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i'd opt for the front disc brake. if you've never ridden them before, you're in for a real treat (and possibly suprise).
couple imporant considerations:
-Hydraulics are better than mechanical for a number of reasons, but they do need to be 'bled' every so often just like car brakes (not too difficult...plus you only maybe need to do it every 2, 3 years depending on how much you ride). They are also better because with wet, mud, snow, etc. mechanical can slip and slide...never had a problem with riding soaking wet hydraulics
-Get used to them before you use them in a real life 'emergency'. If you get quality ones (personally i like Hayes or Avid (by SRAM)...the 'juicy' is a good model. A front one WILL STOP YOU ON A DIME if you really get into it so just be aware of their ability or you'll know what superman feels like...without the ability to continue flying ;)
-If you take the front wheel off a lot, pay attention to what the manufacturer suggests about the discs, they can't touch during travel or in theory they can meld together...i put a little sqaure of cardboard in between...
can't think of anything else, but I am a huge fan of disc brakes
hope this helps
i'm a roadie, so maybe 29r rims are stronger, but i've always been told that it's more difficult to build with a used rim and that if you are going to spend the cash & love on a rebuild, pop for the new rear rim.
after 8 years, i just got my rear wheel done for about $175 with spokes, rim tape & nipples, and i expect to get 8-10k miles out of it.
hubs last ages, but rims take a beating.
You can swap the rims/hubs without a problem, and you can even use a beefy double wall road rim if you want. I recently built a set of old Matrix Aurora road rims onto old GT mtb hubs for my Surly and they hold up just fine on and off road. The only thing I suggest doing lots of research on is spoke length. Different rims and hubs have different sizes and they make just about every spoke length in 1mm increments. If you're off 1-2mm either way it won't make a difference, but if the spokes are too short you won't have enough threads on the end to lace the rim solidly and if they're too long, they'll poke into the rim tape and could eventually punch through into your tube. I've also reused old spokes without a problem. As long as the threads are fine, they're relatively straight, and the nipples are good, you should be fine as long as they're the right length. Oh, and I'm assuming you checked already, but the wheels both have the same amount of spokes right?
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