Calling all wheel nerds,
I picked up an Easton Havoc DH wheelset earlier in the year (Specs: 20mm front, 12x150mm rear with a SRAM XD driver, 26" rims). If I didn't get them for a song, I'd be pretty upset about how terrible the rims are. I'm not sure what alloy Easton is using for these rims, but I'd put the strength rating somewhere between silly putty and frozen peanut butter. Apparently, this is the same wheelset that Stevie won the 2013 WC overall on(!) He should get some posthumous award for that feat alone. I also heard he went through a "few" sets of them.
Anyway, my rear rim is toast, and I'm now weighing my options. My first thought was to cut my losses and get a new rear wheel or complete wheelset. But considering that the hubs seem pretty decent, I was wondering if it's worth trying to build a new wheel with a non-Easton rim on the Havoc hub. I don't know if the spokes are proprietary, but apparently DT has a good selection of straight-pull spokes these days (are these compatible with the Easton hubs??). Another consideration is that the hubs are 28 spoke count, so obviously need a 28 hole rim. And this is going on a DH bike that sees a fair amount of abuse (not an ideal situation, I know).
Has anyone successfully built a (good) different rim onto these hubs? After excellent experiences on my trail bike, I'm partial to DT rims at the moment, and looks like the DT EX471 comes in a 26" 28 hole version, and while it's not specifically a DH rim, it HAS to be stronger than the Havoc.
Any other suggestions? Should I just ditch the hubs and build a wheel from scratch?
Cheers,
Ryan
These are the wheels in question:
