TESTED: Raild Wheels Custom DT Swiss FR560 Wheel Set

Words: Will Shaw
Photos: Tim Bardsley-Smith

Raild Wheels is a Sydney wheel building company founded in late 2020. The two owners of the company are Eugene Holdenson and Hamish Simpson, and they’re both passionate about lowering the price point for quality wheels. 

Read more about Raild Wheels in our Made in Australia piece here!

Whilst they’re based in Sydney, Raild’s wheels are being ridden nationwide, as fast turnarounds is one of the key elements of their service. If you order a wheel set in Adelaide on Monday, chances are you’ll be riding it the following weekend.

At this stage Raild offer two rim brands and two hub brands for their wheel sets, with a third hub brand on the way that I’ll discuss later. Their aluminium rim offerings are all DT Swiss, with the XM481, EX511, and new FR541 rims on offer. In the carbon department, they offer We Are One’s four carbon rims. For hubs, you can select DT Swiss 350 or 240 hubs alongside Industry Nine Hydras. There’s also the option to upgrade to DT Swiss’ 54 tooth star ratchet if you’re selecting 350 hubs. Your spoke options are DT Competition or Sapim D-Light spokes. 

The process of ordering a set of Raild wheels is simple. Dropdown menus on their website allow you to select your preferred rim, hub, freehub, rotor mount, and spokes. Raild include tubeless tape, and you can also opt for tubeless valves, CushCore (front, rear, or both), sealant, and centrelock to 6 bolt adaptors. If you’re not sure what wheels would suit your terrain and riding style best you can speak to Hamish and Eugene over the phone, as they’re both riders with a wealth of experience riding different locations around Australia. 

When I was looking for a wheel set for my RAAW Madonna V2.2 long term test frame, Raild Wheels were front of mind. The reason why is that for many years my preferred wheel set on a longer travel bike has been a DT Swiss alloy rim (either EX471 or FR560) built onto either DT 350 or Hope Pro 4 hubs. Whilst this is a custom wheel set many wheel builders around Australia can build for you, nobody is making it quite as easy, or with as fast a turnaround as Raild at this stage. 

The wheel set I opted for from Raild in July used DT Swiss’ most heavy duty 29” rim at the time, the FR560, paired with Erase hubs, J bend DT Competition spokes, and brass nipples. This wheel set will retail for $990 (the Erase hubs aren’t currently available on Raild’s website and the FR541 rim has since replaced the FR560), which is a very sharp price considering the cost of the individual parts, and the labour involved with hand building a wheel set. 

Whilst I have lots of experience riding FR560 rims, the Erase MTB hubs were new to me. Raild are the exclusive Oceania distributor for Erase hubs, and they’re developing a range of hub colours and their own brand name for the product. The brand is called Yama, which is Japanese for mountain, and Raild have developed a new logo and customised the hubshell to their preferred specifications. 

With claimed hub weights of 125 grams for the front hub and 232 grams for the rear (with centrelock rotor mounting and a Microspline freehub), the Erase hubs are slightly lighter than DT Swiss’ 350 hubs in the same specifications (which have claimed weights of 142 grams and 272 grams +/- five percent). 

The Erase MTB hubs appear as a quality component out of the box. Made in Belgium, the hubshell, axle, and end caps are made from 7075 T6 aluminium. The freehub is titanium, which is great for avoiding cassette bite marks over the long term. The bearings in both the front and rear hubs are from Enduro’s 6900 series.

The Erase hubs feature 60 points of engagement. The engagement is delivered via a ratchet mechanism, and the internals of the hub are simple and hand removable for servicing. 

On The Trail

When the wheels arrived, I mounted a set of Maxxis tyres, and they sealed easily with a floor pump. Many OEM wheels lose spoke tension after the first few rides and require some work in the truing stand, but I haven’t had to touch the spokes on this wheel set in around 25 hours of riding. 

The FR560 rims look brand new, with no dings on either wheel despite some lowish pressures and audible rim on rock action throughout testing. Durability is one of the reasons I love the DT Swiss aluminium rim selection, and in the past I’ve done multiple Queenstown bike park seasons on an EX471 with no damage. If you need any convincing on this front, Aaron Gwin was riding an EX471 when he rode the majority of the 2014 Leogang World Cup on a bare rim. 

I received this wheel set prior to DT Swiss releasing the new FR541 rim, which they claim offers the same durability as the FR560 with a 30-gram weight reduction. Raild are now offering the 541 rim instead of the FR560 for their most durable builds.

The Erase hub lived up to its high quality feel out of the box. While points of engagement is a hot topic for many, the Erase hubs with 60 points of engagement was more than enough for my technical climbing needs, and I found the pickup to be satisfyingly fast on ratcheting climbs. After 20 hours of riding, I pulled the freehub off and the internals were looking brand new, with no dirt ingress. The titanium freehub is also looking spotless. 

The ride feel of these wheels on the trail is direct and predictable. I’ve spent lots of time on FR560 rims in the last few years, so I’m quite used to the ride feel they offer, which in my opinion is a nicely balanced ride for gravity riding that’s not overly stiff or flexy. I opted for FR560 rims front and rear for this review with an eye to ultimate durability on bike park trips, however for most of my riding a slightly lighter rim on the front such as an XM481 would work perfectly. Now that the FR541 has superseded the FR560 a mixed wheel set with an XM481 on the front and FR541 on the rear would offer a great balance of weight, ride quality, and durability. 

The other benefit aside from weight in selecting a mixed wheel set (which is another option Raild offer as standard) is lowering the spoke count on the front wheel for slightly more flex. I had an XM481/EX471 wheel set combination on my trail bike for three bike park seasons in Queenstown, and this was undoubtedly the best wheel set I’ve owned for its combination of durability, ease of service, and performance. 

In terms of maintenance, I’ve done nothing to these wheels, despite my rides consisting exclusively of gravity laps. I’ve also run the tyre pressures lower than I would normally, heard the rim striking various objects on the trail, and haven’t run inserts (although I’m running a DH casing rear tyre, and a Double Down on the front). 

Our Take

I was impressed by my experience with Raild Wheels from end to end. As someone who’s often frustrated by the flimsy wheels specced OEM, to have an Australian company offering ultra-durable whee lsets is great for upgrading the wheel set on a new bike, building a bike up from a frame, or replacing a wheel on a tight timeframe. 

RRP: $990

From: raild.co

Hits:

• Durable 
• Well priced 
• Easy purchasing process
• Mixed wheel set option 

Misses:

• Rim and hub options on online builder won’t have everything for all people