DT XM 481 WHEEL BUILD

First World Problem: Working within a budget and requiring a new set of wheels – be they alloy or carbon. There are so options available from prebuilt to custom built wheels, and certainly a large list of important factors one needs to consider to ensure the new wheel purchase will go the distance. Key factors that will influence the price include: machine-made or hand-built wheels, what type of rider you are and what type of riding you intend to use them for, with how many spokes the wheels have, quality of the hubs, the spokes and more. Will you be running your new wheels tubeless? If so, make sure that the rim you are pairing has a good history with successful tubeless use otherwise you could find yourself a little deflated before you hit the trails for the first time. As part of this issues’ rim width feature we had a set of DT Swiss 350 Hubs laced to a set of DT Swiss XM 481 rims, using 32 DT Swiss spokes and DT Swiss Pro Lock nipples. This DT Swiss dream package was all hand-built by DT Swiss here in Australia. DT Swiss supplied these wheels with tubeless valves and their own tubeless rims tape. Our DT Swiss 350 Hubs came with a rotor mounting system called Center Lock. In order to use this you need a specific Center Lock rotor (most brake brands make one these days) or an adaptor that DT Swiss make in order to use your normal 6 bolt rotor. We used the latter so as to not seek new rotors and keep the costs down on the wheel build. The DT Swiss XM 481 rim is perhaps one of the more versatile offerings in their lineup with a 30mm internal width (35mm external) so you can run a large range of tyre sizes without the width of the rim making any real negative changes to the way the tyre works. Out on the trails this wheel set offered great control and a nice balance between stiffness and flex; something that can also be traced back to the wheel builders knowing what the intended use would be for the wheels. This is perhaps another reason to spend a few more dollars and have your wheels band-built instead of a set produced by a machine. During our time on the wheels we certainly didn’t hold back on our riding style, even taking them through their paces on the infamous Cannonball Downhill at Thredbo, walking away with no dents, loose spokes or flat tyres. However, one thing we did notice though, on every ride we took the rear rotor came loose allowing the rotor to move backwards and forwards about 10mm. We had no issues with the front rotor at all which is a much

HITS

- Strong, modern rim and wheel set - Versatile rim for trail, all-mountain

and downhill

MISSES

- A pre-built wheel can come in cheaper

RRP: FROM:

Wheels as tested: $1249