Road wheelset: Mach 1 240 rims/Shimano Deore hubs review

If you want strength and reliability and aren’t too worried about weight, these wheels are definitely worth a look. 

They’re built up from Shimano’s mid-range mountain bike hubs and Mach 1’s chunky and ultra-stiff 240 rims which come with reinforcing spoke hole eyelets and are intended to handle the rigours of city biking and trekking. 

Laced up with 38 straight-gauge, three-cross spokes on each wheel, they’re far from light and getting them up to speed takes a lot more effort than with some of the lighter options. But once there, they spin along slickly on hubs that stayed well-adjusted throughout testing. 

They weren’t especially true out of the box, but our best wheel wrecker put a whole lot of miles into them, including plenty across the semi-surfaced roads of Salisbury Plain, and didn’t make them any worse. They’ll handle all urban riding with minimal maintenance and are tough enough for most touring duties.