DT Swiss FR 560 Rim [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

When DT Swiss was designing the FR 560, they had big gaps, gnarly rock gardens, and the nastiest terrain in mind. Our friend, David just laced up a set of FR 560. See what they think! 

Overview 

After a pretty gnarly rim dent at a bike park, I decided that I was going to try to do a full custom wheelset. I was originally riding on a set of DT Swiss M1900’s, and wanted something with a wider outer rim width to sort of get that enduro style traction on my all-mountain bike. I ended up deciding on the DT Swiss FR560’s, and so far could not have been happier, both with the rim itself and the service provided by Worldwide Cyclery.

In addition to having the best price point on these high end aluminum rims, they were also super responsive when I inquired about a veteran discount. I had a response and a discount code all on the same day. I would have ordered the entire wheelset from Worldwide Cyclery, but I was limited in availability, so I sort of shopped other stores and sites based on who had what in stock (Jenson and Pink Bike, mainly. Shipping was fast, and the rims were well packed and well protected. The rims themselves are very high quality. I just finished assembling and truing up the custom wheelset, and I have no doubt that these things will be indestructible. I ended up pairing the rims with a Spank Hexdrive hub, and the wheels look great. One of the negatives, if you can call it that, for the rims is that the red decals is pretty specific if you are trying to color match your components. I am doing a purple/gold/black color scheme, which means that I’ll ultimately need to end up replacing the decals. The red looks a little ridiculous right now. There are several sites out there that do custom decals to maintain the branding style of the DT Swiss, while color matching your bike and other components.

I really wanted to put in the effort to build this wheelset from scratch, meaning that I had to do all the research for hub dimensions, spoke lengths, ERD’s and such. I learned so much, and having the DT Swiss brand rims made using the DT Swiss spoke length calculator all that more user friendly. When calculating spoke lengths, all you need is the model number (FR560), and the apple calculator has all the rim specific data.  And, of course, the more DT Swiss components you put in the wheel, the easier it is to spit out the correct spoke lengths.

The articles on Wordwide’s site were of particular value, specifically the one about wheel building (5 Steps to Building Your Own Wheels). I didn’t end up using the recommended apple length calculator, but this article pointed me in the direction to really get started and in a confident way.

Final Thoughts

After building up the FR 560 Rims, their quality is very much worth the price!