Sun Ringle Estate rims for the On One Max hubs

Budget Summer Season Wheels

Rims. Round, with lots of holes in them for spokes. What else do you need to know?

Question is, on the somewhat limited RideItFixIt budget, could I scrape together enough cash to lace some appropriate rims to the On One hubs I recently reviewed and get them out on the trail?

Well, obviously I could, or this would be a
very short post.

And just what was the bare minimum cost for which I could put together a set of wheels, including tyres and cassette?


So, rims (as the post title suggests) - Sun Ringle Estate. Why? I admit, they're a bit of a leftfield choice for a FR/DH wheelset - these are apparently aimed at the dirt jump market (erm, Estate, a place where you find concrete? Dirt jump? Bizarre name choice there, guys) - but ignoring the marketing crud for the moment, these are strong & wide rims, which as a fat man on tubeless tyres, are two attributes I like in MTB wheels: 33mm wide, weighing in at 600g per hoop - great stuff. And while I would have liked a pair of MTX33s, they are over double the cost of the Estates, which I found for £20 each...

I'm a fan of Sun rims (hence why I stuck with the brand here), my experiences so far have always been of easy and accurate wheelbuilds (which I have not always found with other brands). Their prices start fairly low, too. Essentially, I've always found that you have good quality control without having to overspend - great.

Odd point #1 - no eyelets on these rims (not a problem for me, some may not like this).
Odd point #2 - spokes have this weird "cross lacing" thing going on. The left had spokes end up on the right hand side of the rim, and vice versa - bizarro... but makes no difference to anything:

"Caution! Cross laced"
Oh yes, much danger.

Only one real negative point so far - the stickers don't stick. I'm already riding some very plain white rims. So what's going on there Sun? You don't want me advertising your wares as I park my bike by a trailhead cafe?

The wheel build went very smoothly. A small bump (0.5mm) around the pinned joint but nothing I wouldn't expect and nothing that will affect how the rim rides. No problems getting these trued and tensioned. Ok so far - so how did these hit the wallet?

Budget sheet:

• £40 2x Sun Ringle Estate Rims
• £10 2x 32 ACI Alpina spokes (part of a bulk buy on ebay)
• £80 1x Set of On-One Max hubs
• £40 2x Panaracer CG 4X*
• £5 2x servings of Stan's delicious and nutritious magic tyre milk
• £5 2x BMX tubes
• £42 1x SRAM 990 cassette

* In reality, I bought a pair of Conti Verticals - at £20 each. Which I then stuck on my winter/wet wheels... freeing up the Panaracers for these summer treads.

Grand total: £222 total, £130 for the bare metalwork and £92 for gears & rubber. Not bad for all new parts - and I didn't have to skimp on tyres & cassette. I already had the discs, so haven't added them in. I guess they would be about another £30.


Could I have found anything cheaper? Maybe.. but probably not without going for new-old-stock discounts. All this stuff is current.

PS

The Panaracers are an awesome ride in the dry but lethal when the going gets slippery. They're odd tyres - hard tread on a soft casing (usually its the other way around), and the tread blocks just don't 'dig in' to soft stuff or shed mud at all well, but on hardpack or dry rock they're right at home, grip like crap on a blanket, and roll fast. Definitely summer-only tyres. They have a big casing which fills out nicely on wider rims.

In the wet I'm using Conti Vertical Black Chillis (wrapped around some medium width 28mm Sun rims laced to Hope Pro 2 hubs) - good all round tyre and nothing really needs saying about the black chilli rubber - not the cheapest choice but well worth it. Mostly it seems if people are going for an all-round Conti then its the Rubber Queens but I like the Verticals.