SiltMTB put a solid dollop of reliability and affordability into their Enduro Alloy 29″ wheel mixture and the proof is very much in the pudding.
Just shy of a year through the grinder, and the SiltMTB Enduro Alloy 29″ Wheels are still round, shrugging off rock and root both at home and abroad.
Key features:
- Hardened 6069 alloy rim
- 30mm internal width
- Ramped rim bed
- High Quality TPI Stainless Steel Bearings
- Sealed Cartridge Units with 1x Contact Seal
- 1x Non-Contact Seal
- Precision Engineered
- Aqua Grease
- Sapim D-Light spokes
- 1965g (29″)
- £380.00 RRP
- SiltMTB.com
A little while back, I cracked an expensive carbon rim. I’d gapped a couple of tree roots somewhere above Molini Di Triora, landing in an ungraceful, but relatively inoffensive manner. To my surprise, my mistake led to a destroyed rim, a decommissioned rear wheel and an eye-wateringly expensive bill for its replacement. I spent the rest of the week riding our guide’s girlfriend’s spare alloy wheel with two missing spokes and a bald tyre. It didn’t crack, I had a good time.
So on return to the UK, out of warranty and with a big replacement cost on the cards, I decided it was time to go back to good old aluminium wheels. Sure, alu wheels still break, but hopefully they’ll bend before becoming useless, and the cost of replacement is immensely lower. Hey presto, by coincidence, up pops an email from Silt Wheels. Perfect timing.
Silt is a relatively new name in mountain bike wheels, but has been around for a few years now. Ben reviewed a pair of their wheels back in and had a good time, so I had decent expectations.
They’re based in the UK, and use their own brand wheels and rims. Their mission, they say, is to build the best pound-for-pound products possible. Everything is made in the Far East to their spec, and then assembled in the UK, often using Sapim spokes. As it stands, they have a pretty exhaustive line up of wheels covering road, gravel and MTB. With MTB options for XC, enduro and downhill, and eBike-specific too.
I went for Silt Enduro Alloy 29”, with black graphics. There are 7 colour options for your graphics and all the usual options of drivers and wheel sizes are available.
The rims are 30mm internal/35mm external and made from hardened 6069 alloy. They have a ramped rim bed which Silt say makes tubeless easier, and an asymmetrical design for more even spoke tensions.
The Enduro Alloys are 1965g in 29” and cost £380 with free global shipping. They also have a lifetime crash replacement and 3 year warranty. Silt’s crash replacement is great – for carbon you get 50% off all replacements rims, for Enduro and DH you get your first bust rim free, then 50% off after that. For alloy trail and XC, 50% off all rim replacements. How good is that?
My new Silt wheels turned up quickly and first impressions were great. Top quality, cardboard packaging. Everything was neatly packed, and the wheels came with valves and spare spokes which were a nice touch.
Setup was easy-peasy with my Continental Kryptotals. Tyres on, inserts on, sealant in, track pump on, done. No fuss. No airshot or compressor required. I did later try to switch to some Goodyear Ramblers and could not, for love nor money, make them work, but I think that was just a case of bad luck.
It’s been almost 12 months since I fitted the Silt wheels. I’ve dragged them through a British winter and a very dry, rough and dusty British summer. Lots of riding, and lots of casing jumps and tagging roots. I’ve also been on another trip to Italy, Tuscany this time with RidgelineMTB, which is where all the action photos you can see here were taken.
I’m struggling to really come up with much of note to say about them. I stuck them on my bike, they go round, they feel good, they work. They just chug away, doing a great job, drawing very little attention to themselves whatsoever. I’ve tagged many a root ungracefully since fitting them. Many a square-edge rock has been bashed. The rims have stayed true, the hub hasn’t shit the bed.
After a year of riding, the hub bearings are starting to feel a little notchy, but I only noticed this when spinning the wheels in my hand, not on the trail. Perhaps a little side-to-side play, but nothing significant and nothing surprising after 12 months of bashing. Bearings are available on Silt’s website, and replacing them is straightforward. A request to Silt, though, can you please specify which bearings go with which hubs on your website’s spares page?
You can also see from the photos that my rims have taken a bit of a beating and various rock-strikes and back-of-the-car chuckings have left them looking a little scratched up in places. I can live with that though, and it hasn’t detracted from any enjoyment in any way.
Otherwise, no broken spokes, re-trueing of tension needed or really much of anything has been required at all. Exactly what I want from my components – they just do the job without needing endless fettling or causing me any hassle.
It’s good to have spare spokes in my kit-bag for the day I need them, and it’s even better to know that there’s Silt’s crash replacement scheme when my luck runs out. When the hub eventually croaks, Silt stocks a heap of spares for rebuilds and refurbs.
Should we talk about ride feel? I’ve ridden a fair bit of rough and rocky stuff on them. Loads of steep, slippy slither. Loads of dry, hard-packed British jank. I can’t really say the Silt wheels have a clear, obvious personality. They don’t feel uncomfortably harsh or rough in my book. They just feel good. Totally unobtrusive and lacking in weirdness. They just do the job and go round in circles, for a long time.
Silt’s Enduro wheels are currently on pre-order, with stock due to land in late November 2025. Order before then and you’ll have a short wait, but after that point, they should be dispatched quickly with no hanging about.
Silt also tell us that the November 2025 batch will have some upgrades over the version I tested.
“For the new wheels, we’ve added a slightly thicker sidewall to the rim and switched to a higher engagement hub. We’ve also refreshed the decals for a cleaner look.”
You can check out the Silt MTB Enduro Alloy wheels on their website here.
