lubrication for the axle and freehub pawls...trust me). The front hub was well adjusted out of the box. Now, I get for the price, you're basically getting the tires free, but.... The actual picture used in the product description clearly shows Maxxis Crossmark II's with the tubeless EXO casing......no, no, nope....don't think for a second you'll get those. You'll get what's in the picture... steel bead, non-tubeless OEM tires. I sold them in minutes for $15 after taking them off and mounting up some of my favorite treads. A plus was, despite the description stating the wheels were not taped for tubeless, mine were and all I had to do was install the valves, bonus. Overall, still a good deal despite some minor issues with total transparency in the descriptions.

The first wheel set arrived not even close to being true. I contacted the seller directly through their website. Sent me a return label and shipped another wheel set. A week later, I received the replacement set and were still not close to true. Closest LBS is 30 minutes one way. So, two hours of travel. Seller refunded the cost of truing after telling them I would not be a repeat customer or recommend them as a seller.The rear hub has drag, like the bearings aren't smooth. The drag was noticeable even before I installed the brake rotor. LBS said to have my son ride it a bit, then see how it is. Probably cost me even more in the end.It is difficult to find non-boost qr wheels at a decent price right now. If I had to do it over again, I would've spent a little more to have my LBS build a set. This set went on a 2012 Salsa Spearfish, for reference. Dumped the wire bead tires and tubes and went with Maxxis Ardent, setup tubeless. Rear tire needed dish soap to seat the bead with an air compressor, front tire didn't need the soap.Overall, so far, better than the badly beaten factory wheels that were on this bike. I just hope they last at least a year.

I was skeptical that a wheelset at this price could be worthwhile, but I took the chance because the components seemed solid. I've only got one ride in so far, and that was mostly on pavement, but the wheels held up well to bouncing off curbs and my clumsy bunny hopping. The rims are lighter than my cheap OEM ones. It amazed me how long the front wheel will spin on its own, so the bearings seem good.I will note that the rear wheel needed a bit of truing when it arrived. Given the price point, you could take it to a shop and pay for a truing and still come out way ahead of most wheelsets.I can't comment on the tires. I swapped in my old tires that I like and were not worn out yet, but the tires that came with the wheels look okay. I had thoughts of trying to sell them, but I might hold on to them for when I wear out my existing ones.It remains to be seen how they will hold up in the long run, but my initial impression is very good.Update Jul 18, 2018: I've now had quite a few rides on these wheels and I am still loving them. The bearings remain super smooth, they've stayed true, and they've held up to all of the abuse I've given them (including several crashes...). I should note that I'm 250+ geared up to ride, so I'm not gentle on components.One extremely minor gripe is that I had some creaking out of the rear wheel while pedaling, but a drop of chain lube at all of the spoke-rim interfaces took care of it. My only regret is that I tolerated my heavy, barely functional old wheels for as long as I did.

I wish i could give 4 1/2 stars.First the good.The wheels are true enough out of the box. The front has a tiny wobble, but not so bad that i am worried about it. They spin free just fine, with no noise or friction.The tires that came with it seem fine, but i won't be using them for now. I got the wheels as a 700c road set for my 650b bikepacking rig. I'll keep them for any single track i might want to do. I didn't get these wheels for the tires.The bad.They come with tubeless tape already, which is good, but I'm worried that it might not hold air. It only overlaps about an inch or so (i overlap at least 3 inches when I do it), and it's peeling a bit. Probably not a big deal, but enough to keep them from getting 5 stars.Running tubes in it for now until the panaracers i put on it start to hold thier shape. Probably go tubeless next week, and will post an update if they dont hold air.

I purchased this wheelset a few months ago and so far they've been great. The wheels are true and the hubs roll smoothly. I've had no real issues. As for tire wobble, I had this as well and you just need to get the tire seated correctly. For me, I aired it up to max, rode on it with the wobble for a bit, then came back deflated and re-aired. Wobble is gone. Just something you may have to mess with a bit. But really, that being the only "issue", this was a great purchase. Looking forward to setting these guys up tubeless.

the wheels themself came nice and straight and seem like good quality wheelset.there is a reason I don't review stuff I buy right away, while I do love the wheelset and they work perfect.the spokes keep breaking in the back wheel. I took it to a shop and they said the spokes are cheap and used to cut costs.The companey did help me out tho so they are decent still

I just received this wheelset today and notice upon setting them up that the tires are not the Black Chili compound, ProTection series tires that are advertised, as I know that those tires are only made in Germany and the tires I received are made in China!! I am not even sure what level of quality these tires are. I am hoping that the seller will change the false advertising that is in the description. Other than that I haven't quite got to using the wheelset and being able to comment on the overall quality of the wheelset. Here's hoping!

Works well