Bontrager Mustang or Valiant

The Truth said:

Heres another edition of an old comparison

Bontrager Mustangs or Valiants?????????

I've been happy with Mustang A-Syms. (unitl I swithced to RynoLiteXL's)

The Truth said:

Heres another edition of an old comparison

Bontrager Mustangs or Valiants?????????

165 lb XC hard-tailed speed freak on the East Coast. I hit the rocks in Ringwood, NJ and the
trails in VT. Nothing more than the occasional 2-3 foot drop in terms of pure air.

Im concerned with strength and sidewall wear (running XTR V- brakes) so any comments on these two
factors with either of these two hoops would be great!

Im going to lace these to King Hubs.

Thanks!!!

Rich

I've used both and they are very similar. The Valiant is sold as the light weight version, but due
to inconsistent manufacturing, the weights vary widely. Go with the ceramic coated Valiant and
you'll worry less about rim wear.

Eric Lafferty <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

I've used both and they are very similar. The Valiant is sold as the light weight version, but due
to inconsistent manufacturing, the weights vary widely. Go with the ceramic coated Valiant and
you'll worry less about rim wear.

Im leaning towards the Valiants due to the ceramic sidewalls. KB
stopped making the Stangs in ceramic, which irritates me, but oh well.

Im going for a strong, light rim that will LAST, catastrophic crashes and bashes aside. I really
dont want to dump $300 in rims every 18 months. I know the Valiants are the lighter and weaker of
the two, but by how much. Im 165 LB and Im riding a hardtail on the East Coast. Lots of roots and
rocks and 2-3 foot drops. Im not terribly hard on rims. The stock Rolf Satellites I had lasted three
years without a problem except sidewall wear.

Which way should I go here??

Thanks,

Rich

RkFast said:

Eric Lafferty <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

I've used both and they are very similar. The Valiant is sold as the light weight version, but due
to inconsistent manufacturing, the weights vary widely. Go with the ceramic coated Valiant and
you'll worry less about rim wear.

Im leaning towards the Valiants due to the ceramic sidewalls. KB
stopped making the Stangs in ceramic, which irritates me, but oh well.

Im going for a strong, light rim that will LAST, catastrophic crashes and bashes aside. I really
dont want to dump $300 in rims every 18 months. I know the Valiants are the lighter and weaker of
the two, but by how much. Im 165 LB and Im riding a hardtail on the East Coast. Lots of roots and
rocks and 2-3 foot drops. Im not terribly hard on rims. The stock Rolf Satellites I had lasted
three years without a problem except sidewall wear.

Which way should I go here??

I was considering the same 2 rims and the head wrench that my local LBS warned me that he would only
use the Valiant for really light or easy riders -- he likes to build wheels and most of his comments
are dead-on.

I went with the Mustang assym and the rear only lasted about 3k miles before splitting around the
middle (between spoke holes, inside under the rim tape). I should mention that this seems to be a
problem that I've had -- every rim that I've owned has done this, so it may not be the Mustang 🙂.
That is, except my current Mavic F219 which has lasted the longest of any rear rim for me -- but
it's disc specific, and the F519 that I tried before the Mustang did split the same way. YMMV.

David

David Kunz said:

I went with the Mustang assym and the rear only lasted about 3k miles before splitting around the
middle (between spoke holes, inside under the rim tape). I should mention that this seems to be a
problem that I've had -- every rim that I've owned has done this, so it may not be the Mustang 🙂.
That is, except my current Mavic F219 which has lasted the longest of any rear rim for me -- but
it's disc specific, and the F519 that I tried before the Mustang did split the same way. YMMV.

I'm curious as to whether or not you buy anodized (non silver) rims. It's been my experience that
non-anodized rims almost never crack, while anodized rims do quite often.

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of the $695 ti frame

Mark Hickey said:

David Kunz said:

I went with the Mustang assym and the rear only lasted about 3k miles before splitting around the
middle (between spoke holes, inside under the rim tape). I should mention that this seems to be a
problem that I've had -- every rim that I've owned has done this, so it may not be the Mustang 🙂.
That is, except my current Mavic F219 which has lasted the longest of any rear rim for me -- but
it's disc specific, and the F519 that I tried before the Mustang did split the same way. YMMV.

I'm curious as to whether or not you buy anodized (non silver) rims. It's been my experience that
non-anodized rims almost never crack, while anodized rims do quite often.

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of the $695 ti frame

Black, anodized. I've been told that Mavic had problems with their anodization process which is
one of the reasons that I went to the Mustangs. If this latest rim goes as fast as the others
(it's at just over 4k-miles, about the failure time of the others), I'm going to go with a silver
Sun Rhino Lite next -- or just start considering the rims to be yet another "consumable" part that
I replace on a semiregular basis. I hate to say it, but I just like the way that black rims look
on my bike 🙂.

David

"The Truth" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Heres another edition of an old comparison

Bontrager Mustangs or Valiants?????????

Do a google search of the newsgroups rec.bicycles.tech with the qualifiers "Strange MTB Rim
Failure." The date of the thread was around Oct. 27, 2002.

So which way did you go now???

Rignt now, Im pretty high on the Mustangs. Ceramic or not, Im going to need new hoops in 3-5 years.

"Bikezelbub Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"The Truth" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Heres another edition of an old comparison

Bontrager Mustangs or Valiants?????????

Do a google search of the newsgroups rec.bicycles.tech with the qualifiers "Strange MTB Rim
Failure." The date of the thread was around Oct. 27, 2002.

David Kunz said:

Mark Hickey wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'm curious as to whether or not you buy anodized (non silver) rims. It's been my experience that
non-anodized rims almost never crack, while anodized rims do quite often.

Quoted message said:

Black, anodized. I've been told that Mavic had problems with their anodization process which is
one of the reasons that I went to the Mustangs. If this latest rim goes as fast as the others
(it's at just over 4k-miles, about the failure time of the others), I'm going to go with a silver
Sun Rhino Lite next -- or just start considering the rims to be yet another "consumable" part that
I replace on a semiregular basis. I hate to say it, but I just like the way that black rims look
on my bike 🙂.

You could use a magic marker! ;-)

The anodizing layer is VERY thin, but is also very brittle. It cracks (teeny little microscopic
cracks) and that tends to concentrate the normal stresses around the spoke holes at those cracks.
That can cause the crack to spread to the underlying aluminum rim.

I predict that Rhino Lite will last a good long while.

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of the $695 ti frame