Best XC rim brake wheels 97-2000

[warrior4life]

I'm building an XC bike up and I want to add some decent 26" rim brake wheels.

What should I be looking for? Any stand out models from the late 90's?

Was there a go-to XC wheel at the time?

 

[FluffyChicken]

Mavic 517 (or be cheeky and go XC717 from a bit later)

or are you talking about complete wheels, like Mavic Crossmax ?

(this is really 98+ stuff)

 

[warrior4life]

Ideally complete. I'm just looking for a rough idea of what I should be looking for.
I was racing MTB at the time but never had much money so I just rode what came on the bike. Usually XT level. I was looking for something a little different. The wheels will be ridden and raced in XC but nothing serious.

 

[Mikey08]

Crossmax or Hope Ti glide on mavic SUP ceramic

 

[FluffyChicken]

So 'wheels' complete where pretty new thing still. Mavic Crossmax being the most common, probably as they kicked it off, these are different to your traditional built up wheels of Shimano, some spokes and a rim.

For built up wheels
then as mentioned Mavic X517 being the top XC by them, Spoke some DT Revolutions or equivalent by others and XTR/Hope Ti-Glide/DT/Goldtech/other-fancy-hub

98+ is a bit out of my knowledge for wheels, but these are what tends to get mentioned on here, so I don't really know any top end competing rims.

New stuff had started to come out in 2000 so here the very end of it as a snapshot https://web.archive.org/web/2000121...tioncycles.com/categories.asp?category=wheels
https://web.archive.org/web/20001018103203/http://merlincycles.co.uk/
You may need to use a flash emulator with older websites...

 

[warrior4life]

I really appreciate all these replies. Its been a HUGE help and definitely answered my questions. Thank you all! Have a great a weekend,

 

[Tricky1977]

Crossmax (edit cross ride sorry, not the same!) are an excellent wheel set, light, fast and strong based on what I’ve experienced. Prob ably my favourite wheels (based on mid range experience).
I also have about 3 sets of 517 rims which all perform well.

Edit: I got my wheels mixed up… will go and research cross max now

 

[Tricky1977]

So 'wheels' complete where pretty new thing still. Mavic Crossmax being the most common, probably as they kicked it off, these are different to your traditional built up wheels of Shimano, some spokes and a rim.

For built up wheels
then as mentioned Mavic X517 being the top XC by them, Spoke some DT Revolutions or equivalent by others and XTR/Hope Ti-Glide/DT/Goldtech/other-fancy-hub

98+ is a bit out of my knowledge for wheels, but these are what tends to get mentioned on here, so I don't really know any top end competing rims.

New stuff had started to come out in 2000 so here the very end of it as a snapshot https://web.archive.org/web/2000121...tioncycles.com/categories.asp?category=wheels
https://web.archive.org/web/20001018103203/http://merlincycles.co.uk/
You may need to use a flash emulator with older websites...

Damn! A link to the internet actives showing shop inventory from 2000

 

[FluffyChicken]

One should be CRC and the other Merlin Cycles.
UK two major online ones at the time iirc.

you could check out what on-one, evans, stiff etc may have been selling.

 

[ishaw]

Wheelsets as mentioned above tended to be a combination of decent hubs, rims and spokes. Crossmax were an exception in many ways as they were I suppose a factory wheelset rather than a sum of parts. Other similar options of the era were spin tri spoke thermoplastic wheels, as were spinergy spox (I could be wrong on year on this so don't shoot me down). Other possible options are gipiemn3 techno and Rolf wheelsets (I had some dolomites but think there were other models).

When it comes down to decent hubs, hope are of course worthy contenders, xtr m950 are also imho great hubs.

Rim wise, Mavic seemed to rule the day, 517, 519, d521 and I'm sure others are worthy contenders.

I can't remember if bontrager racelite wheelsets were of that era, but iirc the hubs were made by Chris king, so not too shabby. Other bontrager hubs weren't so good.