To what extent are rear wheels consumable parts?

[velovoice]

I don't think you need a tank, you just need handbuilt wheels.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Me plus bag are about 100kg. Dunno how many stones that is. I have magic aksium and 25mm tires and commute about 25 miles daily which also includes light off-road stuff and plenty of bunny hopping.

The wheels are serviced annually and I've had zero problem in the last 5 years. (Before that i had another bike).

You bring up two good points namely servicing and bunny hopping/potholes.

Regular servicing does not affect wheel fatigue at all. There's nothing you can do to reduce fatigue other than lose weight or ride less.
Bunny hopping and potholes (apart from rim benders) have no affect on wheel fatigue either. On a 20km ride your wheels rotate about 10 000 times. That's 10 thousand load/unload cycles. Ten bunny hops and 20 potholes and a whopping 30 cycles to the trip's total cycles making it 10050, an insignificant difference.

Edit: 10 plus 20 is not 50.

 

[Drago]

Me plus bag are about 100kg. Dunno how many stones that is.

Just over 28 stones, you boom boom

 

[Tim Hall]

Anodising is a ceramic coating that sits half on top of the aluminium and half inside it. The thicker (darker colour) the anodising, the deeper penetrates into the aluminium. It is a very, very hard substance but also brittle. It breaks like glass when flexed.

Ceramic? Are you sure about that?

 

[jonny jeez]

Hello team,

I seem to have a lot of problems with my rear wheels on my commuter. First up, I should say I am rocking 15 stone, but not a lot of fat... not that the bike cares.

I ride a Kaffenback 2, and I love the thing, but the Shimano Rx05 it came with were losing a spoke a month before I made it a dedicated turbo trainer wheel (no probs since, but that's because "turbo" and "unused" are almost synonyms).

I replaced it with the budget LBS recommended rear wheel (something like a Mach 1? It has a Shimano hub and I didn't keep the stickers on long) - 32 spokes and it has been fine basically. When I dusted the bike off in the first splash of sun this year I noticed some severe structural issues.

Is 13 months acceptable for a wheel? I use it every weekday for about 16k a day, and a couple of times a year for a century. My Schwalbe Marathon Plus on this thing will have outlived two wheelsets, and still looks fine...

I guess the only other questions are, is there any point showing this to the LBS - and is there a well established wheel for fatties?

I had similar experiences, two cracked rims, lots of creaking spokes... even with a reputable rim like an "open face" ( spelling).

I took the advice on here and took my wheels in for a rebuild with decent spokes that could take more tension.

Never had a problem again.

Then I invested in deep carbon rims and for near on 2 years I didn't even tighten a spoke.

Quality of build is key it seems

 

[jonny jeez]

I don't think you need a tank, you just need handbuilt wheels.

This/\//\/\/\

Which doesn't mean spending a fortune on something crafted from kryptonite.

Just take your wheels in for a rebuild on decent spokes. Probably £100 for the job perhaps less if you are in the sticks.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I had similar experiences, two cracked rims, lots of creaking spokes... even with a reputable rim like an "open face" ( spelling).

I took the advice on here and took my wheels in for a rebuild with decent spokes that could take more tension.

Never had a problem again.

Then I invested in deep carbon rims and for near on 2 years I didn't even tighten a spoke.

Quality of build is key it seems

I don't understand. What do you mean by spokes that can take more tension?

Secondly, how would that solve rim fatigue?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Ceramic? Are you sure about that?

The oxides of all anodisable metals - titanium, aluminium and magnesium - are all considered hard ceramics.

 

[mustang1]

You bring up two good points namely servicing and bunny hopping/potholes.

Regular servicing does not affect wheel fatigue at all. There's nothing you can do to reduce fatigue other than lose weight or ride less.
Bunny hopping and potholes (apart from rim benders) have no affect on wheel fatigue either. On a 20km ride your wheels rotate about 10 000 times. That's 10 thousand load/unload cycles. Ten bunny hops and 20 potholes and a whopping 30 cycles to the trip's total cycles making it 10050, an insignificant difference.

My post is better than yours. I brought up two good points. You brought up one good point but said the same thing twice

 

[Tim Hall]

The oxides of all anodisable metals - titanium, aluminium and magnesium - are all considered hard ceramics.

Cool. That's the Thing I Have Learnt Today.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Cool. That's the Thing I Have Learnt Today.

The interesting thing about anodising is that it is extremely hard but sort of impossible to measure. Normally, the hardness of a material is measured by some sort of Rockwell or Vickers test where a sharp, hard object is pressed against the stuff to be measured with a known force. The size of the dent is then measured etc etc.

This cannot be done with anodising since it is always grown on top of a relatively soft material, in a thin layer. By pushing a diamond anvil into it only gives you the hardness of the substrate.

 

[jonny jeez]

I don't understand. What do you mean by spokes that can take more tension?

Secondly, how would that solve rim fatigue?

Nor do I.

but the chap in my LBS took my creaking wheel apart, refitted with new spokes...I guess stronger ones that could take more tension, or perhaps double nippled? and rebuilt it. I never had a problem afterwards.

Rim fatigue for me came in the shape of a cracked rim, actually a hole in the rim where a spoke puled part of the rim inwards. It seemed to be due to an over/under tightened spoke..most likely due to me fettling with them daily to try and solve the creaking.

 

[mustang1]

I had similar experiences, two cracked rims, lots of creaking spokes... even with a reputable rim like an "open face" ( spelling).

I took the advice on here and took my wheels in for a rebuild with decent spokes that could take more tension.

Never had a problem again.

Then I invested in deep carbon rims and for near on 2 years I didn't even tighten a spoke.

Quality of build is key it seems

Which spokes did you have and which did you upgrade to?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Nor do I.

but the chap in my LBS took my creaking wheel apart, refitted with new spokes...I guess stronger ones that could take more tension, or perhaps double nippled? and rebuilt it. I never had a problem afterwards.

Rim fatigue for me came in the shape of a cracked rim, actually a hole in the rim where a spoke puled part of the rim inwards. It seemed to be due to an over/under tightened spoke..most likely due to me fettling with them daily to try and solve the creaking.

None of it makes any sense.

 

[fossyant]

Ceramic? Are you sure about that?

I was told to avoid the ceramic coated rims on my fixed commuter when I had the wheels made, why, chip the coating with debris/pot holes, and it will make braking not so good. Stuck with standard rims, and replaced the rims every 18 months of city commuting.