I'd do a serious calculation of saved grams there. It looks like you save roughly 75g for the rim swap, and let's say 7g per spoke. In my book, very not worth it. Put some lighter tires on there and roll (maybe 42s?).
Tubeless-wise, there are pros and cons. In my experience, mtb usage is 100% tubeless worth it. Skinny tires, 100% not worth it. "Gravel" size is in the 50% range. All of my gravel wheels are tubeless now, but those setups are also where I've had to do a lot of plugging and patching in the field. This is a lot harder than replacing a tube. As far as durability, I don't think anyone believes 36 spokes are necessary for wheel strength in the era of stiff rims. MTB wheels are currently 28h, for the most part. On Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 11:44:38 AM UTC-4 Davey Two Shoes wrote: > I'm going to ride my Sam Hillborne in the Vermont Overland this year and > as such I feel compelled to convert from tubes to tubeless. My current > wheelset is the 36 spoke deore/dyad setup so many of us know and love(?). > I'm considering the following options; either replace the rim with a > Velocity Quill and reuse my 36 spoke hubs or having a 32/32 or maybe 28/32 > spoke wheelset built up with Velocity Quills. I plan to run 48mm Rene Herse > tires. I'd like the bike to feel quicker and more inspiring with this > wheelset, I've often thought that the "ploddy" feeling my Sam has is down > to the uninspiring wheelset. > > -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/80ba4bb2-d27c-4312-abad-4e11b8ac9198n%40googlegroups.com.
