Been using elite carbon rims 3 yrs with cx-ray spokes and polyax nipples dt240 hubs with no problems. Very happy with them. Upgraded the spokes with carbon spokes and a new connical 72t ratchet hubs now weighing in at 1050g pair. Elite is certainly top quality with over 8k kms on them with alot of races under its belt. I like your long term review on this.
tnx for another awesome honest review, i always wait and watch for your videos and base some of my purchases based on what you post. you have one of the un biased videos i can watch.
I got these on your recommendation as well. Raced them a few times and they've been great. You've used them a lot more then me so glad to hear they're doing fine with heavy use. I just used matt black touchup paint to cover a scratch or two.
First, Thanks for posting these reviews. Super happy with the light pro33's! After watching your first review I immediately purchased a set using your discount. Installed on my 2021 Marin Team 2... They have held up well on my hardtail using it for trail and small jumps. Spokes lost a little tension but remained true.
Thanks for sharing. Yah like I mentioned in the video, after two seasons I would touch 4-5 spokes on this wheelset but mostly because I build wheels myself and because I can🙂 Otherwise all good!
I have had these in my cart several times, just haven't pulled the trigger yet. With your discount, they're really, really tempting! Glad to hear they're holding up well.
@@LoveMTB would you happen to know if the listed price ($739.00) on their website is in Canadian Funds? Would love to try these out with your discount!
Being a heavier rider, I went with the Gnar Trail 29er Elite wheels. A small weight penalty over the PRO36 and I beat on them just as hard as I do my alloy DT Swiss EX511 / I9 1/1 wheelset and have had no issues. Wouldn't hesitate to buy another set of Elite wheels.
Likewise - was procrastinating on buying the Pro36 then the Gnar Trail was released, at a discount, so I snapped them up. Just replaced the bearings in them, many k's on them.
I have these same wheels on one of my bikes and the only thing I don't like about them is where the spokes cross one another. They tend to ping and creek at times. Especially when it's cold out and the bike came from a fresh wash. I found that a small bit of corrosion forms at the connections. It takes a bit of work to get in there to clean them and then to add a little light oil. This solves the noises for about a month or so. I can also attest to the Elite warranty. They covered a claim by sending me a whole new wheel. Certainly a stand up company that believes in their products. I just wish they had Super Boost spacing as a option.
Great to see that you’re still happy with them. In all honesty, I had been a bit hesitant thinking they could be “too good to be true” and bought some Reynolds Black Label that were on sale instead of
Update: I received my Pro36 wheels and tested the spoke tension in front and rear wheels. I noticed 2 spokes on the front wheel were tensioned way below the others using the Park Tool TM-1 tension meter. The Park Tool WTA app showed those spokes were beyond 20% variance from the average tension. The rear wheel had no tension issues. I talked to EliteWheels at Sea Otter and also corresponded with Anthony via email at their customer support. They told me to go to my LBS and have them tension & true the wheel and they would reimburse me. I went ahead and did that and received reimbursement via PayPal for the $40 service cost. Excellent customer service! If you buy these wheels its worthwhile to check the tension before you ride them.
Have 35mm ID rims on my Trek Full Satchel 29+ mule (3 years running)👌 The OEM aluminium wheels were 40mm ID and flexy as 🫣 Love my 29+ rig with these wheels on it 🤘 Rear wheel has DT Swiss 350 hub w/ 54 tooth ratchet upgrade. Front is some proprietary thing that matches the rim(s). NB - they were expensive... but, I've never needed to touch them & the Full Stache has done some gnarly riding - including an Enduro Race. PS - 29x3.0 SE4 tyre on rear w/ 29x3.0 Maxxis Minion DHRII tyre up front.
I use either flat or glossy black nail polish for rim scratches, and carbon frame blemishes. On glossy rim or carbon surfaces, car wax and some elbow grease can remove scuffs or light scratches.
I am one season in with a set of Elite Pro33. Raced and ridden regularly just had to replace a set of front bearings after a couple of very wet races, but other than that all been faultless, I am even considering getting a spare set for the races. Very pleased with mine.
Excellent review! I have a set of these ordered based on your reviews of this brand. I ride year round in central Georgia. Appreciate you code as well!
@@LoveMTB Hello.. I received my Pro 36 wheel a few days ago. I have this issue with my SRAM X01 Eagle XG-1295 cassette, which I removed from my 350 hub, it will only screw down about 2 revolutions and stops on the new Elite driver. The threads are incompatible I assume. Once I removed the cassette I could see that the first 2 threads on the driver had the black paint stripped off. I've had this same cassette on/off my DT Swiss 350 hub a few times and it still screws down as normal on the SRAM Ratchet XD driver. I have emailed Elite Wheels service and waiting on a reply. I can only surmise that Elite Wheels will send me a replacement XD driver. So I am wondering what my options are if you could provide some insight. Would my DT Swiss Ratchet driver work on the Elite Pro 36 hub? Appreciate your insights ! Thanks Bob
You can use them with the DT XD driver no problem, direct replcement. And what you're telling me....rotate the cassette a bit, the spline is a bit different on the Elite but works just fine. Unless you cross threaded it?@@boballard6040
In my option, it's a bit tough to justify purchasing these over a set of We Are One carbon wheels. Using the LoveMTB discount code, a pair of Elite 29er Pro36 wheels comes in at $861.78CAD ($628.15 USD). If you add a conservative 5% import duty (standard for bike parts in Canada) to this, the delivered price becomes $904.86 (estimated). A pare of WAO Union Wheels with i9 1/1 hubs is currently $1,176CAD (after taxes, free shipping within Canada). With the WAO, you get hubs from a more established manufacturer and a lifetime warranty on the wheels from WAO (Elite wheels warranty is 3-years). For the extra money, I would probably side with the WAO (recognizing that an extra ~$280 is a lot of money). Extra bonus is supporting a Canadian company who emphasizes local manufacturing.
Now, as in today, you might be corret, those were 1400 wheels. Still price is quite different, I chose DT350s instead (1/1 are nothing special) and with tax ends up 1356cad, 500$ more. Great to have (good) options though
@@LoveMTB For sure, everything depends on where the sale is and what the finalized prices will be delivered. It's good to know that the Elites are a safe option to choose, especially when they can under cut the market of domestic (North America) suppliers. Keep up the great reviews 👍
Why doesn't WAO publish their wheelset weights? They only publish the rim weight which is useless when trying to make wheel comparisons. The current price on WAO's Faction wheels with DT Swiss 350 and CX-Ray spokes, which is comparable to the Pro36, discounted for Black Friday is $1,160 USD. The Pro36 are $606 with no duties or sales tax for USA or $866 with DT Swiss 350 upgrade. I am probably going to get the stock Pro36 with their proprietary hubs. That price is too low to not give them a try.
The dried sealant on my rims covers the scratches. I did get yellow tire paint on Amazon that highlights the Berd spokes rather nicely, though, so I'm not above the pursuit of bling!
Great review as always!!! I use a permanent black felt marker to hide my scratches but it doesn't last forever.I wonder why they cancel your warranty if used on a e-bike?I've got prob 13,000kms on my dt 350 wheels without any problems and these wheels are basically a dt 350.
Good idea Glenn! I used permannt markers in the past but they fade away in time. For eBikes they have the Gnar Trail, bit beefier and slightly heavier than this.
Nice review about the wheels. I bought the pro33 with pro ratchet hubs. I saw that the DT-swiss is compatible with the normal ratchet-rings. Are they more compatible with the dt-swiss EXP ratchet and one spring? What kind of ratchet are they use? ZTTO?
Nothing is comparible with the EXP, just EXP. Ratchet is their own, they are a big manufacturer. I have more about ratchet options in this newer vid - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c31LYDwZDDQ.html
@@LoveMTB Thank you for the response. I just want to know which brand they use for the ratchet-rings. I can't find it on there website. But if i can replace it with the DT-swiss, it's ok for me. Normaly i ride only with dt-swiss wheels and hubs, every month i maintain my hubs.
If I get a deep scratch or gouge on my carbon rims I use either clear lacquer or epoxy resin then sand n wax polish the scratches and deep gouges and they virtually disappear.
I would recommend them as well. I've been almost a year on mine. I just ordered the 60T upgrade for higher engagement. Great pricing on really good carbon wheels.
After watching your video I picked up the gnar trail version from Elite and they have been fantastic for the several weeks that I have owned them. I am curious to know how have yours been holding up specially the high engagement hub??
Cool wheels! Question: what size tires are you running on the rear? I have a 2020 SB100 that I’ve been running 2.25 tires in the back, and I want to try a 2.4 instead, but it looks like the clearance might be a little tight. Have you successfully fit 2.4 tires on your SB100?
Wondering if you could explain how to choose between the pro33 and pro36. Is it just the rim ID 27 vs 30mm? Is it better to go wider for xc racing? Thanks
I just missed the sale event on that wheel set. I guess there's always next time. Aliexpress is going to have another sale i hope its cheaper than the one i just missed.
Thanks for the review! Would you pick these or the new Gnar Trail? I am searching for a wheelset upgrade for my Occam h10. With import duties We Are One are too expensive for Europeans. Do you prefer the Pro Hub or the new Frequency? There are also 9velo that are very tempting but very very light, am a bit afraid I ride everything with one bike. Thanks!
