Latest Custom Builds — 27.5"

We built a pair of Hope hubs on Spank rims for a mate of Nick’s and he was so impressed he came to us for advice. He advised us of a history of smashing wheels on Sydney’s Upper North Shore - trails we at XLR8 know well. Hope Pro4 hubs and Spank Spike rims are logical choices. Both are not the lightest product out there, but they are good value and super tough! Sapim Race spokes and brass nipples are all that is required to keep the front wheel together, laced in an uber reliable 3x pattern. On the rear...

Michael called with an unusual request - he wanted a pair of wheels to "last the rest of his life!". Just about to retire, and wanted wheels to suit his Yeti that are super reliable, and a modern width for his local rocky Canberra trails. He still rides pretty gnarly stuff, so we suggested the Project 321 hubs. He liked this idea as their Turquoise colour works well with his Yeti. They are also bombproof and have an industry leading 216 points of engagement! Not expensive either! We discussed rims for quite a while, and he agreed with our suggestion for...

Adam shot us an email after meeting one of our other customers at Thredbo bike park. He'd been having issues with two consecutive sets of factory wheelsets, and had decided he needed some tough reliable XLR8 wheels. He usually rides the rocky technical trails around Sydney, and being a heavier bloke, wanted a tough light wheelset with burly hubs. As a result we selected the Nextie Carbon Premium Enduro 27.5" rims with a 29mm internal width. A reinforced carbon 36h rear rim and a White Industries XMR hub was used. The additional 35g of weight from the spokes and the extra...

Dan rides a very unusual Enduro rig. The Kiwi made Zerode Taniwha uses the Pinion P1:12 frame mounted gearbox, and thus only a single front chainring, and one rear cog. This gearbox provides 12 gears, evenly spaced apart to give a total gearing range of 600 percent. Setup appropriately, this can offer gearing as high as a SRAM 11s 32x10t set-up, but with a super low ratio that’s even lower than a 46t cog! This special bike requires special wheels. Dan's old 26" wheels had been serving him well, but the bike was designed to accomodate 27.5" and he was keen to try...

Geoff has been running a Rockshox RS-1 on his Trek, but was unhappy with the reliability. He worked with our friends at Cyclinic and decided to migrate over to Fox. Unfortunately the DT Swiss hub that was implanted in the OEM front wheel was not strictly compatible with the Boost standard. Rockshox had specified a unique hub for the RS-1. As a result, Geoff needed a rebuild to use his wheel in his new fork. Into a DT Swiss carbon hoop, it was only natural to use a DT Swiss 240s hub. We used DT Swiss Competition spokes in black to...