DT Swiss XMC 1501 Ratchet DEG Wheels
Blister’s Measured Weights:
- XMC 1501 six-bolt 29’’ front: 785 g
- XMC 1501 six-bolt 29’’ rear (XD driver): 938 g
- Wheelset: 1,723 g
MSRP: $1,979 (complete wheelset)
Bolted To: Norco Optic, Rocky Mountain Altitude, Forbidden Druid
Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Test Locations: Washington & British Columbia
Test Duration: 5 months
Intro
I’ve long been a fan of DT Swiss’ 240 hubs because of their impressive combination of reliability and low weight, but their relatively low engagement speed has been offputting to some folks.
DT’s new Ratchet DEG hubs offer 90 points of engagement (i.e., “POE”), which is a good deal faster than the 36 or 54 POE for the longer-standing 240 EXP hub, and I was curious to see how the new hubs would stack up. And since it takes a pair of rims and some spokes to round out a hub review, I’ve been testing DT’s XMC 1501 carbon Trail bike wheels to complete the package.
Design: DT Swiss XMC 1501 Wheels
We already covered the design of the new Ratchet DEG hubs in our First Look a few months back, but let’s do a quick rundown on the XMC 1501 wheels. They use a 30 mm internal width hookless carbon fiber rim with a 25 mm cross-section height, and are meant for all-around Trail bike use; they’re rated for ASTM Category 4 use, one notch below full-on gravity riding.
The XMC 1501 wheels are offered in both 27.5’’ and 29’’ diameters but in Boost spacing only. You can also have your choice of Ratchet EXP (36 POE) or Ratchet DEG (90 POE, the version we tested) rear hub internals, but the former is only offered with Centerlock rotor mounts and the latter comes in six-bolt guise only. Either way, they’re laced with 28 straight-pull DT Competition Race spokes.
There’s nothing too wild going on there — pretty normal-looking specs for a midweight Trail bike wheel. If anything, the cross-section thickness is a bit on the taller side of average by modern carbon wheel standards, but it’s by no means a big outlier.
Mounting & Installation
Not much to report here, either. It’s increasingly rare to find a modern rim that’s particularly tricky to mount or seat tubeless tires on. The XMC 1501, unsurprisingly, didn’t give me any trouble across a handful of different tires from Maxxis, Michelin, and Schwalbe. The XMC 1501 wheels came nicely pre-taped with DT’s own rim tape — one of the best and most durable options out there in my experience — which made everything easy.
Six-bolt rotor mounts are always welcome in my book — there are more rotor options for them, they’ve got redundant fasteners, and are easier to work on trailside if need be — so I’m glad to see those on the Ratchet DEG version of the XMC 1501.
Ride Quality & Performance
We’ll start with the Ratchet DEG hubs themselves (or, specifically, the rear one — the front hub is the longstanding 240, which carries over unchanged).
By and large, the Ratchet DEG hub feels and sounds mostly like a 240 hub with more points of engagement — and that’s essentially what they are. As per usual for DT, the bearings are of high quality and the hubs roll notably smoothly. Higher-engagement freehubs tend to have a little more drag than slower-engaging ones, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell any difference in rolling speed between the Ratchet DEG and Ratchet EXP.
If anything, the Ratchet DEG freehub is a little quieter than the (already not that loud) Ratchet EXP. The Ratchet DEG freehub is a bit higher pitched than the Ratchet EXP (unsurprisingly, given its additional points of engagement), but the general tone is similar. In most cases, I haven’t been able to hear it over wind and bike noise when descending, and it’s pleasantly soft and not distracting at lower speeds, too.
I’ve repeatedly gone on the record to say that I don’t find ultra-high-engagement hubs to be all that important to me and my riding. Still, the 36 points of engagement that DT’s Ratchet and Ratchet EXP hubs default to are at the lower end of what I’m happy with. Getting quicker engagement can be nice, mostly when ratcheting the pedals through technical climbs, and the 90 POE that the Ratchet DEG hubs offer is plenty for my taste. Going much beyond that rapidly turns into a case of diminishing returns. Given the choice, I’d happily take the quieter, less draggy DT Ratchet DEG hubs over something like Industry Nine Hydras — 600-point engagement difference between the two be damned.
