Road bike wheel advice

[Becs]

I have a Trek 2.3 road bike that I want to use as my commuter from now on. I need to replace the wheels it came with (Bontrager race or something) for something more hard wearing as I am fed up of breaking spokes in the rear wheel! I want the wheels to be able to stand up to up to 20 miles a day across London's crappy roads with me and ideally a pannier on it (although I am not averse to a rucksac if necessary). I am not light (6ft tall and "built for comfort not speed") but I tend to hammer along quite quickly when traffic allows so I really want something that is durable. Any recommendations? I have up to about £250 to play with (obviously the cheaper the better as long as they are up to the job).

 

[ianrauk]

Have a think about Shimano RS20's. I have them on my commute bike (with rack and pannier). Bought them October last year and have had all the worst that SE Londons finest pot holed, shyte strewn roads can throw at them since with zero problems. They are pretty light in the weight dept and a nice price too at £120 pair from Ribble.

 

[John the Monkey]

Got a good local builder?

DRC ST-18 II, on Tiagra Hubs. ACI or DT Swiss double butted spokes, 32 in a 3 cross pattern.

 

[4F]

A good set of handbuilt would be my choice. Spa cycles have a set here using 105 hubs and rigida chrima rims 36 spoke for £ 175.00 for the pair.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b17s178p2600&rs=gb&vid=8007

 

[Becs]

My old lbs in cambs said they can get mavic open pros or shimano s30s built with 36 spokes in a 3 cross pattern for £250 or £200 respectively but I am a bit clueless to be honest!

 

[4F]

if you want bullet proof i would go with 36 spokes.

 

[Sittingduck]

36h handbuilt on the rear, for sure. Even if a spoke does ping, it will have the strength to be ridable, instead of turning into a banana, like a 24h road wheel.

I have Rigida Chrina rims on Tiagra hubs and have just also built a set of Chrinas on 105 hubs, myself . Not the lightest but they are affordable and strong.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Halo Aerorage are as bombproof as off the shelf wheels get IME

 

[John the Monkey]

36h handbuilt on the rear, for sure. Even if a spoke does ping, it will have the strength to be ridable, instead of turning into a banana, like a 24h road wheel.

I've broken spokes on 32 x3 wheels and been able to get home- ime, you don't lose that much lateral truth with one spoke gone.

36 is a bit more margin though, for sure.

A decent builder will listen to what you want from the wheel, and recommend something though.

 

[Sittingduck]

Hmm, I think its certainly down to the weight of rider and load, in terms of how easily a wheel will 'banana-fi', after a spoke fail. Did 60+ miles on a 36h that had a busted spoke earlier in the summer, with nothing more than a minor tweak of 2 adjacent spokes. That would have been unthinkable with lower spoke counts, as I am unfortunate enough to be able to testify to.

 

[Zoiders]

36 holes as suggested but not a recent Shimano hub with cups and cones - find something with cartridge bearings like an Ambrosio or Formula hope clone, they are not quite as light but they run and run.

Ambrosio Zeniths have been getting good reports.

The Halo wheels mentioned offer the same benefit at the hub but only come in 32h.

I would never go back to cup and cone unless it was a dry weather only bike.

 

[Tynan]

I'm over 15st and been heavier plus pannier on London roads

LBS handbuilt 36 hole on mavic open pro rims works ace for me, I found the same but 32 hole would need truing now and then after potholes etc

 

[Oddsos]

I'm another fan of cartridge bearings for foul weather commuting. I have a variety of commuting wheels at the moment, but the most trouble free have all been 32 spoke hand built wheels with cartridge hubs. I find that cup and cone hubs require too much servicing when subjected to daily commuting in the winter. At least if cartridge bearings get notchy and nasty you can push out the bearings and go back to a smoothly spinning wheel. If the cup of a loose ball bearing gets pitted you are normally forking for a new hub and rebuild or wheel.

Previous wheels have been yet another consumable item like chains and cassettes. I used to ride Open Pros on 105 hubs. I get a year to 18 months out of rims. Cup and cone hubs last two or three years. However I have decided to experiment with expensive commuting wheels to see if they will be more durable.

I'm still waiting to see how well my latest wheels hold up to commuting - so far so good though. I decided to try ceramic coated rims. The front is still good after three years and the rear lasted two years before getting catastrophically pot holed in some rainy weater. The braking is consistantly average, even in torrential rain and rim wear is negligable. The front hub is a Hope and has had no maintenance in three years. The rear is a Royce, on it's second set of bearings.

 

[fossyant]

I've broken spokes on 32 x3 wheels and been able to get home- ime, you don't lose that much lateral truth with one spoke gone.

36 is a bit more margin though, for sure.

A decent builder will listen to what you want from the wheel, and recommend something though.

32's will be fine. I run handbuilt 32's with CXP33's on the commuter, or did till a rim exploded, so I replaced both with some used spare open 4 CD's I had.

I'm wearing out rims in a year, so now I've learnt how to replace/rebuild wheels, I'll be doing this from now on. Been using my re-built wheels for a few months, no problems, despite the spokes being slightly short for Open 4's.

 

[fossyant]

Cartridge bearings for commuter too - easy to replace and cheap. Cup/cone - when they go, it's a new hub most times, especially if the hub race has pitted. I'm not against cup/cone as I have it on two of my bikes, but for no fuss running = cartridge.