5 of the best vintage mountain bike wheels worth your money

Table of Contents

In this article I’m going to provide a number of the best vintage mountain bike wheels.

I’ve looked at all the top mountain bike models of the 80s and 90s from Cannondale, Koga Miyata, Trek and Giant and looked at what wheels were mounted.

It’s interesting to see a select few brands dominate the space. From Araya in the 80s to Mavic in the 90s when looking at rims. Shimano obviously dominated the space in both decades for hubs. And DT Swiss being the go-to supplier of spokes for a majority of wheels.

I will not go into tires since it’s always a better choice to have a set of new tires than twenty, thirty years old or older dried-out ones.

Newer tires can also be more fine-tuned to your particular riding style. For instance 26 inch slick mountain bike tires for more road-oriented use.

I will discuss rim brake wheels only.

Exotic wheels

HED Ringle Cross Country — Spin Tri-Spoke

I left out some of the more exotic wheels like the Following:

Spinergy Rev-x Roks
Spinergy Rev-x 6
Spinergy Spox
Spin Tri-Spoke
Spengle MTB 3,
HED Ringlé Downhill
Hed Ringlé Cross Country
Hed Ringlé Ti-Stix

These wheels are incredibly hard to find and/or extremely expensive because of it. They are also all almost impossible to service since they consist of proprietary parts.

If finding a wheel is hard, finding parts for these wheels might be even harder.

But even without these exotic carbon spoked oddities, there are still more than enough gorgeous and more affordable wheels, which are easier to service and downright better.

Araya RM-20

If you’re a purist and happen to have a very early eighties mountain bike you might want to go for the clean-looking Araya RM-20. If you want a bit more beefy set of rims for your build you can also opt for the extra 5mm. of the Araya RM-25.

The Araya RM-25 was released in 1984. The RM-20 came one year later on the market in 1985.

The RM-20 and the RM-25 come in both black and silver, so you can better finetune the overall color scheme.

They were used by multiple brands as the go-to solution for the first forays into off road cycling.

Shimano started to dominate the market in the eighties. And the Shimano Deore XT is a solid hub that goes with the rims.

These wheels are easy to service.

Specialized GX26

1990 Juli Furtado Yeti FRO — 1990 Yeti FRO

Another legendary name in the sport of mountain biking, Juli Furtado, rode her first Yeti FRO with a pair of Specialized GX26 mounted to them.

Her version also included Campagnolo Euclid hubs and Wheelsmith spokes. I doubt you’ll get them in that setup, but you’re bound to find them fitted with a set of Shimano Deore XT hubs.

These wheels are easy to service.

Sun Rhyno Lite

I once had a Cannondale M300 with Sun AT18 rims. The amount of abuse those rims could withstand was astonishing.

super v dh 4000 1997 — 1997 Cannondale Super V 4000

The Sun Rhyno Lite was mounted on the legendary Cannondale Super V DH 4000 model and I can only assume these downhill versions of the same brand are even stronger.

They come in a 26″ 24mm. width version, so plenty of room to mount some serious tires onto.

These wheels are easy to service.

Rolf Dolomite and Rolf Propel

In 1997 Rolf Diedric decided “less is more” and brought a wheel on the market with a less than conventional number of spokes. We’d all seen the carbon spoked wheels, but these wheels had somewhat normal spokes, only differently laced.

Almost the entire upper lineup of Trek was decked out with Rolf wheels in 1999 (the Trek VRX 400 got Bontrager Maverick rims with). With Rolf Dolomite for the Trek VRX downhill section, and Rolf Propel for the Trek Y SL cross country versions.

The Rolf Dolomite wheels have a dual setup of 24 spokes front and back. The Rolf Propel had 24 spokes in the back and just 20 up front. They were fresh-looking and expensive. At the time I always marveled at the less-than-36-spoked wheels.

With this setup Rolf was able to reduce the weight by sacrificing a bit of wheel strength. If you’re looking for the strongest wheels available, look elsewhere.

Although the rim and spoke combi were generally considered rock-solid, the freehubs were not. So before buying, ensure they are in a somewhat tolerable state or expect them to rumble along with you.

