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sun ringle black flag vs shimano xt
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
any input into which is a better wheel.riding singletrack but not making big air.
looking to spend no more than $400 and taking advantage of the post xmas sales.
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I have been very happy with them.
Not sure about the XTs, but after my experience with the Sun Ringle Dirty Flea rear freehub I've come to the conclusion that Sun RIngle freehub bodies (the bit on which the rear cogs mount) are made of cheese.
My Rize came with stock with a wheelset built with a Dirty Flea rear hub. I liked the freewheel action, very quick take-up. What I didn't like was the cheap SRAM cassette that was fitted from the factory did to it - the type where the top and middle three sets of cogs are not mounted on spiders but are individual cogs with plastic spacers in between. The cassette chewed halfway through the splines because of the soft alloy used on the freehub body
I had to use a chainwhip to somehow rotate the cassette back out of the slots chewed into the splines (don't remember now how I managed to lock the freehub to achieve this), and then carefully lever off the cassette, which took some force to get past the burring. Hopefully fitting a better quality cassette like an SLX or XT 9-speed will stop a repeat, as this wheelset has been converted to tubeless and transferred to my son's bike.
Not happy with the quality of the materials and other aspects of the design of the cassette splines were poor in my view. I would hope that if the Black Flag is further up-range than the Dirty Flea the freehub would be better engineered, but based on my experience I'd be looking *very* closely to confirm before considering the brand again.
As you found out the hard way, if you run an alloy freehub then use a cassette with a spider which spreads the load - like the PG990 in the SRAM line, or the Shimano M770 - both mount the largest six sprockets on an alloy spider.
I wouldn't really blame the manufacturer of the freehub - its just a natural consequence of using a softer metal to save weight - and you have to adjust behaviour accordingly (ie. buy more expensive cassettes!)
Sun Rims are my favourite for a reason.
My 1st choice.
The irritating thing was that the cassette is what came on the bike as stock. When I first started mtb on my dear departed Mongoos Tyax hardtail, I used similarly constructed cheap SRAM 8-speed cassettes on a pair of cheap wheelsets which also had alloy freehub bodies. They didn't get chewed up anywhere like this Dirty Flea hub.
The splines on the Dirty Flea freehub body are minimal - they're just an edge on either side and scooped out in the middle like two parallel lines, and their height was low with a soft edge. The lack of height and poorly defined edge on the splines was part of the cause I reckon.
If the cassette can do that to the freehub, it raises questions in my mind regarding wear and service life inside the hub where the pawls engage .
In this case I think there's a reason why Mavic use steel for their freehub bodies all the way through to the top-shelf CrossMax SLRs
Actually, I told a lie earlier: I have an XT centrelock disc hub on the 700c wheelset I've been using for commuting for about 2 years, and it has been excellent. It's a drop-in replacement fit for my Mavic wheelsets, no shimming required and the disc rotor and cassette line up perfectly. While not as light as my Mavic wheelsets, it's been just as completely bombproof.
Does sound like poor design combined with soft alloy = mangled freehub...
My Ringle rims and hubs have proven to be bullet proof for years. But I don't suppose you were building a 33mm freeride wheel, right?
I don't think you would go too wrong with XT wheels though... but I would suggest going with rims that are as wide as you are comfortable with. More tyre grip that way. My advice... don't do skinny.