I got good service from Bike24 on a recent order of hubs, spokes, and tires.  Prices are very good, and they let you order individual spokes for about the same price as other places that only sell by the box, so you can get the exact sizes you need and not have to buy extras if your wheels are less than 72 spokes.   Shipping to the US is around $20 and it took a week, but the shipping cost was more than offset by the savings on other parts. 

Nice!  Now I'm worried I'll have to buy a plus frame or bike

Well, they are definitely fatter, but I have not had a proper ride yet so I can't tell how much difference it makes.  I ordered the HR740C rims from Peter at xmcarbonspeed.com and built them up with XT M8000 hubs and DT Swiss Revolution spokes.  Front tire is the 2.8 Nobby Nic, and the rear is the 2.8 WTB Trailblazer.  I got the hubs, spokes, and NN tires from Bike24.com- good prices and everything was correct.  Shipping time was a few days longer than a US store would have been, but it didn't delay anything. 

I considered using DT Swiss 350 hubs for these wheels like I did on my first set, but in the end decided to go with the XT hubs.  The M8000 freehub is 36 POE and about 30 g heavier than the DT Swiss 350; the XT front hub is also about 30 g heavier than the 350 counterpart.  Of course the big difference is price- the pair of XT hubs was under $70, or a little less than a DT Swiss 350 front hub.  The trade off here is about 60 grams for about $200.  I have not taken the hubs apart yet, but I plan to open them up and make sure everything is greased properly before I take a real ride. 



Building the wheels was about the same as the first time- this is only my second set, with about a year and a half in between.  It wasn't fast, but I can brag to everybody at the trailhead that I built these wheels.  (of course, I won't be bragging if I'm walking back )   I didn't run into any problems.  The given ERD number of 545.6 is good (though I question the significant figures)- I measured it at 546.  I had to dig quite a bit to get all the measurements for the XT hubs, but eventually found what I needed in Shimano's online manuals.  I used the DT Swiss calculator and ordered spokes before getting the rims or hubs in hand so I was taking a bit of a risk, but all of the given measurements were correct so the spokes fit.  I used 1" wide Gorilla tape with a couple of inches overlap on each side of the valve.  This leaves a bit of a gap on the edges, but it completely fills the center channel.





The rims both weighed in at 455 g.  The hubs were 170 g and 320 g, finished wheels were 790 g and 945 g, or 1835 for the set.  Tape, valve stems, and skewers brought them up to 865 g and 1025 g.  The 2.8 Nobby Nic is 825 g, the Trailblazer is slightly more (a little over 900) but apparently I didn't write it down. 

The 2.8 Nobby Nic is tight in front with a 2014 Rockshox SID.  Same in the back with the Trailblazer- your wheels better be true and dished properly.  Getting the tires on the rim was hard, but not unreasonably so.  No swearing was required.  They take A LOT of sealant- I put about 4 oz/100 ml of homebrew sealant in each.  I started with 2 oz in the NN and it wasn't holding, but 2 more seems to have done it. 



Geometry seems to be pretty much the same- I'm not confident in my BB height measurement, but it is very close.  The front fork angle (measured with the level on my phone) is the same with the 27.5+ in the front and the 29 wheel in the back as with both 29 wheels, so the final tire circumference is very close to the same.

Continental 2.4 X-King and 2.8 Nobby Nic comparison-




It started raining before I could take a quick ride through the woods- maybe tomorrow.

The more I ride it, the more I like mine.  I have not done any rides longer than an hour and a half, but I had no soreness or other issues after that ride and it included a decent climb on a gravel road.  Shorts slide around easily on the smooth surface (no bunching up), and the edges don't bother me as much as they first did- there's no rim on the edge, so if you lean your leg against it to control the bike all the pressure is in a thin line (not sure if I just got used to it, or if I'm not leaning on it as hard).  I did have to torque down the rails quite a bit though- at 5 Nm I still got creaking and popping and had to tighten more.  I don't have a good torque number for where it's at now- not super tight, but definitely more than 5 Nm.

Even if the bike sucked, you could offer moustache rides to every lady at the trailhead

I think $800 is possible if you have some donor components to swap from another bike, or buy a lot of bits used.  If you want to buy everything new, you can probably get close to $1000 and probably come in around 25 or 26 pounds with a Deore groupset and decent wheels.  It depends on how long you want to look around for good deals.  You can always upgrade the wheels or components later, and the 057 will be a huge step up from a mart bike. 

I think I got some air in my rear brake line when I installed it- there was no resistance on the first 'pump' of the brake lever, but after a few squeezes it felt normal.  As long as you don't lay down the cable and let all the oil drain out, this is the worst thing that can go wrong- you wind up having to bleed the brakes at the handle, which is pretty simple for the Shimano ones.