Congrats on the bike. On the rims, I've had really good luck with rims from Velocity, so IMO no real reason to look beyond their offerings (with exceptions of course, such as a killer deal on an alternate or no stock for size/drillings/color you want.)
On the hubs, if you choose the cup-and-cone end of the hub spectrum, I suggest stepping up to the XT from a Deore. The XT has a slightly better freehub and internals plus an extra seal, and the price difference relative to the cost of the wheelset is small. It's not worth stepping up to the XTR since it's just weight reduction to get to that tier. There's a very distinct price step to the high end hubs, and those are a lifetime purchase - the frames will change but the hubs will stay the same. You'll get a stronger and prettier hub shell, maintenance free bearings that roll better than cup-and-cone ones and aren't as susceptible to dirt and grime, and a serviceable and stronger freehub that has a smaller engagement angle than the Shimano one. If you're comfortable spending the money on the high end hubs, you won't regret it. If you have any doubts at all on shelling out that much money just for hubs, I suggest you pass and stick with the XT. IMO you won't regret that either: you won't have the mental weight of buyer's regret and the performance difference between a well kept XT hub and a high end hub is much, much closer than their difference in price. --Ed C. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/ff219670-942f-48e8-b76c-ca175947fd3f%40googlegroups.com.