Thanks! It would be a hard choice in a way, I am biased towards rathet hubs as they gave me no headaches over the last few years. If you like the bzzzz Frequency for sure. Gnar rims are really really nice, assume you saw my vid on those also. For heavier rider, ebikes, ENDURO type riding I would probably go for Gnar. Otherwise can't beat the PRO36 I think.
Skipping for the rather hubs can be caused by using way too much grease or the wrong type. If it skips even once I would check right away for too much of it. And no, zero issues on mine as you heard in the video. Maybe a front bearing is getting close to the end of life but nothing else.@@melch1
@@LoveMTB I've been using the titanium coated one branded as "fovno" (35$) there's some greyish metal inside the grease after this summer but nothing like the one and a half missing tooth I had with the genuine DT 54 alloy one I got from bikeinn. You can't feel the difference iirc it's also something like 30g heavier but I'll take no chipping over that kinda weight any day. I have another one (greyish color without special coating) branded as "ztto" in a set of 240 clones but I have only about 60hrs of riding on it I cannot tell if it's as a good as the gold "fovno" *About bikeinn; some might argue that bikeinn might sell fakes but I fully trust them I've been buying mavic and Garbaruk parts, also tires from them without any fake issues it's a well established business.
Good question, even forgot about it. Noticed that towards the end of the season antet a muddy race assumed that I did not clean well enough especially at the intersection of those cx Ray spokes.
@@LoveMTB even when perfectly clean, it doesn't go away, since spokes aren't round. experienced same with Mavic wheels with flat spokes and also on DT Swiss XRC 1200. so now I have DT Swiss XMC 1200, with round spokes and 0 problems sure, they're heavier, because of 240 hub (instead of 180 eith ceramic bearings), but the rim is stronger/thicker and no spokes related noise anymore and 240 hub is more than enough
Whoa!! I’ve been in the market for carbon wheels and was primarily looking at Reserve 30 SL’s with DT Swiss 350. They are $1599 and weigh 1702 gms. If the specs are correct, your wheels are 1486 gms and cost HALF as much! How much did your wheels weigh?
Thanks, I saw the extra 3% for black friday. After some additional research I think I am probably going with Reserve 30 SL or possibly We Are One Faction wheels. I am not a fan of the straight pull and Elite does not offer J-bend.@@LoveMTB
Well my Elite pro 36's. & Mrs Ghost Rider MTB 's Pro 33 are taking a beating and keep on clicking.. I cover the scratches with clear tough coat nail polish. The spokes are solid & the bearings are clean. The rear ratchet gets noisy and needs grease to drop the dBs. Only complaint as I showed on my channel is the ratchet isn't compatible with the DT Swiss hubs. And you can't replace the ratchets... You might want to check that in this video....
@@LoveMTB I disassembled the Elite hub, inserted both (separate tests) a ZTTO & a DT swiss ratchet pair. The result was that no matter how you combine the springs &/or spacers with the different ratchets the Elite hubs will compress the "other" ratchets so they can't freewheel. I figured out the how the Elite ratchets are designed there is material removed which it is not in the ZTTO ratchets & the DT Swiss have too much material removed from the back side of the ratchet to work in the Elite hub assembly. I finally got a response from elite confirming they are not compatible & they don't make a 54 tooth ratchet pair of their own, sad but 36 is it. FYI, I saw the spacer.... If that is the magic pixie part, then perfect ....
have you been using the original DT freehub? or the original DT ratchets? I have the same hub and sometimes I notice that some teeth jump on the 36T ratchet, and I was thinking of putting the original DT ratchets on.
I also have occasional skipping (maybe once per ride) during high power sprints. Tried full clean and grease of various amounts (dt swiss ratcher grease), but I havent found a fix. Elitewheels customer service sent me a new freehub body but the problem still remains. I'd recommend ordering these with the DT350 hubs.
probably a safe ber. Skipping comes from the ratchet not the freehub. Have you tried lighter grease like the DumondTech one I show in the video?@@Alaakso
I read one review for these wheels that said he replaced the ratchet for a double spring, like DT (to prevent slipping ) Do you think that's a good idea?
This is false, DT swiss 350 ratchet rings are not compatible with the Pro hubs. I have verified this my self by trying out my DT350 rings and the freewheel mechanism binds up when installed to this hub. No matter what combination of parts (including the freehub body) I've tried, no compatibility. I measured the rings using my calipers and the DT swiss rings are "taller". Also Elitewheels customer service confirmed that the DT swiss ratchet upgrade is not combatible with their hubs.