Tomm Willians

Looking to upgrade the Stout SL 29ers on my Rockhopper. Suggestions for decent set of carbon below $1,500 please !

Kapusta

I would only spend that kind of money on wheels on a Rockhopper if they are compatible with the latest trends (Boost front and rear) so that they are more likely to be able to transfer to a new bike down the road.

$1500 gives you a lot of options. NOBL will have some builds that just come in around that. Or just google "custom bike wheels" and you'll see a list of places that can build something for that much.

There are also some Chinese outfits that do CF stuff Cheaper - BTLOS, Light Bicycle Wheels, Nextie (or something like that)

Polaris OBark

You can get some Santa Cruz/Reserve carbon wheels for around that (depending on hub). (They also just announced some really nice aluminum wheels which also have a lifetime warranty, for a very decent price).

prj71

This^^^

I have some BTLOS wheels on my mountain bike. Paid $700 during black friday sale. Probably around $1000 right now.

veganbikes

I wouldn't the Expert is their solid entry level bike and below that it isn't really worth it to do much to them aside ride them but in the end the bike uses QR 135 at the rear and 100mm at the front. QR is fine but very outdated for mountain bikes. Modern mountain bikes are all thru-axle and most are going to be boost spaced. I am sure you could find some wheels but they aren't going to be useful for much of anything beyond that bike generally. Some hubs are convertible to thru axle with some end caps or axles but in the end it will generally only get you to standard thru-axle spacing 12x142 and probably 12 or maybe if lucky 15x100 whereas boost is going to be 12x148 and 15x110.

Beyond all the axle stuff which is rather important. What is carbon going to do for your bike? I would stick with wider tires and tubeless and run them at lower pressure and that will probably help more. Also $1500 is more than the Expert new so I would rather just save the money towards say a Chisel or a Fuse or another nicer hardtail or save up for a full suspension. Ride the bike have fun on it, keep it in good shape but I don't really know that the wheels are going to be a worthy upgrade just yet.

Tomm Willians

Yes of course you’re correct I must admit….. my goal was to start shaving lbs off it and possibly even look at getting a Chinese carbon frame. I do realize this is never the cheapest way to accomplish this but doing it piecemeal (while not cheaper) is easier for me.

MTBing is really a joyful diversion for me from distance road cycling which is my preference, this why I didn’t invest a great deal into my MTB.
So kind of going about this backwards admittedly.

veganbikes

Ride this bike and build up the bike you want. Don't just buy some cheap stuff build something nice if that is what you want. It is not cheap but if you get what you want in the end that is the way to go. The bike is fine as is.

I sort of had the same idea but built it from a frame and ended up upgrading stuff because I dropped another project so I had some nicer drivetrain components and then the frame I wanted went out but I saw a nice ti frame I liked and built that up it quickly went to a nicer bike but I love the bike.

biker128pedal

Get good light tires. Try taping the rims you have and go tubeless. I did this on my 26er hard tail. On ancient non tubeless ready rims. It works and the ride is better. Also added a PNW Coastal dropper post. Ride good for hard tail riding. Then got a FS trail bike.

Russ Roth

Skip carbon and look for some decent older wheels that are/were high end but are now outdated. You'll find kings/I9/WI/XTR hubs with stans/mavic/velocity tubeless rims in the 500.00 range for quick release. Just bought my wife a cannondale SE4 which isn't an expensive bike, picked it for the fact that it uses boost wheels, at 35lbs it was chunky to begin with. Once it came home I immediately bought a new crankset to give her the crank length that's best for her and dropped 4lbs in the process. Cheap ass FSA square taper with an absurdly heavy BB vs SLX with XT chainring and BB. Weighed the tires at 1175g each with tubes, rims are tubeless so I've got some Schwalb Rocket Rons that are supposedly 715g each and are tubeless on the way. So anticipating another 2lbs off, and finally ordered an upgrade SR Suntour Air shock with remote lockout which is supposedly another 300g lighter than factory. This put the bike at about 28lbs which isn't light but is respectable. A cheap fishing scale is good for getting an idea of what's actually heavy on the bike and what's worth the cash to drop a reasonable weight or give better performance. I expect to do the wheels eventually but at 2175g for the set, they're lower on the list since it'll require a decent amount to save any real weight.