Within DT’s own lineup, I think it’s nice that they keep the option for either the Ratchet EXP or Ratchet DEG rear hub. The ~40-gram (stated) weight penalty for the Ratchet DEG hub isn’t huge, but I’m sure some weight-conscious folks would happily forgo a little engagement speed to save it; for those who’d prefer quicker engagement than the EXP hubs can offer, there’s the DEG. And it’s worth reiterating that bearing replacements on the Ratchet DEG rear hub are easier since there’s no need to remove the drive ring to access any of the bearings, which is nice.
As for the XMC 1501 wheels as a whole, I’d rate them as being on the stiffer, more energetic-feeling end of the spectrum as modern carbon wheels go, but still in a range where they ride pretty well. They’re far smoother and less harsh feeling than a lot of carbon wheels of old while still feeling notably stout laterally, and quite precise and direct in how they respond to rider inputs. Folks who are after the most muted, smooth-feeling carbon wheels in this class have better options (e.g., Forge+Bond 30AM) but the XMC 1501 feels more lively and less vague than most options that feel significantly less stiff, and that’s a tradeoff that plenty of folks will be happy to make.
While reviewing a whole bunch of wheels on a lot of different bikes over the years, I’ve learned that my exact preferences for wheel stiffness and ride quality vary a good bit depending on the bike they’re paired with and how stiff its frame is. On softer-flexing frames, a slightly stiffer, more precise-feeling wheel can be a real asset; on a notably stiff frame, those same wheels might feel harsh and ping-y.
I’d rate all three frames I’ve run the XMC 1501 on as being stiff-ish by modern carbon frame standards, but not wildly so; the XMC 1501 feels like a perfectly reasonable match with those frames (Norco Optic, Rocky Mountain Altitude, and Forbidden Druid, for the record.)
Weight
At 1,723 g for the pair (29’’ diameter, XD driver), the XMC 1501 wheels come in at a competitive weight for an all-round Trail bike wheel, but they aren’t wildly light by any stretch.
That said, the XMC 1501 wheels do feel more solid than most options that are substantially lighter, and I think the balance the XMC 1501 strikes is a good one for folks looking for a light-ish but still quite sturdy option. Of course, more weight-conscious folks can save a bit of weight by opting for the Ratchet EXP hub option rather than the Ratchet DEG one that we’ve been testing.
Durability & Maintenance
I’ve had no issues with the XMC 1501 wheels in the roughly five months that I’ve spent on them so far, including a period where I was pushing them a bit beyond their intended use case by running them on a bigger Enduro bike, the Rocky Mountain Altitude.
The XMC 1501 wheels are still round and true. The hub sealing seems quite robust, and I haven’t needed to do any maintenance to keep things that way. The freehub grease is pretty clean, even after the dusty summer season, and the bearings are in good shape. The freehub mechanism hasn’t skipped or given me any trouble, and all indications are that the XMC 1501 wheels will continue to hold up for a good while.
Bottom Line
DT’s 240 hubs have long been favorites of riders who want relatively light, durable, no-frills hubs, but they’ve historically offered relatively low-engagement freehub mechanisms. I’m still of the opinion that the modern crop of ultra-fast engaging hubs are overkill for most folks, and those hubs are more a case of chasing numbers on a spec sheet than they are of any tangible real-world benefit.
However, I’ll grant that the 36 or 54 points of engagement offered by DT’s Ratchet EXP hubs are on the slower side, and the new Ratchet DEG hubs are a great option for folks who are willing to take a modest weight penalty for faster hub engagement. The Ratchet DEG hubs are still well-built, smooth rolling, and quiet, and the XMC 1501 wheels I’ve been using to test them make for a solid, pretty stiff Trail bike wheelset at a reasonable weight. They’re nice wheels, and the 240 Ratchet DEG hubs would be on my shortlist if I were shopping for a hubset to build a custom wheelset around.