If you’re looking for an eye-catcher without going full tilt with carbon tri-spokes wheels, and still want to be able to jump off a cliff and survive with a 50/50 percent change, Rolf Dolomites or Propels are a sure bet.

These wheels are not easy to service.

Mavic CrossMax SLR rim brake version

The last entry in this list is a relatively new one, the Mavic CrossMax SLR. It was around 2010 that professional riders started using bigger diameter wheels in races and 26″ went out of fashion.

Mavic is a brand that dominated the 90s mountain bike wheels. Just as Shimano decided to offer entire groupsets for a specific bike, Mavic decided it was a good idea to offer entire wheelsets instead of individual parts.

This approach worked for Shimano as it defeated smaller specialized brands, and it also worked for Mavic in exactly the same fashion.

The Mavic CrossMax was introduced in 1996 as a top tier wheel. The Mavic CrossMax SLR comes with awesome aesthetics, aero spokes with a less than standard 18/20 combination, extremely light, stiff and quick.

The fact that you can get it in a 26″ package for v-brakes makes it the perfect choice if you want to upgrade your retro build with the fastest XC wheels you can put in an older frame. And the rims are tubeless ready.

Expensive, extremely hard to find, hard to repair. If you find a pair, let me know.

Overview of vintage mountain bike wheels

Rims	Hubs	Spokes	Year	Sprockets	Brand
Sun Metal	Specialized	14 gauge	1984	5	Cannondale
Araya 7X	SunTour XC Sport	14 gauge, stainless	1986	5	Cannondale
Araya RM-20	SunTour XC	14 gauge, stainless	1987	5	Cannondale
Wolber M-58	Shimano Deore XT	Hoshi 14 gauge	1987	6	Koga Miyata
Araya RM-20	Shimano Deore XT	14 gauge, stainless	1988	6	Cannondale
Matrix 6061 T6 Singletrack	Shimano Deore XT		1989	7	Trek
Wolber AT-18	Shimano Deore XT	14 gauge, stainless	1990	7	Cannondale
Matrix Mt. Aero	Bullseye Precision	14 gauge, stainless	1990	7	Trek
Specialized GX26	Campagnolo Euclid	Wheelsmith	1990	7	Yeti
Campagnolo Contax	SunTour XC Pro	DT Competition	1991	7	Cannondale
Matrix Titan II	Bullseye Precision		1991	7	Trek
Chinook CR-16	Shimano Deore XT	Wheelsmith	1992	7	Cannondale
Matrix Singletrack Pro	Shimano XTR		1992	7	Trek
Mavic PSP 231 Argent	Shimano XTR	Wheelsmith	1993	8	Cannondale
Mavic PSP 230 SBP	Hugi (R), CODA Magic (F)	DT Super Comp	1994	8	Cannondale
Matrix Singletrack Pro	Shimano Deore XT Parallax	Sapim 14/15 gauge	1993	8	Trek
Rigida Laser 40	Giant EXT-Pro		1995	8	Giant
Mavic 217 SUB/UB	Shimano XT (R), CODA 900M (F)	DT Swiss	1995	8	Cannondale
Matrix Voodoo	White Industries	Wheelsmith 15 gauge	1995	8	Trek
Mavic 220 UB	Shimano XT	DT Swiss 15/16 gauge	1996	8	Giant
Mavic 220 UB	CODA 900	DT Swiss 15 gauge	1996	8	Cannondale
Sun Rhyno Lite	Sachs Quartz (R; disc), CODA Moto 120 (F)	DT Swiss 14 gauge	1997	8	Cannondale
Matrix Swami	Shimano XTR	DT Swiss 14/15 gauge	1997	8	Trek
Mavic Crossmax	Mavic Crossmax	Mavic Crossmax	1998	8	Cannondale
Mavic 317	CODA Compact (disc)	DT Swiss 15 gauge	1998	8	Cannondale
Cane Creek Swami	Cane Creek Chrono	Cane Creek 14/15 gauge	1998	8	Trek
Mavic X223	CODA Expert (disc)		1999	8	Cannondale
Cane Creek WAM			1999	8	Cannondale
Bontrager Maverick		DT Swiss 15 gauge	1999	8	Trek
Rolf Dolomite (3)			1999	8	Trek
Rolf Propel (1)
Rolf Urraco (2)
Rolf Satellite (4)